Transcripts of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing US Tourist Visas. There are a lot of misnomers regarding US Tourist Visas out there and I oftentimes will be talking to clients, prospective clients, folks I'll be corresponding with and they have got a lot of misconceptions about how the actual US Tourist Visa process works. 

One, there is a misconception or misperception out there that to get a Tourist Visa you just walk on down to the Embassy and knock on the door and go in and fill out a form and apply for a Tourist Visa. They kind of look you over and they may want a photo and then that person who is seeking a Tourist Visa just signs something and they issue the Tourist Visa. That is not really how it works at all. First of all appointments for Tourist Visas are almost a year out. It is months and months before you get an appointment right now. Hopefully as we move further through 2022 and the memory of all of this pandemic related restrictions sort of recede into the background which can't happen fast enough I guess, but as this sort of recedes, the question becomes are we still going to see this long kind of backlogs; that is a good question. Even then, Tourist Visa appointments still would take usually 6, 8 sometimes 10 weeks to get locked in when dealing with the system even under optimal circumstances.

Another big misconception, and this especially is the case where someone is in a relationship with a Thai national, usually a Thai lady, we see folks that will just apply for Tourist Visa and they are really frustrated that there was virtually no adjudication. Well there was no adjudication because of what is called section 214(b). As I have discussed in other videos, section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, creates a standard by which the Consular Officer has to be sufficiently satisfied that the applicant has sufficient strong ties to their home country, in this case Thailand or another country outside the United States, and, and this is key, sufficient weak ties to the United States. So a big misconception we see is folks that “hey I want to take my girlfriend to the US”. Well you have got a relationship with an American citizen. That mitigates against that weak ties analysis. 

So the thing to take away from this video is there are a lot of misconceptions on US Tourist Visas especially about the way the process works and there is especially a misunderstanding out there, the denial, I hate saying this because I don't want this to come off the wrong way but there really is no other way to say it. In cases where there is a relationship with an American, the denial under Section 214(b) is almost automatic and there is really nothing further to think about for the Consular Officer under that circumstance. This can be really frustrating because people will put together big packages to apply for a Tourist Visa and the Consular Officer will just ignore it all because under 214(b) it is this weak ties analysis that is the real issue. Also, you also have to keep in mind what is called the Doctrine of Consular Absolutism or the Doctrine of Consular Non-reviewability. What this means is that adjudicating Consular Officer's factual findings cannot be appealed, they cannot be reviewed. In fact, there is a Supreme Court case on this where the Court said look we are not going to get in the business of second guessing Consular Officers posted abroad; that is just not what we are going to do. That has been the binding precedent ever since and that is what you are dealing with in issues pertaining to 214(b). 

So the thing to take away from this video is one, if you are just looking at a Tourist Visa especially for a significant other here in Thailand, maybe think again because you may just be throwing money away and wasting time. Again though, circumstances may vary. There may be circumstances where it may be a viable option but the thing to understand is that every case is different but when it comes to 214(b) again under these circumstances where you are talking about relationships with an American citizen, that is a high threshold to overcome and quite frankly it is very rarely overcome.