Transcripts of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing US Visas from Thailand and posing the question, 'to wed or not to wed?' - the question being, should one get married before obtaining a US Visa, or seek a US Visa before getting married? or I should say should one get married before seeking a visa or should one obtain a visa before getting married? Sorry for being redundant there.

In any event, the point I'm trying to make is look, there are multiple options with respect to trying to get a loved one to the United States. There is the option of getting married and seeking a standard Immigrant Spouse Visa, what we would call a Spouse Visa, but it's actually just an IR-1 or a CR-1 Visa. If you are married for less than two years at the time of the entry to the United States, you will enter in conditional residence, that is conditional residence status as opposed to unconditional lawful permanent residence in the United States if you are married for more than two years at the time of your initial admission in Immigrant status in IR-1 status. So, the IR-1 and the CR-1 are effectively the same Visa, but it depends on the length of the marriage at the time of the entry into the country which will dictate one's status in the country and whether or not one needs to deal with the conditionality of their residence. 

Another type of Marriage Visa is what is called the Non-Immigrant K-3 Visa. As we have discussed in many other videos, that was created under the Life Act. It was a supplemental petition on top of an I-130 so those are the standard Immigrant Spouse Visa cases like the CR-1 and the IR-1.  You can then add a K-3. That was created at a time when it took years and years to process the Immigrant Spouse Visas and the fiancé cases were taking four to six months, so basically just created a new queue within the Fiancé Visa line; that line was for K-1 visas. They created a new category called the K-3 Visa so that people could process an expedited Marriage Visa to the United States. 

Then you also have the standard Fiancé Visa which most of the time tends to process a little bit more quickly than a standard Marriage Visa but the downside for a Fiancé Visa is you have to seek a Green Card in the United States in order to have lawful permanent residence within that jurisdiction, whereas, the Immigrant Spouse Visa you enter with that status upon entry. Okay, those are the visas. 

Now the question is do we get married or not? Well the answer is it depends on you because you shouldn't be making major life choices simply dependent upon immigration benefits. Now that being said, the decision to get married one year or a year later because it may behoove you to seek a Fiancé Visa, that's a different thing. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying being driven entirely in your life by immigration sort of concerns is not a way to live your life. So the thing to ascertain before seeking any type of immigration benefit from here in Thailand is whether or not speed is an issue, whether or not entering with Green Card status is an issue, whether or not it's an issue to you of waiting around for a Green Card in America. 

All these are decisions to be made before getting married as the marriage will dictate whether or not someone can seek a Fiancé visa or a US Marriage Visa from here in the Kingdom of Thailand.