Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are posing the question, will Trump's recent announcement of a pause of immigration or immigrant Visa processing impact K-1 Fiancé(e) Visas. Let me go ahead and get into this. I thought of making this video after reading a recent posting on nafsa.org, under the title: DOS pauses Immigrant Visa issuance for nationals of 75 countries. Quoting directly: "In a January 14, 2026, news posting, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) announced that it will pause the issuance of Immigrant Visas at U.S. Consulates worldwide starting January 21, 2026, for nationals of 75 countries that DOS deems are "at high risk of public benefits usage." During the pause, DOS will conduct "a full review of all policies, regulations, and guidance to ensure that immigrants from these high-risk countries do not utilize welfare in the United States or become a public charge." Quoting further: "The pause impacts only Immigrant Visa issuance and does not affect Non-immigrant such as a such as B-Tourist Visas, F student visas, J Exchange Visitor Visas, H-1B work Visas, etc." 

So, here's what I would say on that and the reason for the video is technically speaking K-1 Fiancé(e) Visas and their K-3 counterparts for that matter, for those married to American citizens, are actually Non-immigrant Visas; they're not Immigrant Visas per se. Now they are what's called a dual intent visa and for processing purposes they are processed through Immigrant Visa units. Now what's interesting here is the issue of public charge is not as salient in the adjudication of an application for a K-1 Fiancé(e) Visa as it would be at the adjustment of status process phase in the United States. So that is after the K-1 Fiancé(e) gets to the United States, marries their American counterpart, and then files for Green Card status. Under that scenario, they are dealing with the I-864 Affidavit of Support. Here in Thailand, it has generally been the case that we deal with an I-134 Affidavit of Support when processing K-1 cases at least in the past; these days it is a little different.

But that being said, strictly speaking this public charge analysis does not directly pertain to K-1's per se and K-1's being technically a Non-immigrant Visa, I'm still sort of, the jury is still out for me with regard to analysis on whether or not K-1 Visas are going to discontinue being issued during this pause. It remains to be seen. I think I might be going a bit out on a limb in presuming that they might actually continue to process these things, but you never know. Bureaucracy is bureaucracy, and it's these little details, these little nuanced differences that can make the difference between something working and something not, in the bureaucracy. So it's interesting, while the K-1 is a Non-immigrant Visa, it is a dual intent Visa; it is processed by the Immigrant Visa unit, but it doesn't utilize the same public charge documentation and again it's Non-immigrant as opposed to being an Immigrant Visa. So per se, it may not be pulled under this “pause”. 

That being said, it remains to be seen how this plays out. Frankly I'm probably going to see this in real time as we are practicing trying to move these cases through and we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as situation evolves.