Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests we are going to be discussing the K-1 fiancée visa; specifically we are going to be discussing processing time.

Now I cannot tell you exactly how fast a K-1 fiancée visa is going to process and I am specifically making this video in the context of the embassies near to or in Bangkok, Thailand. So this is from a Southeast Asian perspective because that is where we operate out of primarily dealing with the US Embassy here in Bangkok although the embassy in Phnom Penh, Vientiane Laos and we also deal with Myanmar fairly frequently and some over in Ho Chi Minh City from time to time and Singapore and Malaysia for that matter; every now and again. Primarily we deal with Bangkok and this video, for those who are interested, this is more from a Southeast Asian perspective. 

But that being said, processing times specifically I can’t tell you exactly how fast any given case is ever going to process. In fact it is rather difficult to even give sort of an estimate. I usually tell people sort of a banded way of thinking; 6 to 10 months or whatever.

This video is more for those who are interested in conceptualizing the process because folks do get, in my opinion, some misapprehension or I guess some mistaken notions if you will, about how fast a case is going to process because they look at processing times for only one component of a given case.  So for example, USCIS who deals with the adjudication of an underlying petition, in this case a petition for a K-1 fiancée visa, they take a certain amount of time and they do post on their website estimated processing times for those kinds of petitions and in point of fact they are usually pretty accurate. I think right now they are posting at about 4 to 6 months. That is pretty much the case. That is not the end of the process. The process goes through the National Visa Center and eventually the Embassy or Consulate operating abroad and they have totally different processing times. They have totally different caseloads. NVC in a K-1 context isn't that big a deal. They basically act as a clearing house and move the case on off to the Embassy or Consulate concerned but the Embassy's caseload has a tremendous effect on how fast the case processes. I have to admit that here in Bangkok Thailand, the US Embassy here, in my opinion has gone to great lengths to go ahead and make sure the processing is efficient as possible. But that being said, gathering the necessary documents, filing the necessary Department of State forms still requires a certain amount of time so simply looking at the Department of Homeland Security's processing times is not going to give you the whole picture as to how fast the overall case is going to process. Again I am really hesitant to provide any time frames in this video whatsoever because I often find that people sort of have those things stuck in their head and they think that that is how long things are going to take. 

But the thing to take away from this video is you need to ask or you need to look into the overall process. If you contact a legal professional, just say how long is the whole thing going to take from initial filing to final issuance? What is your estimated time frame? because that is going to give you a better idea of how long it is going to take rather than sort of chopping up the various estimates and trying to figure it out from there.