US Family Visa Updates and Impact on Southeast Asia Countries

Recent announcements about travel bans to the United States, as well as budget and federal workforce reductions, have prompted a number of questions from our clients. In this video, we’re going to answer some key concerns.

We’ll start with whether the travel bans will affect U.S. family visa applications for citizens of countries in Southeast Asia, including K-1 fiancé visas and CR-1 spousal visas. Then we’ll address whether federal workforce cuts have increased visa processing times in any significant way.

So let’s jump in.

So far, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines are unaffected by the travel bans, and all categories of visas to the U.S. remain available to citizens of these countries.

Now, citizens of Laos are subject to a partial ban classified as Tier 2. This means that no B-2 visitor or student visas will be issued, and no new CR-1 spousal visa applications will be accepted. CR-1 and K-1 visas issued before June 9 remain valid.

Importantly, K-1 fiancé visa applications will still be accepted, but additional restrictions may be applied.

Also, we anticipate that Cambodia will be added at some point soon to the list of Tier 2 partial-ban countries.

Now, Myanmar is on the list of Tier 1 full-ban countries, and new applications for any type of U.S. visa will not be accepted. K-1 and CR-1 visas issued before June 9, 2025, remain valid, and green card holders are exempt from the ban.

These restrictions for citizens of Tier 1 and Tier 2 countries do not apply to nationals already residing in the United States or to dual nationals using a passport from a non-restricted country.

This is an evolving situation, and we’ve seen recent announcements that more countries will be added to the list. We expect additional clarifications and limitations to be rolled out.

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Now, let’s continue to U.S. visa processing times.

We do not see a major impact despite reported reductions in the government workforce and budgets.

For instance, USCIS is processing most CR-1 spousal visas within about 15 to 17 months. It takes about another four months from NVC case creation to embassy interview and visa issuance. So overall, the complete CR-1 processing time is about 20 to 22 months.

K-1 visa application processing times vary by USCIS processing center. The fastest processing centers are Texas and California, with 80% of cases completed within eight and nine months, respectively.

Vermont and Nebraska are in the mid-range, with 80% of cases completed in about 16 months.

The Potomac Processing Center is the outlier at the moment, with most cases completed within 28 months.

From NVC case creation to U.S. embassy interview and visa issuance, add another three months. So, a K-1 fiancé visa may be processed in as little as 12 months and can take up to 31 months, depending mostly on the USCIS processing center handling your application.

We frequently monitor processing times, and while we’ve seen spousal and fiancé visa applications taking a bit longer to complete from January 2025 to date, processing times have largely remained stable.

Please stay tuned for more updates, and if you found this helpful, please let us know by hitting the like button.

Thanks for watching.