'I do, I don’t, I do! Now Give Me a Green Card!' Legit Marriages May be Clouded by Phony Ones

As the 20th-century pundit W.C. Fields once said, “Anything worth having is a thing worth cheating for.” After 9/11 the question, “Why do foreigners seem to hate us?” was hotly debated in the U.S. media. Yet, since 9/11, “foreigners” keep coming to our shores – they love Coca-Cola, blue jeans, Wal-Mart, Chevys, Lady Gaga and America’s top-notch colleges, hospitals, and hi-tech and manufacturing jobs. Immigrants work hard, contribute to our economy, pay taxes, own homes, and lead healthy productive lives, enriching our society and contributing to the nation’s wonderful diversity as the historic “melting pot."

So, are Americans sexy, charming, lovely people – or are they in demand as marriage partners by those in other countries because marrying a U.S. citizen is the quickest and easiest path toward becoming an American lawful permanent resident (LPR, also known as having a “green card”)? Over the last decade, marriage to American citizens, which entitles foreign spouses to “immediate” preference status for an immigrant visa, has been by far the most common path to American residency.

Quick facts:

• Through marriage to an American citizen, more than 2.3 million foreign nationals gained lawful permanent resident (LPR) status between 1998 and 2007.
• More than 25 percent of all green cards issued in 2007 were to spouses of American citizens. In 2006 and 2007, there were nearly twice as many green cards issued to the spouses of American citizens than were issued for all employment-based immigration categories combined. The number of foreign nationals obtaining green cards based on marriage to an American has more than doubled since 1985, and has quintupled since 1970.

Despite these statistics, marriage fraud for the purpose of immigration gets very little notice and the Department of Homeland Security has insufficient resources to combat the problem. Attention to fraud is not just for the integrity of the legal immigration system, but also for national security. If small-time con artists and Third-World gold-diggers can obtain green cards with little resistance, surely terrorists can do (and have done) the same.

An overwhelming percentage of all petitions to bring foreign spouses or fiancés to the United States (or to help them adjust visa status if they are already in the United States on non-immigrant visas) are approved — even in cases where the couple may only have met over the Internet, and may not even share a common language.

Incredibly, the decision-making authority for green card applications lies with United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (“USCIS”) officials who rely almost exclusively on documents, records, and photographs, with little opportunity for interviews or investigations.

Thankfully, the large percentage of relationships between Americans and foreign nationals are legitimate. But even legitimate international couples can face longer wait times due to the huge number of bogus marriage petitions that bog down an already slow bureaucracy. Scam marriages also can cast a shadow of illegitimacy over real marriages, and many legitimate couples may be forced to endure invasive and sometimes harsh interviews with USCIS and State Department personnel who are trying in good faith to screen out “fake couples.” 

Typical fraud marriages happen most commonly in these ways: 

• Cash-for-vows wedding in which Americans are paid to wed.
• Mail-order bride deals. Think Ukraine, Russia.
• Arranged marriages from cultures in which real “arranged” marriages are common. 
• “Heartbreak Hotel” marriages in which foreigners dupe an American into believing it’s true love when all they really want is a green card.
• Exploitive relations where American criminals petition for marriage for a person whom they really intend to use for trafficking or other illicit purposes.
• “I do, I don’t, I do” marriages whereby foreigners divorce their spouses and marry Americans, then petition to come to the U.S. and obtain their green card; then they divorce after a couple of years here and petition to bring their ex to the U.S. so as to marry him/her and also get him or her a green card! Then they get re-married after doing so.    

Bottom line: Anyone seriously considering having a foreign national become a lawful resident through marriage should take time to review the paperwork and forms needed to successfully process the application through USCIS. 

And be prepared for a bit of a waiting period before you and your sweetheart can enjoy “baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet” together as legitimate residents of the U.S.A. ‘til “death do you part.”  

(Richard G. Marcil www.MarcilAttorney.com 586-412-0444 is an attorney in Clinton Township, MI, practicing in criminal defense, divorce and family law, civil rights, and personal injury cases, as well as juvenile, probate, Wills & Trusts, real estate and business litigation.)