The fastest and most abused way of getting a green card status or obtaining permanent residency in the United States is through marrying someone with U.S. citizenship. Agreeing to be in a sham or fake marriage is a criminal act in itself because it is centered on and entered into together with the purpose of fooling and misleading society and public officials about its true purpose. Sham marriages are frequently treated as a business transaction in that the foreigner pays the citizen a substantial amount of money to make the latter party agree to the marriage. After a certain period, a fraudulent couple often divorces once the marriage is no longer useful for both parties. Sham marriages are also used as a way to handle suspicions of homosexuality.
The need to help the authorities in detecting sham marriages is increasing, especially since it has been reported that some terrorists enter the country through fake marriages. Stopping this crime is difficult unless people take the initiative in reporting them to the authorities. Here are some ways you can help the authorities in identifying fraudulent marriages and how you can report them.
- You can start by knowing which couples are separated or are not living together. It is very difficult to find and gain information on fraudulent marriages, but one way to surpass this hurdle is to look for couples that do not live together. It is very suspicious, especially for a foreigner-citizen couple that claims they are married when they do not actually live together. It should arouse the suspicion that they are in a fake or sham marriage.
- Aside from looking for separated couples, there are other indicators or hints that you can look for to say that two people are in a sham marriage. You can consider couples with highly different religion, culture, class, age and education. Although these are not a hundred percent reliable criteria, these things can serve as a starting point and are very important aspects of life that must affect a certain couple if they are indeed a couple.
- The institution that handles fraudulent marriages is the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency or ICE. To report such fake marriages, look for its contact details on its official website. You can report it through electronic mails together with as much information as you can that lead you to believe that they are indeed in a fake marriage. You can also write or directly call the agency depending on your preference.
Reporting a sham marriage should not be taken lightly, and must be done carefully and backed up with strong evidence. The reported couple will be subjected to a lot of interviews by fraud officers that will question their marriage. If in case the marriage is identified as a fraudulent one, the foreigner can be deported and could even be pressed with criminal charges. If the marriage is legitimate, then valuable resources are put to waste and you have imposed hardships on an innocent couple. After all, there are indeed unusual couples in this world.
Report a Marriage Fraud
Report a Marriage Fraud : Multi-thousand tips to make your life easier.
The fastest and most abused way of getting a green card status or obtaining permanent residency in the United States is through marrying someone with U.S. citizenship. Agreeing to be in a sham or fake marriage is a criminal act in itself because it is centered on and entered into together with the purpose of fooling and misleading society and public officials about its true purpose. Sham marriages are frequently treated as a business transaction in that the foreigner pays the citizen a substantial amount of money to make the latter party agree to the marriage. After a certain period, a fraudulent couple often divorces once the marriage is no longer useful for both parties. Sham marriages are also used as a way to handle suspicions of homosexuality.
The need to help the authorities in detecting sham marriages is increasing, especially since it has been reported that some terrorists enter the country through fake marriages. Stopping this crime is difficult unless people take the initiative in reporting them to the authorities. Here are some ways you can help the authorities in identifying fraudulent marriages and how you can report them.
- You can start by knowing which couples are separated or are not living together. It is very difficult to find and gain information on fraudulent marriages, but one way to surpass this hurdle is to look for couples that do not live together. It is very suspicious, especially for a foreigner-citizen couple that claims they are married when they do not actually live together. It should arouse the suspicion that they are in a fake or sham marriage.
- Aside from looking for separated couples, there are other indicators or hints that you can look for to say that two people are in a sham marriage. You can consider couples with highly different religion, culture, class, age and education. Although these are not a hundred percent reliable criteria, these things can serve as a starting point and are very important aspects of life that must affect a certain couple if they are indeed a couple.
- The institution that handles fraudulent marriages is the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency or ICE. To report such fake marriages, look for its contact details on its official website. You can report it through electronic mails together with as much information as you can that lead you to believe that they are indeed in a fake marriage. You can also write or directly call the agency depending on your preference.
Reporting a sham marriage should not be taken lightly, and must be done carefully and backed up with strong evidence. The reported couple will be subjected to a lot of interviews by fraud officers that will question their marriage. If in case the marriage is identified as a fraudulent one, the foreigner can be deported and could even be pressed with criminal charges. If the marriage is legitimate, then valuable resources are put to waste and you have imposed hardships on an innocent couple. After all, there are indeed unusual couples in this world.