Filing a visa petition or adjustment of status application for an immigrant spouse on the basis of a sham marriage can have very serious consequences. A marriage is considered a “sham” if the primary reason for the marriage is to get an immigration benefit.

Our elected representatives in Congress have passed civil and criminal sanctions to deter people from using sham marriages to evade immigration laws. And the Trump administration is serious about enforcing these sanctions. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph B. Edlow announced a few months ago that the agency is "declaring an all-out war on immigration fraud. We will relentlessly pursue everyone involved in undermining the integrity of our immigration system and laws.”  

USCIS usually does not look into other reasons for a marriage. It can accept a marriage for immigrant purposes if it is valid legally and the parties did not enter into it primarily for an immigration benefit.

Sham marriages are attractive to immigrants seeking lawful permanent resident status because of the benefits such a union can provide. Immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens are not subject to the 480,000 worldwide level of family-sponsored immigrants, and the spouses of legal permanent residents receive preferential treatment with respect to their place in the line of immigrants who are waiting for the availability of a visa. The wait for a family-sponsored visa can be very long.

Measures to deter sham marriages

It is a federal crime to knowingly enter into a marriage “for the purpose of evading any provision of the immigration laws.” A conviction for this offense can result in imprisonment for up to five years, a fine of up to $250,000, or both. These penalties apply to both spouses — the immigrant and the citizen or legal permanent resident.

Congress has established civil immigration penalties too. No petition will be approved for an alien who has sought or been accorded “immediate relative or preference status as the spouse of a citizen of the United States or the spouse of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, by reason of a marriage determined by the Attorney General to have been entered into for the purpose of evading the immigration laws.” Sham marriages make the immigrant spouse inadmissible if they sought to procure a visa or admission “by fraud or willfully misrepresenting a material fact.”

Permanent residency status based on a recent marriage is conditional. It can be terminated if the Department of Homeland Security determines within two years of the time the status was granted that it was based on a sham marriage. The immigrant spouse may be deportable for procuring a visa by fraud.

Read more at:

https://thehill.com/opinion/immigrat...-consequences/

Published originally on The Hill.

Nolan Rappaport was detailed to the House Judiciary Committee as an Executive Branch Immigration Law Expert for three years. He subsequently served as an immigration counsel for the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims for four years. Prior to working on the Judiciary Committee, he wrote decisions for the Board of Immigration Appeals for 20 years.