I am pretty sure this has gotten hard in recent years but this used to be a very common thing in Indian culture. I was asked when I was 17 to marry a guy who was…I dunno how old, but he was going to pay me $1000 to do it.
$1000 to get involved in a marriage with someone who only wanted to come to the States???
My aunt also adopted an adult son not too long ago. She also tried this method, of marrying him to someone she knew - and the INS is way too smart these days. They had an engagement party first, and they showed the video to the INS person. And he said “We know this is not a real Indian engagement. We know because Indian engagements are huge and lots of peopel come and there are only a few people at this event.”
So then they had to get married. And it still didnt’ work. Immigration seems to be very hard these days…it took them years and lots of money to get him over. In his defense, ever since he’s come here he’s been nothing but an asset.
The hearing that my wife and I had was very easy as well. We had all of our documentation and went to the meeting with our attorney. The hearing officer looked over the documents that we had submitted and asked us a few questions. My wife asked her flat out if she wanted to see the wedding pictures and only then did the hearing officer look at them. We had no joint account, the lease was in my name only, as were the utilities, and the only bill we had was a life insurance policy in which my wife named me as beneficiary.
The whole thing took a short amount of time. She seemed more interested in what my wife and I did for a living than in how we met and how long we had lived together.
Why would someone want to “escape” from Italy to live in the US anyway? I thought the “green card marriage scam” was more for people who lived in depressed areas like Mexico or India or Russia.
I always thought Italy was a nice, modern, Western place with lots of good-looking people, some nice big cities and tons of awesome shorelines. Not to mention the food!
Why on earth would you want to risk jail time to run away from that?
I’m not surprised that some people have it relatively easy and others do not. In my experience, INS officers can be good/bad, understanding/pricks. Hell, even their Service Centers are not consistent. Some are very easy to deal with. Some just absolutely suck.
Still, I wouldn’t assume everything will go off without a hitch.
I have a friend who has done this. No other details to protect his/her privacy
The couple had to attend semi-regular meetings with INS, and constantly had to show various “lifestyle” evidence that they were still married and cohabitating. While not required by the INS to cohabitate, it builds your credibility immensely with the INS if you can do so (or provide evidence that appears as such).
The couple I know did not live together at all, but maintained an extra (mostly empty) joint-checking account, and had both of their names on utilities bills, and a magazine subscription or two that they shared, all to create the illusion of cohabitation. This, along with joint-filing their taxes, meant that they were able to grease through the INS hurdles relatively painlessly (a few years).
Obviously it requires a great deal of coordination and trust in each other. I make no judgements on whether or not I support what they did, just relating the tale.
A lot of it has to do with the background of the person being interviewed. Here in Thailand, There are so many bargirls trying to scam their way into citizenship or just a visa to whatever country that I don’t blame the immigration officials for being strict. The absolute worst thing you can do here is tell the official that you met your wife while she was working in a bar.
Whenever we renew my wife’s 10-year visa, she has to submit banking info, details about property she owns and a letter from her employer, among other things. No big deal, especially now that it’s just always a renewal and she’s never overstayed or commited a crime. But many farangs (Westerners) become almost hysterically indignant at the slightest glitch that pops up. That’s not the smartest way to go about it.
legit marriages overseas as Siam Sam points out can be a huge pain in the ass with immigration. I don’t think the money would be worth it…doing it for love was hard enough
Yes, and I actually didn’t mean to suggest, by my post, that the entire process was not a huge pain in the ass when I went through it with my wife here in the U.S. There was plenty of bullshit (multiple trips to the INS queuing up in ungodly lines before the crack of dawn, surly employees, useless “customer service” phone numbers, ridiculous fees, years-long processing delays, paperwork and notifications “lost in the mail”). Just that after all that hassle, the actual face-to-face interview was anticlimactically smooth.
We were thrilled when she got her green card, and ecstatic when she became a naturalized citizen and we knew we would never have to deal with them again. (Or at least we pray not.)
