A friend of mine met a girl at a party 15 years ago. They really hit it off and began dating. She was from Norway and intentionally overstayed her visit here because of their relationship.
At some point he offered to pay for an immigration lawyer to figure out how to extend her visa legally. Turns out she had already overstayed too long and had to return to Norway or face arrest/deportation.
My friend offered to travel home with her but there were issues on his side that made that difficult. He asked the lawyer if marriage would help and he said it would. So he proposed and they got married. Their first child, a boy, arrived right at the beginning of the pandemic.
According to Brett Kavanaugh, that’s ‘just a drinking game’.
It’s an interesting setup, Mr. Ross. It is the oldest confidence game on the books. The Spanish Prisoner. Fellow says him and his sister, wealthy refugees, left a fortune in the home country. He got out, girl and the money stuck in Spain. Here is her most beautiful portrait. And he needs money to get her and the fortune out. Man who supplies the money gets the fortune and the girl. Oldest con in the world.
Everyone, including the OP thinks this is a scam. However, let’s say the OP trips on a crack in the sidewalk tonight & the resulting concussion knocks some sense out of him & he does go for it, al; the way up to completing the sham marriage; what legal consequences is he realistically facing? A felony conviction? Jail time?
I think there may be some discretion given at times, and also the purpose and importance of marriage in society is somewhat less now then it used to be and you have many people living in long term committed relationships who don’t feel the need for the piece of paper, and marriage just to jump through a legal hoop seems very much against the purpose of marriage to many people, and thus a reason to not do it. So there is a gray area forming in society where marriage and committed relationship are not always being equated.
As for you getting involved in this, I’d say only if you are interested in dating her, which it appears you are not.
Fwiw, i know three people who who were involved in sham marriages. All of them were in a gray area. That is, while they married the person so the person could stay in the US, they had a real relationship with their spouse. One was actually dating the foreigner (they just always planned to divorce when she was ready to return to Japan) and the other two were fairly close friends. Like, one woman married her (gay, male) next door neighbor and they made a household together, and the other case was similar.
They all divorced when the marriage was no longer needed, and none of the US citizens suffered any legal consequences. They WERE all grilled by US immigration folks (INS or ICE). The couple who were dating aced that. They got into a (totally legit) fight while they were waiting for their interview, and when the time came, the interviewer said, “yeah, i believe you are a couple”, and that was it.
But it’s a bad idea. Don’t get knocked over the head. Don’t knock her up.
An individual will be charged with marriage fraud if they entered into a marriage for the purpose of evading U.S. immigration law. This felony offense carries a prison sentence of up to five years
and a fine of up to $250,000, and applies to both foreign nationals and U.S. citizens who perpetrate this crime.
U.S. citizens who enter into fraudulent marriages assume great personal liability. The foreign spouse may gain access to sensitive, personal information including, but not limited to, bank accounts,
safe deposit boxes, retirement and investment accounts, personal identity information, and family heirlooms. Terrorists and other criminals can use marriage fraud as a vehicle to enter the United States, often due to the willingness of U.S. citizens to participate in marriage fraud schemes. They can then hide their identity, gain unlawful employment, access government buildings, and open bank accounts and businesses to conduct further criminal activity. Participants in marriage fraud may, knowingly or unknowingly, be aiding terrorists, foreign intelligence or other criminal organizations, and will be held accountable.
Had a good friend and roomie that married and emigrated to Australia. Holy crap, they crawled around her life for around a year before the OK came through. She shared her hard drive with the emails, IRQ chats, and every other format of communication they shared to prove there was an actual long distance relationship [including pictures and videos of when he came over for a visit 8 months before they decided to try and get married] Deposed my husband and I and several other friends who knew about him and met him when he did come over. I am pretty sure they also ended up with our phone records as well.
My girlfriend and I knew we were going to get married, but we had to hurry things up for greencard purposes. At our INS interview in NYC, we pulled out our photo album detailing the last 4 years of our life, and started cooing over our cat’s photos, bickering about where a specific holiday snapshot was taken, etc. You could see our interviewer’s eyes glaze over with boredom.
I knew a woman that married a Polish national in exchange for, as I recall, a couple thousand dollars with the understanding they’d later divorce. He promptly disappeared, no contact information at all, and she had doubts about the actual spelling of his name. It was a big secret. We were casually seeing each other at the time and I wound up being a +1 to a wedding for her cousin. Before we got there, she said to not tell any relatives (such as her parents) about the marriage, they didn’t know.
It also would mean extra hassle in case she’d ever want to remarry. I think you can divorce based on abandonment but it wasnt what she signed up for. And there’s always that worry that he signs up for a joint account or loans or something.
Say I meet a woman, we hit it off, I fall in love, get married, I sponsor her citizenship, and once she gets it and waits the requisite period of time, she files for divorce. It was fraud on her part from the get go, but I really was in love, and didn’t know her intent.
My initial thought was that there’s no niece, but the co-worker is the one being scammed (and the OP may end up being collateral damage).
The story just kinda sounds like something he was told to say. Like the people buying hundreds of dollars of iTunes cards and nervously telling the cashier they’re a wedding present for someone.
I’d bet it’s a seduction angle…“date” is often equivalent to “have sex with.” If she can sleep with you, she can get pregnant and if that child is born here, s/he is an American citizen. Maybe they aren’t going for an outright victory but rather, a delaying tactic?
Of course, but also: anybody could father the child and she could claim it belongs to the OP.
Wasn’t that how it went in the TV series “Taxi” when Latka and Simka went to INS?
For a conviction, they’d need to prove intent beyond a reasonable doubt. Difficult to do if you genuinely didn’t have intent, although the fraud-perpetrating immigrant might cut a deal to testify against you in exchange for leniency.
A paternity test would quickly put the lie to this.
IANAD but quite possibly true. Desperate people will bluff, however…and if OP did have sex with her it’s possible he would be the father. If the people are willing to lie to the government of course they’ll lie to the OP—I wouldn’t try outfoxing them.
Interesting that they haven’t said what’s in it for the OP. It’s best to avoid the whole thing, I’d say.