This won't help the already hihg suspicion levels of the officials at the Accra embassy, no doubt:

Ghanaians Arrested For Sham Marriages (news item from GhanaWeb/AP)

Another obstacle.... It feels so weird to be prepared to convince people we aren't pretending to be in love and intend to be partners. Not a normal issue to deal with in a relationship. I'm here now with my fiance and feel like I should be recording every minute (well, not every minute!).

*Sigh*

Why do these bastards do these things?? They make it hard for everybody who are legit. I hate the things some of our people do sometimes !!

ALL I CAN SAY" IS THAT'S DEEP!!!!" I just don't understand how you could do something like that and expect that you would not be caught. Its always a matter of timing before doing wrong will catch up with you.

Schemers and scammers are everywhere and they reflect on those that are genuine. Funny thing is the Ghanaians will probably get deported and free ride home while the USC will serve jail time. I hope they all get what they deserve. No dollar is great enough for me to be in anyone's jail.

I am speechless!

What is really sad about this, is how lightly marriage is considered. What happen to a true bona fide commitment???

You said a mouthful blah...marriage is taken so lightly by some

also their motivation for greed and material things outweighs their need to be decent to each other

Those US citizens deserve the jailtime they may get because that level of greed and stupidity deserves some type of punishment. It angers me because I have struggled to convince my family & friends that I am doing the right thing and that I really and truly love my fiance and he loves me.

When I tell my fiance stuff like this, he hates to hear it. He feels like since our intentions are so good that this type of thing brings such negative attention to us & makes people doubt that a marriage long distance & across boarders can last. His heart is so pure and so is mine.

Though we have not conventionally "dated" and spent every weekend together, I respect him, I laugh with him, I want to be his wife. I want to die with this man.

Thanks for sharing that article with us a&o.....Cheaters never prosper..they always get theirs in the end..its just sad because they make it harder for the rest of us who are doing things legitimately and who do marry out of love, a much more difficult path of proving our innonence and intent.....People who try to cheat the system make the rest of us who do things by the book a much harder path because of the huge burden we face in alleviating the mounting suspicion of why we get married and engaged to people from other countries. Couples who marry permanent residents or citizens do not have to prove anything but for the rest of us, we have to somehow capture every moment on paper and on camera and then when its time for interviews, we have to prove our whole relationship in the form of emails, letters, pictures, receipts, etc......I guess on the one hand this crazy process really unites couples and makes them think twice to ensure that this is the person he or she really wants to be with because literally and figuratively speaking, all of us would have gone to the "ends of the earth" to be with our loved ones! Now that I think about it, I think many couples who are not going thru a visa process could actually benefit from the hazing/immigration ritual we are all subjected to! LOL I guess from every bad thing that happens there is always an upside to things....I told my husband the other day who is stressing out big time about gathering all these police reports from every country he has ever lived in, that the more this visa process tries to break couples up by the amount of stress and scrutiny we are placed under, the more I want to be with him and prove the immigration wrong about our marriage. He knows the stereotypes that are associated with him being an African, Ghanaian, and athlete and he continues to work hard every day to prove people wrong about him. This visa process is just another one of those bumps in the road, a monstrous bump, mind you, but just another a 'bump' in the road that we will all hurdle over to get where we all want to be, in the arms of our loved ones.

I showed this to my hubby and he was like what I need to read that for. No matter the struggle of us blending two culturals, we love each other and respect each through it all. There is NO WAY, I could marry for money or for the sake of helping someone out. We had discussed if it came down to it, I would have to relocate to Nigeria......lol


This is just totally uncalled for!!! And your right they deserve everything coming to them.

This is awful and rotten, and I'm glad they got caught cheating the system, while those of us *truly* marrying for the right reasons have suffered impatiently to begin married life together.

But, as awful as it is, at least everyone involved knew what they were getting into. It is more heartbreaking when the USC believes she/he is entering into a bonafide marriage, only to be duped. A girl I used to work with recently found herself in this situation. The day after her husband got his 10 year green card, he left her. He said his good-bye through email. She is absolutely devasted--she went through so much to be with him, and she was truly in love and happy with him. It is those people I wish would be caught more frequently....

Hello All,
Yes, it is a shame that people are comitting marriage fraud. Now, we will all have to suffer! I live about 90 minutes from Arlington, and read about this in the Washington Post. The story came out 2 days after my husband and I were interviewed. He is from Kenya, and was overstayed on his visa. We have a wonderful bonafide marriage, we dated 20 months before getting married. Our interview was a nightmare in Pittsburgh The officer was so nasty to my husband I could hardley speak, he was a true smart a$$ to me during the time we were interviewed together, but was very nice during my individual interview. I think he must have a split personality. We recied a letter requesting more information on my husbands past. He would not accept my husband birth certificate, needs proof that he was not married prior to coming to the USA..just a bunch of other stuff. He also wanted a copy of his visa application....so with that we consulted a lawyer, because my husband was not completely honest on his visa application. I want to add here that this is very common for people in the past to "color" the application a bit, because they just dont let single, working class folks out of countries to visit the US. So, now we have hired an immigration lawyer to file the 601 waver, as my husband admitted his falt to the lawyer, he was not asked at the interview if he lied on his visa application. In the past, Immigration was really only concered about your life since you cme into the US, of course the FBI back round check needed to be completed and approved, and no other marriages or crimes comitted abroad. Other than this incident, my husband has been an honest man. I know people who have married immigrates with an overstayed status, and were never ever asked to produce a copy of their visa application. Our lawyer told us that African groups are now being targeted for high suspect in fraud. She stated that it going to be very difficult for Africans to get into and stay in this country.
What a shame that we will have difficulties keeping our loved ones, due to a few peoples greed.
Good luck to all of you, as my husband are prepared to fight!
Chris