Victims of marriage fraud for green card, unite here! Also those who know of victims.

[aishabay 2]

Please share your story if you would like if you were the victim of marriage fraud for green card, that is, used by an immigrant just so he can get legal status here.

What were your experiences? Did you take any action? If you were not the victim, do you know anyone who was?

I was also used by my so called "ex-husband". I divorced him before the 2 year period. I wanted an annulment because I realized he was using me 7 months after the marriage but he threatened me and made me get a divorce instead. He also dragged out the divorce for another 8 months...We married on tourist visa after dating for 3 months. He blackmailed me into marriage but I also loved him at the same time. I was so dumb, that should have been a HUGE red flag..

I reported it to immigration. They said they will question him at the ROC interview. He is already engaged to his gf in his country which he had the whole time and is planning to bring her here once he gets his papers.

[removed03222014 2]

please advice me with country your husband did came from

[aishabay 2]

please advice me with country your husband did came from

He came from Bosnia and Herzegovina

[milimelo 4,502]

He came from Bosnia and Herzegovina

Something to consider - in your other thread you said he has a gf in his home country and wants to bring her here?

May be time to write a well intended letter of information on your ex to the Embassy in Sarajevo so they have it on file if/when the gf/fiance/wife comes to the embassy for a family-based visa.

You can go into the timeline of events to the present - just like you did for USCIS FDNS. Provide all identifying info on the husband - DOB, POB, A# and the new gf if you have that info.

on XX YYYY XY entered US on tourist visa

XX YYYY XY and XX met

XX YYYY married

living together

divorce, threats, evidence copied here dated ....

Do note - given that he is just due for his I-751 (and if it's denied he is out of status so if he is out of country no coming back to the US), he can't quite hop on the plane and get his gf. As a LPR (conditional or not) he can't file for a fiancee visa. To file for marriage visa he'd need to get back to Bosnia and get married there and still wait over 2+ yrs for his wife to get a visa (if she does).

[NickD 203]

Certainly a problem, read this: http://cis.org/marriagefraud

One strong recommendation is to completely eliminate that K1 visa, my key objection to it, does not give a couple time to make wise decisions, but the bottom line is you have to watch out for yourself.

You weren't the only one that was dumb, both my wife and I married too young and too soon for a disaster. Often made the comment, if divorce laws were part of the marriage, no one would be dumb enough to get married. So we agreed to take our time, like 2 years and two months. During this period, we learned we were a team. Everyone has problems, we certainly had our share, but could sit down and speak to each other in a civil manner and solve them.

Then it got to the point where we didn't want to live with each other. But our experience with the USCIS was to be accused of fraud, and we were guilty until we proved ourselves innocent.

So is your husband going to sue you for that I-864 you were forced to sign? At least the USCIS especially when applying for US citizenship takes a close look at an immigrant that married a US citizen, but then wants to marry a person from their home country. Well some do. Have this bad feeling the USCIS really doesn't protect US citizens from being victims of fraud.

Find a good immigration attorney, this is also easier said than done.

[Pitaya 2,577]

~Moved from General Immigration-Related Discussion to Effects of Major Family Changes on Immigration Benefits Forum~

~Such topics are often discussed at this forum~

[Rito 28]

Certainly a problem, read this: http://cis.org/marriagefraud

One strong recommendation is to completely eliminate that K1 visa, my key objection to it, does not give a couple time to make wise decisions, but the bottom line is you have to watch out for yourself.

Seriously?

I get that this process can be difficult for people. I get that people sometimes are defrauded, or not ready, or are given nasty surprises in the process. It happens. But there are actual, legitimate, ready couples that only have this process to rely on to be together.

My husband and I dated for 5 years, long distance, before applying for a K1 visa. We traveled to each other's countries every three months. We spent every holiday together. We knew each other's families and friends. We vacationed together, talked online every day, and counted down the years, months, and then days when we would finally be together.

Frankly, if couples enter the K1 visa process unready or not knowing each other well enough, that's their fault - not the fault of the visa process. I wish more people would enter immigration with more seriousness. The K1 is not a "let's see how we get on" visa, it's an intent-to-marry-and-immigrate visa. It's for people who know they want to begin a life together, not to try out a vacation and see how it goes.

Sorry to sound harsh, but after all the waiting and restless nights to see find out if this or that packet and submission was approved, I don't have much sympathy for people who enter into this process without seeming to know if marriage is what they want.

Edited March 15, 2014 by Rito

[NickD 203]

Seriously?

I get that this process can be difficult for people. I get that people sometimes are defrauded, or not ready, or are given nasty surprises in the process. It happens. But there are actual, legitimate, ready couples that only have this process to rely on to be together.

My husband and I dated for 5 years, long distance, before applying for a K1 visa. We traveled to each other's countries every three months. We spent every holiday together. We knew each other's families and friends. We vacationed together, talked online every day, and counted down the years, months, and then days when we would finally be together.

Frankly, if couples enter the K1 visa process unready or not knowing each other well enough, that's their fault - not the fault of the visa process. I wish more people would enter immigration with more seriousness. The K1 is not a "let's see how we get on" visa, it's an intent-to-marry-and-immigrate visa. It's for people who know they want to begin a life together, not to try out a vacation and see how it goes.

Sorry to sound harsh, but after all the waiting and restless nights to see find out if this or that packet and submission was approved, I don't have much sympathy for people who enter into this process without seeming to know if marriage is what they want.

Not five years for us, but was 26 months, same thing, met my wife to be family, future mother-in-law was a doll, still is, offered to sell her apartment to give us money. Sure thanked her, but didn't need it. Stepdaughter met her future step brothers and sisters, my kids loved their new mom to be, still do. Stepdaughter learned she was getting wonderful step brothers and sisters.

But fortunately, they both had tourist visas so we could do this. For us, wasn't a question of immigration, it was a question that we never wanted to be parted with the question, did I want to move down there or they up here. They wanted to move up here, but could have been just the other way.

Two of my wife's closest friends came here on a K1, and was no question of fraud, after spending time together with their new husbands, just couldn't get along. Call it infatuation or whatever, K1 just doesn't give you the time to learn each other. Ha, as the father with daughters, strongly suggested they live with their intended for awhile before tying the knot after my own rotten first marriage. And of course, didn't want to hear about sex. Both have wonderful marriages and great grandkids.

With my wife's two close friends, both ended up in divorce. In this light, the K1 is stupid, and why just 90 days? Who came up with this number? Some lawmaker smoking crack? Or some attorney trying to get rich off of divorce cases?

Still have a stepson in Venezuela, no way in hell can we get him a visa to come up here for a visit. They issue a I-94 and have a full record of he visit, and if he did overstay, can send the cops over here. But they don't work that way, just refuse the visa. Have a ton of immigration laws, but don't even enforce them, so any law-abiding citizen has to suffer because of this.

Even a valid couple has to suffer because of fraud. Beginning why I was forced to fight for this country for freedom, what freedom? Sure not for us!

[John J 10]

Seriously?

I get that this process can be difficult for people. I get that people sometimes are defrauded, or not ready, or are given nasty surprises in the process. It happens. But there are actual, legitimate, ready couples that only have this process to rely on to be together.

My husband and I dated for 5 years, long distance, before applying for a K1 visa. We traveled to each other's countries every three months. We spent every holiday together. We knew each other's families and friends. We vacationed together, talked online every day, and counted down the years, months, and then days when we would finally be together.

Frankly, if couples enter the K1 visa process unready or not knowing each other well enough, that's their fault - not the fault of the visa process. I wish more people would enter immigration with more seriousness. The K1 is not a "let's see how we get on" visa, it's an intent-to-marry-and-immigrate visa. It's for people who know they want to begin a life together, not to try out a vacation and see how it goes.

Sorry to sound harsh, but after all the waiting and restless nights to see find out if this or that packet and submission was approved, I don't have much sympathy for people who enter into this process without seeming to know if marriage is what they want.

I did a similar thing that you did and the abuse only started after I got married. Yes there were red flags before but her excuse was that she was frustrated about not being married.

She told me lie after lie and still does.

Anyone who has experience with a spouse with borderline personality disorder knows exactly what I'm talking about.

[Sandra G. 5,051]

I don't believe 90 days is for you to decide if you want to get married or not.I am appalled seeing the number of people that saw their partners once or twice and got married, and want to blame USCIS. I would say 80% of Visa journey members didn't date over 1 year and proposed, almost every story here the guy'girl dated the girl/guy just 3/6/8 months and got married or they used the K1 visa.We are our choices, bad judgement, bad choices, bad consequences.

Edited March 19, 2014 by sandranj

[Victim2 0]

Hi,
I hope you're still on this site! I was a victim of "marriage for green card" and now I'm doing my college dissertation (PhD research) on the topic. I'm trying to find other victims who are willing to share their story for my dissertation. I was surprised to find out that this has been happening to others, men and women. It was truly heartbreaking to learn of the deceit, but through my perseverance, justice was served in a court of law. It took a while, but he was eventually deported and the marriage annulled. So, if anyone is willing to share their story, I'll be glad to share the details of the project. My hope is for victims to have a voice.

[TBoneTX 45,536]

The OP hasn't logged on to VJ since March 2014.

[Jawaree 718]

I don't believe 90 days is for you to decide if you want to get married or not.I am appalled seeing the number of people that saw their partners once or twice and got married, and want to blame USCIS. I would say 80% of Visa journey members didn't date over 1 year and proposed, almost every story here the guy'girl dated the girl/guy just 3/6/8 months and got married or they used the K1 visa.We are our choices, bad judgement, bad choices, bad consequences.

Totally agree, if someone pushed to marry me after a yr and live in another place

I would run the other way, much less in months...seem after living their whole life

dating, even some having kids, I'd have questions why be in a hurry to marry me...whats the incentive

[N-o-l-a 7,168]

Totally agree, if someone pushed to marry me after a yr and live in another place

I would run the other way, much less in months...seem after living their whole life

dating, even some having kids, I'd have questions why be in a hurry to marry me...whats the incentive

Some of us believe in courtship - dating with the express purpose to see if we are cut out for marriage. I knew right away that my husband and I were. We've gone through a lot together and our marriage is still quite strong despite a rather short period before we got married.

People will say do away with the K1 and there are plenty of reasons to do that, mostly involving issues with couples following through with AOS, but K1 or CR1, there will be fraudsters.

The surest and easiest way to statistically protect yourself from someone just after a greencard is to marry an American, followed by marrying someone from a similar socio-economic background in a similarly wealthy country. You just don't see very many cases of Americans yelling "fraud" about their Scandinavian spouses or vice versa, do you now?

[tuckin14 58]

My wife and I dated for about 2 years while she lived in Canada. We then got married and she was still living in Canada. She got her green card 10 months later but still made no attempt to move to the USA. About a year later I lost my job here and got a job overseas. At that point she started looking for a job in the USA - when it appeared I would be living outside the USA indefinitely (but coming home for weekends about once every 3 weeks). That job however lasted only 6 months, by which time she had found a job here. We bought a house in her name alone, and the day after we moved in she told me I had to leave. So basically we had an interval of 48 hours from when we first moved in together until she wanted me to move out.

You draw your own conclusions about her motives.