RANT: People who brag about immigrating fraudulently

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

BTW...

I have never actually met a single person who met their (now) spouse, fell in love, married in a whirlwind, and stayed legitimately. I think it happens in real life about as often as people win the lottery. On the other hand, I can't count how many people tell me that this is what they claimed so that they could stay here--fraudulently.

Marriage forgives a lot of errors, as far as the DHS is concerned. The whole "K" visa concept was a way to expedite the normal process. The K-3 visa is already obsolete, and the rest of the K visas may not be far behind, as more people begin to realize the IR/CR visa costs less money, and is becoming more streamlined. Every story of how some fiancee skipped out on the petitioner, and faded into the crowd, once they arrived in the US, portends the eventual end of the program. K-1 visas applicants have an unusually high 95:1 approval rate. B-1 Visas only have a 4:1 approval rate.

[destiny64 222]

Where did you get the statistics on k-1 visa vs b-1 I'd like to read more about that, thanks in advance!

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Where did you get the statistics on k-1 visa vs b-1 I'd like to read more about that, thanks in advance!

Click the link at the end of my post.

[Greg n Veronica 17]

My frustration is for a friend of mine. She fell in love and married a gent from Pakistan. Then she filed for him to come to the US after returning from marrying him. The process took so long that it exceeded the 2 years requirement of meeting each other and thus denied. She made enough money to support him but not enough to come to visit him again within that 2 years due to some personal things. So now she has retired from her job and lives with him in Pakistan. They are happy but wish they could have been together in the US. They did everything legally and not approved. Oh well, at least they are together and happy. For that I am very happy for them.

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

What do you mean "whirlwind"? Please define it. How long did you know your spouse living under the same roof but not chatting on line before you married him/her? Answer those questions and I will give you more reply.

Some of us are uncomfortable living with someone before we are married (divorce rates are higher you know). We ended up living together for a month before getting married plus 4 more weeks, so about 2 months. In addition to that we talked on Skype (live chat) for 5-8 hours a day, every day for 9 months before getting married. So, lowest estimate of 1350 hours of video chatting and 2 months in person time. How about you?

[destiny64 222]

Common sense, based on the issuances of various kinds of visas, would suggest that the biggest proportion of them had arrived on tourist visas, and the second largest group (but much smaller) would be those on student visas.

^{The ratio is 4:1 for tourist visa but the amount of tourists in that study which were issued visas (3,278,782) vs (35,531) issued for 95:1 for k-1.}

[destiny64 222]

My frustration is for a friend of mine. She fell in love and married a gent from Pakistan. Then she filed for him to come to the US after returning from marrying him. The process took so long that it exceeded the 2 years requirement of meeting each other and thus denied. She made enough money to support him but not enough to come to visit him again within that 2 years due to some personal things. So now she has retired from her job and lives with him in Pakistan. They are happy but wish they could have been together in the US. They did everything legally and not approved. Oh well, at least they are together and happy. For that I am very happy for them.

The 2 yr requirement is for meeting your fiance, not for meeting after getting married, someone correct me if I'm wrong?

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

The 2 yr requirement is for meeting your fiance, not for meeting after getting married, someone correct me if I'm wrong?

If you are married but haven't visited in years they frequently slap you with lack of bonefide relationship. I have seen it a couple of times.

[destiny64 222]

If you are married but haven't visited in years they frequently slap you with lack of bonefide relationship. I have seen it a couple of times.

Yes I can understand where that would happen, but it was stated that it was a "requirement" which confused me. Thanks for the clarification

[jaycali 415]

The 2 yr requirement is for meeting your fiance, not for meeting after getting married, someone correct me if I'm wrong?

Yes I can understand where that would happen, but it was stated that it was a "requirement" which confused me. Thanks for the clarification

Yep, it's only a requirement for I-129f petitions. However, I-130 petitions require the marriage to be bona fide.

Trying to convince a CO in Islamabad that you have a bona fide marriage with a person you have not met in person in years is far from easy.

[destiny64 222]

Any petition should require it be bona fide Hell I've been away from my husband since the end of March and I can't stand it, I couldn't imagine years! Oh well, some circumstances do happen and its a shame for that couple, but as she said they are living happily together. Here or there, together is the key.

[Darnell 8,479]

I work and live in Southwest Houston where it is possibly that a full 1/2 of our employees are foreign born and this is very reflective of the neighborhood.

Because of my own openness and awareness of the immigration process, I hear a lot from folks about their fraud to get here. People are open about it and appear to be proud of their methods.

It makes me nuts.

Is this common? Does everyone else here that lives in an area with lots of foreginers hear this a lot?

The most common ones I hear about are the K-1 fraud or the AOS from student/tourist visas to spousal. As frustrating as it is to me to deal with the delays, I can't help but wonder if they are along enough to deter ANYbody.

GGggrrrrr........

(Climbing down off my soapbox now.)

For that part of Houston, absolutely ! There's another part, also.

Sorry Man. Lived there for some years, so I guess it's more rampant now than before I moved. ug ug.

[av8or 34]

Unfortunately, hate the game, not the player.. Our immigration system is so full of holes right now, most try to take advantage whenever they can and let the system work for them.. Might seem not right and unjust for you and me but the system allows it.. So in the eyes of the law, whatever they are doing as long as it is within the bounds of immigration law, is legal.. take for instance citizenship thru birthright.. This is another one of the most abuse clause in our immigration laws.. One that should be looked upon and amended if need be.. If u ask me, I believe that one parent needs to be a USC to have birthright citizenship here.. But no one in congress is brave enough to tackle this issue.. No other first world country offers this right..

Edited January 21, 2013 by av8or

[MR193 2]

we knew going into this journey that we could be scrutinized heavily... after all it is ISlamabad embassy and pakistan is well known for fraudulent cases. But we decided the only way to go about it is the right way and walk directly thru the fire and prayerfully come out on the other side after a year or so. Here we are filed in Nov 2010 and interview june 2011 and still in AP 19 months later.

We see daily people getting their visas in our community and i certainly am thankful that their waiting is over. However, my husband and I have come across a couple of people who obviously did it for just the green card. They don't have a good relationship, his family doesnt like his USC wife and it's so frustrating when you can tell they didn't do it the right way or for the right reasons and yet 2 weeks after his interview he received the visa. There are a few more stories just like this where it's obvious the man did it for just the green card and it's so painful when your hurting so badly for someone and going thru so much without them by your side. But I have to remind myself its because of those individuals that we are scrutinized heavily and doing purgatory for those who didn't have to.

Our daughter has a brain tumor which took up over a third of her head and growing on her optic nerve and it's inoperable at this moment. Even those medical reports couldn't relieve us from this black abyss of AP.

We will wait patiently, let the embassy do their work and finish our case when God feels it's time and we will REJOICE that we are together and walked thru the fires holding hands staying faithful this process will eventually bring us together and that WE DID IT THE RIGHT WAY!

I admire your strength and understand that life must be hard for you at this time. I hope they find a way to shrink your daughters tumor. I also wish they will speed up your application and hope you will be over here soon to get some peace in your life . God Bless

[Holly2234 66]

There are a lot of Bosnian immigrants in Vermont , one woman who worked with me(bosnian) has a friend(bosnian) whose son married a woman from Egypt once she arrived here on a tourist visa to supposedly visit her uncle in New York. She told me they quickly got married here in Vermont two weeks after she arrived in all her traditional wedding attire. Now, tell me if that isn't blatant visa fraud then what is? You would think once they applied for their marriage visa here that USCIS would question that wouldn't you? Does USCIS really overlook that, even an average american citizen would catch that it was blatant fraud! Arriving on a tourist visa with your wedding dress in tow. I have no idea what happened after because she doesn't work with me anymore, but I was listening to her story to another co-worker and this was after my now husbands k-1 was denied. As you can imagine, I was fuming!

I said to her , you do realize that's visa fraud? You know what she said to me? She said you know moslem tradition doesn't allow a moslem woman to be with a man unless she's married to him. I replied I know all about the moslem religion because my fiance is moslem and I lived in the middle east for a good part of my teenage years, but that doesn't give an excuse to commit visa fraud. It should be done via k-1 process the same as the rest of us!!!!!! I had to walk away from her because she really thought her friends sons reasons were valid. My heart was broken that we were legit and denied our k-1 and here's a case of a woman entering on a tourist visa and marrying after two weeks , do you think they deported her? I bet not.

I live in Northern New York, very close to Vermont and i know a lot of Bosnian people too. One being my landlord and all of his family is in NY, NYC and VT. My husband also met our landlords cousin at work 75 miles away from where we live. The ones i have spoken to have all brought over family members (they came as refugees themselves years ago)or spouses or fiances. They have all paid for lawyers though. I had a discussion with one of them and he had no idea that it was even possible to do AOS from the VWP or student visas etc. They paid out thousands of dollars to do it the right way. Sadly they werent informed enough to know that they could do it the right way all by themselves.

So, not everybody does things the wrong way. Some do it the right way. Some do it the expensive way!

Im sorry your K-1 got denied. Keep trying. You will get there eventually!