The following is the advice we give to our clients who have an upcoming interview:

If you were both free to marry (not married to someone else at the time), neither of you have a criminal record, and your marriage is real, you have nothing to worry about. In our experience, the greatest concern of USCIS with respect to marriage-based applications is fraud. If you married your husband or wife to get immigration benefits, the chances are, that will come out, sooner or later. Remember even if you get a greencard, or even if you proceed to citizenship, it can be revoked later if it comes out that you were involved in a sham marriage.

Marriages for the purpose of gaining an immigration benefit are of two types: bilateral fraud and unilateral fraud. Bilateral fraud is when one party pays or promises a benefit to another to marry and apply for a greencard. This type of fraud relatively easy to uncover: the parties usually do not actually live together; they do not know much about each other; their stories are inconsistent, the citizen spouse will often withdraw the petition when he or she is informed by the USCIS officer that marriage fraud is a criminal act and that jail is a possibility. Unilateral fraud is much more subtle. Unilateral fraud is when the U.S. citizen enters into the marriage in good faith and the alien spouse has a hidden agenda: immigration benefit. In this type of fraud the parties typically live together as husband and wife, at least until such time that the alien spouse obtains an unconditional greencard. This type of fraud is more difficult but not impossible to uncover.

According to the Field Adjudicator’s manual, which is available online at www.uscis.gov., the following are factors that adjudicators look at in evaluating the validity of a marriage:

-Large disparity in age;

-No common language;

-Vast difference in cultural and ethnic background;

-Family and friends don’t know about the marriage;

-Marriage arranged by third party;

-Marriage took place immediately before beneficiary’s status in the U.S. (or in the CNMI) terminated;

-Not living together since marriage;

-Alien spouse is friend of family of U.S. citizen spouse (i.e. marriage may have been done as a “favor”);

-U.S. citizen spouse has had prior alien spouses for whom he/she filed petitions for greencards.

Not any one of these factors is likely to result in a denial, but the more of these factors that are present, the more evidence will be required to avoid a denial. We have had clients approved who had one or more of the above indicators, but we needed to work harder and come up with more evidence than is usual. We have had several couples whose courtship was entirely via electronic media: e-mail, social networking, text messaging or telephone. In one instance, we printed out hundreds of email messages in a foreign language and had them certified and translated. We had a couple who met via an online dating service and didn’t meet until their marriage ceremony. But they had videos of an elaborate wedding in another country that took several days and involved hundreds of relatives. They also had a second wedding on Saipan, also involving a large family. They also had very convincing demeanor and lots of joint documents.

As for the questions you might be asked, the following are some general subject areas about which you should be able to give answers: how and where did you first meet; who introduced you; where did you go on your first date; if you don’t speak the same language, how did you communicate; how often did you see each other during your courtship; where did you go; did you meet each other’s family members; who asked whom to marry; where did you get married; who attended your wedding and your relationship to each person; where do you live and who do you live with; be ready to describe your residence in detail, both inside and out; be ready to describe your neighborhood including who your neighbors are.

In addition to being able to answer questions, your demeanor is critical. Demeanor is all of the subtle non-verbal signals that pass between people when they are interacting. How you interact with your husband and with the interviewer are both important. You need to not be too nervous; you need to answer directly and clearly; you need to look at your spouse; you need to look at the interviewer. There are a lot of cross-cultural issues that come into play. One hopes that the interviewer is trained to make allowances for behaviors of persons of a different cultural background.

Joint documents are also important. Over the course of marriage, a couple acquires a lot of joint documents. You are expected to produce such documents for the interview. Some possible joint documents are: home ownership, rental agreement or rental receipts in both your names; utilities accounts in both names; joint bank accounts, credit cards, debit cards; joint car ownership and auto insurance; life insurance, retirement benefits, health insurance where one spouse designates the other as a beneficiary; joint tax returns. Again, if it is a new marriage you will not have too many of these documents. You will need to work harder at convincing the interviewer that your marriage is real. This is where notes, letters, photos and so forth come in. If the marriage is established, you will have more of these documents and less difficulty in proving the validity of the marriage. If you have children, the presumption will be that you are together to make a life, not to scam a greencard, and the interview should be very short and uneventful.

One concern focuses on whether illegal immigrants would be allowed to buy health insurance on private markets, called exchanges, which are envisioned in the legislation. The House bill would let them, the Senate bill would not.

The other concern is that both versions of the legislation maintain a five-year waiting period for legal permanent residents to participate in Medicaid for the poor. Advocates contend that these greencard holders should be allowed in Medicaid immediately, as Congress agreed last year for a program for pregnant women and children.

Read this entire story in the Monday, January 18, 2010 print edition of The Baxter Bulletin.

[Read the full story at Masliah Soloway]