Matt, originally from Corning and now living in Rochester, is a U.S. citizen. Heather, who met her husband in 2005 when both were students at the Elim Bible Institute in Lima, is from Hamilton, Ontario, and a Canadian citizen. They thought that once they were married, it would be simple for Heather to get her “green card” and live and work legally here with Matt until they have enough money to finish their degrees and start the family they both want.
For more than a year, they had traveled back and forth to Canada without incident until June 26 (the day before the wedding at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington) when Matt told the Canadian border guards that marriage was the reason for his visit.

“I was turned away at the border,” Matt says. “I had to prove I had a means of departing and that I would return.” He hurried back to Rochester, got a letter from his boss indicating that he has a job, made a copy of his apartment lease, and purchased a return airplane ticket (even though he planned to drive home). He stayed in Canada as a visitor for several weeks before coming home to Rochester, but that’s when the couple realized living together would not be as simple as they hoped.

The U.S. and Canadian governments want to be certain that a marriage between citizens of their countries is legitimate, that the citizen spouse can support the non-citizen, and that the newcomer will not need public assistance, says Rochester lawyer Margaret Catillaz, an expert in immigration law.

Since Heather and Matt were married, both their passports have been flagged and when they visit, they are always detained for questioning. Even though she’s done nothing wrong, Heather said during a recent visit, she always feels as if she’s in trouble.

Matt and Heather just want to be together.

And money is the only thing standing in their way. It costs up to $2,000 to apply for legal resident status and complete the required procedures. And right now, neither Matt and Heather, nor their families, have the money. Heather is unemployed and Matt washes windows and cleans gutters. Rent, car payments, food — that’s all they can afford.

Read the full story on Democrat and Chronicle

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.

Congratulations on getting married!

As part of this exciting time-of-life, you are probably also looking for an affordable, simple and quick option for filing your green card application.

Did you know that you do not have to use a lawyer to file the application? Many couples choose to complete the application process by themselves and avoid the huge fees that lawyers charge (which range from $1,000 to $5,000).

Easygration offers you an even better option than paying these fees or spending lots of time learning all the legal jargon and studying the different forms. Since we are not lawyers, but experts on green card through marriage, we do not charge hefty legal fees, and since we review every case and only take green card cases that do not require a lawyer, you can feel rest assured that you are in good hands.

We prepare the forms for you and you do the rest:
✓All required forms to successfully apply for a Green Card through marriage.
✓Forms for work authorization, so the alien spouse can work in the USA while waiting for the green card to be processed.
✓Forms for travel authorization (advance parole), so the alien spouse can travel outside the USA while waiting for the green card to be processed.
✓Detailed instructions on how to file the green card application.

Contact Easygration for your green card through marriage application.

Note: Easygration is not a law firm.

For more information:
http://www.easygration.com
Visit our website: Green Card Through Marriage.

According to court documents, immigration agents placed the couple’s Blacklick house under surveillance, interviewed their next-door neighbors and sorted through trash bags taken from their curbside refuse container.

The agents collected enough evidence to establish that Kwadwo Asante and Lilian Asante were living as husband and wife but had entered sham marriages with others in hopes of gaining permanent residency in the United States.

Both pleaded guilty and were sentenced yesterday to two years on probation. An immigration judge is expected to deport them.

The tactics used by agents in the case aren’t typical, said a Columbus immigration lawyer, but they illustrate the extremes to which officials will go to investigate the validity of marriages between citizen and noncitizens.

“The truth is, if the government suspects that a marriage isn’t bona fide, they’ll investigate mightily,” said Kenneth J. Robinson.

Federal law is clear: Any individual who “knowingly enters into a marriage for the purpose of evading any immigration law” faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The notion that marriage to a citizen is a simple path to a green card granting permanent residency is a common misconception, said Dennis Muchnicki, a Dublin-based immigration lawyer. “People think the process is easy, but it’s no walk in the park,” he said.

The couple must file forms with immigration officials asking the government to formally recognize the relationship and grant the noncitizen permanent residency.

The process can take five to seven months, requires exhaustive documentation and includes an interview with an immigration official who separates the couple and asks personal questions, such as where they put their dirty clothes and which side of the bed each sleeps on.

The filing fees for a greencard cost $1,365. Couples who hire a lawyer to assist them with the process can expect to pay an additional $1,000 to $2,000, Robinson said.

The process isn’t open to all noncitizens. Those who scramble across the border without passing through inspection checkpoints aren’t eligible to gain residency through marriage.

Those who enter the U.S. through customs with fraudulent documents can seek residency through marriage, but the bureaucratic hurdles are significant.

“The majority of those who gain residency benefits through marriage entered the country lawfully,” Robinson said.

Most often, they came to the United States with temporary work or student visas. That was the path taken by the Asantes. Lilian Asante came to attend law school at Ohio State University. Kwadwo Asante was attending Case Western Reserve University’s MBA program.

“When people come here legally from the proverbial Third World countries with a student visa and realize everything this country has to offer, a lot of them don’t want to go back,” said Daniel A. Brown, an assistant U.S. attorney in Columbus.

And some are willing to pay to find a fraudulent spouse, he said.

In December, 11 central Ohio residents were indicted for their involvement in sham marriages arranged for about $17,000 each. Federal prosecutors determined that none of the couples lived together after they were married.

Brown said sham-marriage prosecutions are rare in central Ohio, but he suspects that many escape the scrutiny of investigators.

When couples approach Robinson about helping them with the greencard process, he puts them through the same kind of questioning they’ll get from an immigration official.

“For every 10 I take, I probably turn away two,” he said.

But he assumes that most find another lawyer willing to help them. “I don’t envy the government’s job.”

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

On the date of the interview, the couple has to demonstrate to the USCIS officer that they intent to establish their life together. To put it in another way, the couple has to convince the USCIS Officer that the intent of the marriage is not to circumvent the immigration laws of the United States. At the interview, the USCIS Officer makes a determination regarding the validity of the marriage as well as other issues pertaining to the good moral character of the beneficiary of the greencard. If the Immigration Officer is not convinced with the statements made by the couple at the interview, the Immigration Officer has the authority to schedule the couple for a second interview which is commonly known as the Stokes interview.

A stokes interview is a very difficult interview and it is a good idea for an individual to seek legal help in such situations. This is because if the couple fails the Stokes interview and if the immigration officer makes a determination that the intent of the couple was to circumvent the immigration laws in order to obtain a greencard, the beneficiary of the petition can be permanently barred from obtaining the greencard.

During the stokes interview, the couples are separated by the immigration officer and are separately questioned in detail about their relationship, relatives, employments, travels etc. If the answers of the couple properly match perfectly, then the officer will approve the I-130 petition. However, if the answers do not match and if the officer makes a determination that the marriage between the parties is fraudulent, the Immigration Officer has the power to arrest the parties and commence deportation proceedings against the beneficiary.

Very often, couples think that they are happily married and they have nothing to worry about their immigration interview. This statement may not hold true on all occasions. This is because the burden of proof in on the married couple to show by means of preponderance of evidence that they intend to establish their life together.

In essence, if you are confronted with a second interview (stokes interview) by immigration, it would be a good idea for you to be extremely well prepared in order to avoid serious consequences such as deportation.

About Author
The author of this article, N.M. Gehi, Esq. is a practicing immigration attorney in the state of New York and Connecticut. This article is based upon his practical experiences in handling stokes interviews since many years.