Green card marriage
A green card marriage is a marriage of convenience between a legal resident of the United States of America and a person who would be ineligible for residency but for being married to the resident. The term derives from the availability of permanent resident documents ("Green cards") for spouses of legal residents in the United States, where marriage is one of the fastest and surest ways to obtain legal residence.[1] Marriages, if legitimate, entitle the spouse to live and work in the United States, as in most other countries. In the United States, 2.3 million marriage visas were approved from 1998 through 2007, representing 25% of all green cards in 2007. Even if the non-resident spouse was previously an illegal immigrant, marriage entitles the spouse to residency.[1]
Legality
Most marriages between residents and non-residents are undertaken properly, for reasons other than or in addition to residency status. That said, the practice of obtaining residency through marriage is illegal in the United States if the marriage itself is fraudulent.[2] A marriage that is solely for purposes of obtaining legal residence is considered a sham, and is a crime in the United States for both participants.[3]
Many of the arrangements are simple transactions between two individuals, often in exchange for money paid to the legal resident. In other cases the legal resident is an unwitting victim of a fraudulent marriage.[4] In yet other cases the marriages are arranged by criminal enterprises, sometimes involving the complicity of corrupt immigration officials who accept payment for describing the marriage as legitimate in immigration paperwork.[5]
References
- David Seminara (November 2008). "Hello, I Love You, Won't You Tell Me Your Name: Inside the Green Card Marriage Phenomenon". Center for Immigration Studies.
- "Man pleads not guilty in alleged Internet green card marriage". Associated Press. December 31, 2007.
- Scott Glover (December 7, 2007). "Pair arrested in green card marriage that resulted from Web ads". Los Angeles Times.
- Greg Gordon (September 27, 1997). "For love or a green card? As tougher INS laws loom: Minnesotan tells her story". Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012.
- Bill Hutchinson (June 8, 2006). "Immig officer & sis held in scam". New York Daily news.
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