Beware the dangers of seeking an annulment based upon a claim of a “sham marriage.” If U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly Immigration and Naturalization Services or INS) investigates a spouse accused of perpetrating a sham marriage, both spouses are exposed to the danger of prison terms and fines for violation of immigration laws.
A Bulletin from the U.S. Attorney’s Office describing 26 indictments against 30 defendants that were returned by the grand jury in one day. (Some of those charged had already been deported.) The indictments all charged both the United States citizen and the alien with a violation of 8 United States Code, Section 1325(b) [Marriage Fraud] and 18 United States Code, Section 2 [Aiding and Abetting] in Count One. Counts Two and Three charged the alien and the United States Citizen, respectively, with violations of Title 18 United States Code, Section 1546 [False statement in a document required by immigration laws] based on the false representations made in the immigration forms submitted (I-485 and I-130). Finally, Count Four charged them both with a violation of 18 United States Code, Section 1001 [False statements in a matter within the jurisdiction of an agency of the United States] and Title 18 United States Code, Section 2 [Aiding and Abetting] based on the statements made at the time of the videotaped interview. Penalties include not only a prison term up to 5 years but also fines. According to law, those fines can be up to $250,000.
Where a resident alien is found to have entered into a sham marriage, he or she could be prevented from ever obtaining a visa to visit again in the U.S. and be denied any subsequent application for a green card. If domestic abuse is alleged, this, too could prejudice any future attempt by a resident alien to obtain a visa or a green card sponsored by a family member.
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my name is Scott M. Whiteford I believe to call my marriage a sham marriage do to circomstances like the mother of my two children writing a guy the whole time we were maried and having another child while separated. although I tried to reconcile several times and in the process I was stabbed and cut several time by the guy she was writing,even after all that I let her try to reconcile but it was a failure for the last time. I have my two children and she has her son ,but I will not give her my address, because she has indangered my life more than that with diffrent stories instating people toward me. altough the children do speak to her on the phone. I have my faults in the so called marriage like pressuring her to get married becuse of what diffrent churchs to us about curses on the childrens life,we got married after a month after my first child was born at the justice of peace..even though there is no legal dipute about her tearing the marrage license up after a week,i would like to add she was not happy about kissing at the ceramony in front of our new born and her grand parents who was advising me to do it at another time. My question is should this be consedered a "sham"?I feel it is and I feel there was never no real mareage even as I tryed to make it..I would like to meet a person I am compatable with and have a real mariage.. my phone number is 630 330 5741
Posted by: Scott M Whiteford | 11/15/2011 at 03:20 PM