Marriage Fraud

"[M]arriage fraud for the purpose of immigration gets very little notice or debate in the public arena and the State Department and Department of Homeland Security have nowhere near the resources needed to combat the problem. Attention to fraud is not just for the integrity of the legal immigration system, but also for security reasons."

- David Seminara, CIS Fellow

Hello, I Love You, Won’t You Tell Me Your Name: Inside the Green Card Marriage Phenomenon

WASHINGTON (December 2, 2008) -- Each year, tens of thousands of United States citizens and Legal Permanent Residents (LPR), at both home and abroad, meet and marry foreign nationals. Spouses of American citizens have priority over most other immigration categories, making marriage the quickest way to receive a green card. As the new Obama administration prepares to take office, the long dormant debate over levels of legal immigration is sure to resurface, but that debate is unlikely to include discussion of fraud amongst the most common path to American residency.