Dilbar Gul Dilbar, a 33-year-old Afghan national, was arrested in Monroe County, N.Y., in April 2025 and charged with violating 18 U.S.C. § 1546(a), concerning visa fraud and misuse of immigration documents. He currently resides in the Western District of New York with his wife and five children. Dilbar entered the United States on April 4, 2024, after fraudulently securing a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV), and was issued a 10-year green card just three months later on July 22, 2024. He had applied for the SIV on the basis of his alleged service as a U.S.-affiliated interpreter during the War in Afghanistan. However, the evidence reveals a long trail of fraudulent conduct and security red flags, which U.S. authorities failed to catch.
Before his arrival in the U.S., Dilbar used at least two identities: “Dilbar Gul Taj Ali Khan”, listed on earlier Afghan identification documents, and “Dilbar Gul Dilbar”, which began appearing around 2020 on his second Afghan passport and his Afghan national ID card. The latter name was used in his SIV application and later to obtain a New York State driver’s license. His immigration filings portrayed him as a pharmacist and translator who had loyally served U.S. operations in Afghanistan. In reality, Dilbar had been terminated from a translator position in 2009 and was arrested in 2011 for impersonating a criminal investigator with the Afghan National Police. That same year, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center (TEDAC) linked his fingerprints to a handwritten note recovered at a crime scene, believed to potentially contain coordinates related to a terrorist plot.
Despite these red flags, Dilbar pursued U.S. entry multiple times. In 2016, he submitted an SIV application to the U.S. Department of State that included a counterfeit Chief of Mission (COM) approval letter, a forged employment letter, and a fraudulent letter of recommendation. All three documents were falsely certified under penalty of perjury. The State Department denied his application on August 10, 2017. However, just three months later, on November 13, 2017, Dilbar filed a USCIS Form I-360 in furtherance of that same application. Again, he signed under penalty of perjury and submitted the previously rejected and fraudulent documents. Although USCIS ultimately denied this 2017 application in January 2018, the fact that he had submitted fraudulent documentation should have been logged and flagged for future immigration scrutiny. This 2017 episode marks the first missed opportunity to permanently bar him from entry and refer him for prosecution.
Undeterred, Dilbar attempted again. In 2021, he submitted a second SIV application — once more attaching a counterfeit COM letter and fraudulent supporting documents. His employment verification came from a known fraudulent document mill that sold fake letters for a fee. His letter of recommendation, dated January 5, 2021, came from a “Ray James”, who claimed to be a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractor. In fact, James was later confirmed to be involved in an advance-fee scam that sold fake recommendation letters to Afghan nationals seeking immigration benefits. Nonetheless, Dilbar’s application was approved on March 20, 2024. He entered the United States two weeks later, and on the same day filed for Lawful Permanent Resident status, which USCIS approved in July 2024. These events, from 2021 to 2024, constitute the second major missed opportunity — culminating in a national security risk being admitted to and embedded within the United States.
Dilbar's conduct in the U.S. immediately raised additional concerns. One of his first actions was to apply for a New York State license to become a security guard. In December 2024, a federal warrant executed on his Google Mail account revealed communication with Ray James about fraudulent documents. Digital evidence also showed Dilbar had access to large sums of cash in 2025 via another Afghan national in Rochester, who transferred him money in March of that year.
On April 29, 2025, Dilbar was arrested by federal authorities. He was charged under 18 U.S.C. § 1546(a) and appeared in court on May 1. As of August 2025, Dilbar’s case is pending. Although his charge currently carries a guideline sentence of 0–6 months, that could dramatically increase if the ongoing investigation confirms that his fraud facilitated terrorism or concealed affiliation with the Haqqani Network — a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.