Silicon Valley Immigration Lawyer Blog

As an immigration lawyer, I advise couples applying for marriage-based green cards. This includes advising them as to what type of documentation they need to submit to show that they have the sorts of things that married people usually have (i.e. joint accounts, auto insurance, etc.) Now I need to see what their Facebook profile looks like too.

The Office of Fraud Detection and National Security, of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), is advising its investigators to go out and try to "friend" persons suspected of visa or other immigration fraud. The Electronic Frontier Foundation obtained an internal USCIS memorandum through a Freedom of Information Act request, that explains how investigators could use social media to find out more.

The memo explains:

Narcissistic tendencies in many people fuels a need to have a large group of "friends" link to their pages and many of these people accept cyber-friends that they don't even know. This provides an excellent vantage point for FDNS to observe the daily life of beneficiaries and petitioners who are suspected of fraudulent activities. Generally, people on these sites speak honestly in their network because all of their friends and family are interacting with them via lM's (Instant Messages), Blogs (Weblog journals), etc. This social networking gives FDNS an opportunity to reveal fraud by browsing these sites to see if petitioners and beneficiaries are in a valid relationship or are attempting to deceive CIS about their relationship. Once a user posts online, they create a public record and timeline of their activities. In essence, using MySpace and other like sites is akin to doing an unannounced cyber "site-visit" on petitioners and beneficiaries.

Continue reading "Immigration and Facebook" »

This week the U.S. Congress headed towards a new immigration law that would allow spouses of U.S. citizens to continue, or even begin the green card process, even if their U.S. citizen spouse has passed away. To date, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has taken the harsh approach that if the U.S. citizen petitioner died, the pending green card application died as well. This harsh approach resulted in tragic consequences of widows facing deportation after the death of their spouse. The bill Congress passed this week would allow surviving spouses to apply for a green card for themselves and their children, regardless of when their spouse died or how long they were married. President Obama is expected to sign it into law.

Immigration law provides for the foreign national spouse of a U.S. citizen to apply for a green card based on being married to a U.S. citizen. When the marriage is less than two years old, the foreign national receives a "conditional" green card. Shortly before the two-year anniversary of obtaining the "conditional" green card, the couple files a joint petition to remove the "condition". If the couple is no longer married or cannot submit a petition jointly, the foreign national spouse may still be able to submit the petition under various exceptions. This "conditional" green card process is supposed to help prevent and discover sham marriages, or marriages entered into primarily to obtain a green card. Entering into a sham marriage for a green card is a federal crime that can result in a prison term and fines.

Continue reading "Green Card Bill Passes for Widows of U.S. Citizens" »