A Chinese woman who lied about her position, purpose of visit and marital status when applying for a visa to the U.S. was later married to a citizen in the U.S. She was found to have falsified her previous visa, had her green card denied and was nearly deported. (CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)
A Chinese woman who came to the U.S. on a business visa and later married a U.S. citizen was found to have provided false information when she applied for a B1/B2 non-immigrant visa and was nearly deported when immigration officials discovered that she had provided false information when she applied for a B1/B2 visa.
New York attorney David Chu said that the U.S. immigration system is based on honesty and integrity, and if the USCIS finds that an applicant has submitted false information, it can deny the green card application and deny the citizenship application.
The U.S. immigration system is based on honesty and integrity, and if the INS finds that an applicant has submitted false information, it can deny the green card application and deny the citizenship application, according to New York attorney David Chu.
New York litigation lawyer Zhu Wei introduced the Chinese woman who came to the U.S. 10 years ago on a B1/B2 business visa, when she applied for a visa through an intermediary to the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou, filling out the application form that she was the financial manager of a company and needed to go to her counterpart trading company in the U.S. to verify the accounts; and that she had a husband and children who lived and worked in Guangdong, showing that she had close ties in China, and she obtained a visa to the U.S. as she had hoped.
Seven or eight years later she married a citizen in the U.S., her husband applied for a green card for her, and after a year of waiting she went to the INS for questioning.
The immigration officer asked her: Have you ever, under any circumstances, defrauded the U.S. government in order to receive benefits as an immigrant or non-immigrant? Have you ever submitted false statements or evidence?
She answered: No. The immigration officer continued the questioning and when the step-by-step questions were completed, the immigration officer said to her: Do you swear that the questions you just answered were completely truthful? She replied, “Yes.
The immigration officer then asked: In what month and year did you come to the United States on a business visa at the Consulate General in Guangzhou? She said, “Yes.
The immigration officer then asked: Did you work in China as a financial manager for a company in Guangdong? She blushed immediately after hearing that, and her answer was a bit stammering; then the immigration officer asked her again: Which company invited you to come to the U.S. for business, do you remember? She was speechless for a moment.
The immigration officer asked her again: When you were on the visa, you said on your DS-160 visa form that your husband’s name was so-and-so, right? She actually said: I don’t remember anymore.
The immigration officer immediately pulled out the file in the computer, printed out the file and showed it to her, saying: When you were getting your visa, you said you had a husband in China, and today you are married to this American citizen, are you committing bigamy? She immediately blushed and said: I did not.
The immigration officer said again: Why did you say you had a husband when you got your visa? You have deceived the U.S. government. Either you have committed bigamy or you have deceived the U.S. government, and your marriage to a U.S. citizen husband is not recognized by the INS.
The interview ended like that, after a week, she received a letter, the INS informed her: you have a record of deceiving the U.S. government in the past, involving two aspects, first, the work unit you filled out inside your visa form, we do not believe is true, you came to the United States for business, but you do not know which unit invited you, you moreover did not go to the company that invited you for business; second, you said you had a husband, but you did not divorce this husband, and you cannot get his death certificate; so your marriage with a U.S. citizen is not recognized by USCIS, and your Form I-130, Form I-485 is denied. You have 30 days to appeal, or reopen the case.
Terrified, she had to seek help from an attorney.
Zhu Wei said, after understanding that her visa at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou was obtained by forgery, and the “husband” on her visa form did not exist, but was made up by the travel agency, so she could not get the “husband’s” death certificate, nor could she get the divorce The divorce decree.
Zhu Wei said, according to immigration law, visa fraud can not obtain a green card, in this case, she needs to apply for an I-601 waiver, to prove that if she goes back to China, her citizen husband will encounter extraordinary difficulties, so that she may stay in the United States, but this standard is very high.
After a grueling deposition and more than a year of waiting, USCIS finally granted her I-601 waiver.
Zhu Wei said that the U.S. immigration system is based on honesty, and if the USCIS finds that an applicant submits false information, it can reject the green card application and deny the citizenship application; some people, even if they get a green card, are found to have committed fraud before when they naturalize, and their green card will be revoked because of their bad past record.
Zhu Wei also suggested that a person’s immigration road in the United States is not over until after naturalization, and all immigration information for visa and green card applications should be kept before then, not just lost, and if not, the file should be retrieved in time; when applying for green card and citizenship, if the information is inconsistent, the USCIS will also reject the green card and citizenship applications.
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