dreamercon

Yue Cheng married a man 38 years older, joined the Navy, became a naturalized US citizen, divorced, applied for a job at the FBI, during a polygraph exam admitted marriage fraud, then lost her citizenship and was sentenced to a year in prison.

http://blogs.csun.edu/news/clips/200...arriage-fraud/

crg

I'm only speculating, but maybe the FBI was concerned that she was a foreign government agent. I don't buy the claim that she joined the Navy out of patriotism, and I'd expect the spouse to claim it was a valid marriage or he could face potential criminal charges as well.

Who knows what this person was up to?

BenGrant

If she joined the Navy, wouldn't she automatically be eligible to be a US citizen (and therefore wouldn't have to marry a USC in the first place) ? Or can only permanent residents or USCs join the navy?

Ray

A former FBI trainee who admitted entering into a sham marriage to gain U.S. citizenship has been sentenced to a year in prison.

U.S. District Judge Henry Coke Morgan also revoked 26-year-old Yue Cheng's U.S. citizenship and canceled her certificate of naturalization.

The Williamsburg resident had pleaded guilty in December to marriage fraud, false claims and unlawful procurement of citizenship or naturalization.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1985819~Ex...age_fraud.html

Rete

She would not have been able to join the Navy unless she were a PR. And yes, she would have been eligible for naturalization immediately upon joining the service. Note that the time lapse between application and oath ceremony could be a long wait even if you are in the military, particularly if it was not during a war period and/or the applicant was not assigned overseas.

Rete

The report is so sketchy and incomplete that one who has some inkling of how immigration works in this country knows that a lot is missing.

It would appear on the surface that she was being investigated as early as 1999

dreamercon

Why would the government want to prosecute this case? Cases like this are almost never prosecuted. It is also worrying that said fraud in this case is not clear, no money was exchanged, the couple actually lived together at some point and they had sexual relations - again, I thought cases like that would not have been prosecuted.

All this seems to imply that a naturalized citizen should be particularly careful when applying for government positions requiring a security clearance.

A similar case was that of Nadim Prouty:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2007/Nov...7_nsd_910.html

crg

"Why would the government want to prosecute this case?"

If someone was having a background investigation done, it means they already had a conditional offer of employment. If the conditional offer is out there, the employer would have to disqualify the applicant in some way. That disqualification is subject to review and appeal on the basis of the ADA, EEO and other laws that protect people from discrimination. If the agency didn't get a conviction, the applicant may have been in a better position to sue for the job with the FBI. Having a conviction and being de-natz'd somewhat insulates the agency from the appeals and lawsuits about her being denied employment.

Fraud doesn't always have to be for monetary gain. It could have been done as a favor or in exchange for the intimate relationship itself.

A green card holder or naturalized USC who obtained either of those benefits by fraud could find themselves stripped of their status and removed from the US for things like this.

For example, if someone were to enter on the VWP with the intention of getting married and seeking adjustment, bragged about it online, and then advised the wrong person to break the law in the same way, that could cause problems for them if the government took a special interest in the matter. Of course this scenario is purely hypothetical of course.

dreamercon

The line of what is fraud or not has never been clear. I would have thought that intimate relations, living together, no monetary benefits is sufficient to insulate one from fraud. Or at least for being prosecuted for fraud. In this website alone, hundreds of people are advised to get married to their partners in order to facilitate their immigration. Are they committing fraud? I suppose the key point in this particular case is that the defendant admitted fraud.

Bluegrass Lass

Not necessarily. Having sex with her husband could have been a condition of him applying for a green card fo her - that constitutes fraud, not to mention abuse and blackmail. If you say the only reason you are in a relationship with a USC is for the immigration benefit, that is fraud as far I understand it.

Everytime I've suggested, or read other suggesting it, it is only to members who are already in a relationship with a USC. We don't tell people to go find themselves a USC to marry in order to get a green card. We do basically say that marrying a USC is one of the easier ways to immigrate to the US, but that is just stating a fact.

meauxna

Of course. You never find any of that on the internet; it would be wrong!