Often, we at CIS discover out about yet one more marriage-related immigration fraud case when the U.S. citizen who had been conned into the wedding discovers that the alien partner has betrayed the citizen — the alien’s goal was a inexperienced card all alongside, not a cheerful marital union. We hear from the citizen in such circumstances.

This time is totally different; an Uzbek couple continues to be married to one another, however the U.S. legal professional for the central district of Florida, is sad with each of them for a protracted sequence of fraudulent acts, all designed to safe the couple’s standing within the U.S. and to get advantages for themselves and their presumably U.S.-born kids.

The companions within the case are Abduvosit Razikov, 44, a male apparently born in what’s now Uzbekistan, and his spouse Dirabo Ovidova, 35, additionally a citizen of that Stan; they might be affluent. The indictment identifies her because the president of two trucking firms.

He apparently got here to the U.S. first and have become, in line with the district legal professional’s press launch, first a U.S. inexperienced card holder, after which a citizen, “via a fraudulent marriage to a U.S. citizen”.

Quickly thereafter he helped an unindicted co-conspirator, a male U.S. citizen, to safe a Ok (fiance’s) visa for Ovidova in order that she, too, may come to America and enter a fraudulent marriage with the citizen. They married and she or he subsequently bought a inexperienced card, divorced the citizen, and married Razikov. She then had a baby or two with Razikov — the indictment is difficult to comply with at this level.

The couple then spent years mendacity on a batch of presidency paperwork about prior marriages and who was the male mother or father of the kid or kids; these paperwork included functions for the inexperienced card, for naturalization for him, for tried naturalization for her, for earnings tax returns, and on passport functions for (a minimum of) him and a number of of the kids.

Who Seen the Fraud? My sense is that, as time glided by and because the couple accrued varied advantages from varied companies for themselves and their kids, their vulnerability elevated every time that they utilized for one thing, in that there was at all times a brand new set of eyes on the applying. For 16 years they’d an ideal batting common; no one seen something. After which someone did, part of the story not talked about in both the press launch or the indictment.

So what occurred? DHS will not be recognized for its potential to trace down marriage fraud circumstances, as I’ve realized over time, as it’s ineffective typically of marriage fraud that we hear about, however there’s a clue within the press launch. It notes “worthwhile help from the U.S. Division of State’s Diplomatic Safety Service”, amongst that of different companies, which is most probably to have occurred when a passport was sought. I feel I recall one other case wherein that very same company was cited in the same method.

Getting a passport is a closing (and completely optionally available) step on this messy and prolonged course of; the couple may not be in bother had they been content material to remain within the U.S., however their ages recommend that dwelling mother and father (and perhaps a grandparent or two) stay in Uzbekistan. Submitting for a number of passports may very well be seen as act of hubris.

Let’s Shift Gears. The article above was written from the viewpoint of 1 who believes within the enforcement of the immigration regulation. My late father, Sterling North, a novelist, would have taken a distinct method.

He had no specific curiosity in both immigration or regulation enforcement. He would have seen love conquering all, or virtually all, for 16 years in an odd land; he might need seen the choice to use for passports for the kids as a deadly over-reach, occurring due to fondness for the children.

The novel would finish as husband, spouse, and kids land in Tashkent or Samarkand, all depressed by their departure from the U.S. and challenged as they face a brand new life (and for the children a largely new language) within the former Soviet Republic.

To date we’ve, in actuality, the indictment, with the trials or trial, and the decide’s resolution on the punishment (if any) ready sooner or later, in all probability to not be resolved for years.