Federal prosecutors say a nationwide network sold sham marriages for $100,000, exposing vulnerabilities in a major pathway to permanent U.S. residency.
The Department of Justice charged 11 people accused of operating a nationwide immigration fraud scheme involving more than 1,000 sham marriages over the past decade.
Federal prosecutors allege the operation connected foreign nationals with U.S. citizens willing to marry them so they could pursue legal permanent residency, paying facilitators $100,000 for the arrangement and immigration assistance.
Americans who participated received about $30,000 while recruiters collected commissioners of about $5,000 per citizen brought in.
The marriages allegedly occurred between 2016 and 2026 across seven states as well as China and Vanuatu with many couples meeting the first time just before obtaining a marriage license, followed by staged wedding ceremonies and photographs.
The DOJ stated that marriage officiants and attorneys were also involved alongside tax preparers and insurance providers to allegedly prepare joint tax returns and other false evidence that resulted in hundreds of fraudulent green card applications being submitted.
A prosecution this large could accelerate and lead investigators to examine older petitions or identify patterns across applications that previously escaped scrutiny. It also complicates matters for legitimate applicants since marriage remains one of the major pathways to permanent residency.