Dew Drop In April 2024.2025 Poems

april 24 Visa Stories

visa fraud stories

Bob Jones was an immigrant visa chief
for the United States of America
serving in Mumbai, India
just after the horror of 9-11 occurred.

--consular officers have the best stories,
and cases that will always be remembered.

On that November day,
an Indian American citizen
came to the consulate to see him.
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She had a request;
would he be willing to consider
her Sibling’s cases?
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Her father had immigrated
to the United States
and become a citizen.
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And she had become
a citizen as well.
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She had four siblings
who were in their 30s
all of whom were living in India
and all of whose visas
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were held up for “administrative processing”
on suspicion of marriage fraud,
or rather fake single status,
which was the biggest category
of visa fraud.
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Her father had petitioned
for them and
as unmarried children of U.S. citizens,
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the wait was about three years,
whereas for married children of U.S. citizens,
the wait would be about seven years.
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In this case,
he suspected
that they were committing
marriage fraud
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by pretending
to be unmarried
and the case
had been held up
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They knew culturally speaking
that rural Gujarati women
and men in their 30s
would all be married
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and that they were faking
being single on paper
to speed up visa processing.
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He understood
and even felt sympathetic
but the law was the law
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and he had to
enforce the visa law
even the insane rules.
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He asked her,

“So, what can we do for you?”
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“ Yes, my father is dying
in the hospital
and it is his dying wish
to reunite the family
in the United States
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could you please
reconsider issuing
the visas to them?”

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He said to her,

“Do you have any proof
that your father
is in the hospital?”
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And she said yes,
and she pulled out
a letter written
by an Indian doctor
in New Jersey
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saying that Mister Patel
was seriously ill
and that it
was his dying wish
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to have his children
reunited in the United States,
and see him before he died.
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and that the consulate
should reconsider
issuing visas
for the children.
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There was something
about that letter
that struck him as fraudulent.
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and so he called the hospital
and he confirmed
with the duty doctor
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that Mr. Patel
had died
about two weeks before.
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He called Miss Patel
and gave her the bad news.
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He started by saying.


“So, Miss Patel
when was the last time
you spoke to your father?”

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“Oh, I spoke to him just now
he is still alive and waiting
for his children to arrive
to see him before he dies.”
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“He is alive right now?”

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Oh, yes, he is still alive
and he's waiting
for the immigrant visas
to be processed.”

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“OK well, there's just one problem.
Do you believe in ghosts?”
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” What?”
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“Well, you see here's the problem.
There's only one way you
could have spoken
to your father today
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and that is if you spoke
to a ghost because
according to the hospital,
he died two weeks ago”.
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And he showed
her the fax from the hospital
confirming Mr. Patel’s demise.
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She started crying.
Then he said.

“Well, you know the problem
is that you and your siblings
just committed visa fraud.
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They are going to be stuck
in India and not allowed to travel
to the United States
for the next 99 years.
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But planes fly both ways
and you can go visit them
every year if you want
but they're not coming
into the United States.
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And you can file for them
And in eight years seek
A visa waiver for the ineligibility
It is sometimes granted.”
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She cried
and he entered them
in the system for visa
misrepresentation.
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This one was
but one of the many
heart-breaking stories
illustrating
how broken the US immigration system was.
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In this particular case,
if the father was still alive,
he might have
reconsidered the case
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and issued the visas
for humanitarian reasons
ignoring the marriage fraud,
which was always difficult to prove,
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but when the father
died the petition died with him.

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He said to himself
well that's just another day
in the life of a visa officer
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doing his part
to enforce
a broken immigration system.

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But, thinking back on it all,
he felt blessed to be working
serving the country he loved
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and helping immigrants immigrant,
deterring fraudsters,
and helping American citizens
who found themselves
in trouble in a foreign land.
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Not bad for a government gig
he always said.