Just FYI, the federal sentencing guideline range for a person who participates in a sham marriage with no criminal record is 4-10 months. Probation's not an option, but the sentence can be served on home confinement. Sentence goes up if there's a prior criminal record.

In any event, not a good idea. If federal crime is your game, try bank fraud.

LW:

Don't. It's not worth the risk. If you really have a sound business plan, you shouldn't have any problems getting a business loan.

That being said, I want to chime in on marrying an alien; I'm married to a Canadian in 2003, and, like lilisolde's, our visa application process was surprisingly easy; we too were hardly asked any questions. We arrived concerned, we even quizzed each other on the way there about things we thought they might ask that we wouldn't know; we even reviewed our first meeting and dates to make sure our recollections of detail were the same. When we got there and went into the interview room, the woman asked two questions: how long we'd known each other and where we got married. She asked these in a friendly, conversational tone while she was at the computer. Then she processed our paperwork in utter silence, while we sat steeling ourself for more questions. When she handed my husband his temporary visa with a smile, we were almost shocked. We even asked if she wanted to ask more questions.

She smiled again and said "No, I can tell who isn't here for the right reasons".

Ironically enough, we were given the third degree crossing the Canadian/American border in Maine last year coming home from Christmas. Go figure.

Just my experience.

To anyone that would attempt this:

1) Sponsoring an alien spouse for U.S. Permanent Residence (a green card) entails signing a legally binding affidavit of support enforceable for 10 years (Form I-864, available on the CIS website with instructions), stating that you meet minimum income requirements to sponsor an alien spouse and that if the alien spouse utilizes a means-tested public benefit, the gov’t can come after you for his/her bill! Divorce does not dissolve this. Only death or 10 years.

2) You don’t have to reveal intimate details of your sex life to inspectors, but you do have to open up your books. Furthermore, they thoroughly investigate you and the alien BEFORE your interview. If strange patterns emerge in the paperwork you are BUSTED and they will make you miserable.

3) They presume that approx. 70% of the marriage-based cases are fraudulent, and they LIKE ferreting out that statistic. Depending on where you live, you can come across some real head cases they hire to interview people. On purpose.

4) Sure, you can find some internet postings to reassure you that everything can go smoothly – and with a lot of preparation it just might – but don’t count on it. Before taking internet immigration advice, ask yourself if you would take sex advice from these same people! If you wouldn’t, stop reading.

5) After 9/11 the nice sleepy old INS was put under the aegis of the Department of Homeland Security and re-dubbed the CIS – Citizenship and Immigration Services. Sort of like dressing up a Ford as a Ferrari. Nevertheless, they like their new tools. A lot. They now get to play all day in databases linked to all kinds of things they never used to be able to get into. What fun for them! Bad news for fraud-mongers…

6) If your alien is rich, why doesn’t he get himself a green card through investment or employment? Why should he tangle with you? You don't really seem to understand the niche you would be marketing your services to. He would not be Richard Gere to your Julia Roberts. In reality, you are essentially courting a desperate/cheap clientele, dearie.

7) For marriage-based cases the CIS really really likes to see documentary evidence of the co-mingling of assets. Joint bank accounts. Everybody’s name on everything – leases, business agreements, credit card statements, life insurance policies, etc. They want to see that a couple's loving relationship is expressed in fiscal trust. In other words, your life really would no longer be your own. Well, half, anyway...

8) Most importantly, IMMIGRATION FRAUD IS A FEDERAL OFFENSE. It's not just to be mean, or to rain on everyone's parade. There are good reasons for that. Not just to protect immigrants, but to protect U.S. Citizens from predators. Yes, they’re out there. Once you enter into a sham marriage you are at their mercy. I’ve worked in immigration for 9 years. I’ve seen things that would break your heart and make your blood run cold. Things very very smart people get themselves mixed up in.

Wow. The whole thing is such an amazingly awful idea. Stop being a lazy wench looking for a sugar daddy and get a real business plan together. If it’s viable, you’ll find the money on your own. For yourself. By yourself. It’ll be yours, free and clear.

That would be a much better scenario, wouldn’t it?

The INS will typically tend to look less hard at marriages where the non-US party comes from a place where an immigrant Visa would be relatively straightforward to obtain. They are not idiots, they see say a Canadian as relatively unlikely to resort to such an arrangement. Ditto a highly educated English speaker who could get a H-1.

But (a) the atmosphere has changed; and (b) if they get any idea that it's a sham and they will be all over you.

I would not assume that because some people had an easy ride, you will. You have already, by your e-mail made it clear you cannot pull this off.

Don't kid yourself, what you are proposing is the equivalent of agreeing to have an unmentionable social disease, with no certain remedy. It is not likely to be a trip to a registry office, a quiet wedding, a few hours with a nice INS agent, who will say, ooh that is so nice, did you have flowers in your hair.

Nope, it will be someone sharing an appartment with you for 2-5 years, pretending to be your husband; pretending to be a cuckold every time you sleep with someone else; who has a legal claim to 1/2 your property; who cannot legally work for 3-9 months while waiting for the card (which these days is white) to arrive; repeated visits to INS offices (some of which are much worse than others and which are assigned based on your ZIP code -- so that immigration lawyers will for example tell people not to live in DC or northern VA to avoid the Alexandria field office, but rather live in Maryland so they can go to Baltimore.) You know what happens at an INS office -- at best the queue starts at 5-7am, 2 hours before they open (with a "roach coach" for coffee at 8am) -- if you are there early enough, you get in before they close the doors at say 4:30pm, if not it's tommorow -- get up earlier.

You are proposing to bind yourself to someone who is prepared to be dishonest to the world about being married to you; you will need the trappings of marriage, a lease or home in both names; joint bank account; common home. Will this work? You will have to tell everyone this is your husband -- they will see you screwing around and him tolerating it; how well will he live with the perceived humiliation?

You know, people do get away with doing dumb shit all the time -- the average criminal committs many more crimes than they get convicted for. But realize, once you have much to lose (which is most middle class people), the consequences of being caught once outweighs any gains. Chances are you are a middle class, fairly decently educated person, with, despite what you think a decent, lifestyle, OK job prospects, decent credit. Rest assured, get caught, and you will probably lose that status for at least a while if not for good (many employers now use background checks for senior jobs, lots of venture capitalists check out senior execs and this would be a big red flag.) Even if you avoid the criminal consequences, worry about the other issues, the social and financial risks that come with you spouse and his ability to use your name. Finally, you can reasonably expect to spend 1,000 hours a year for 3-5 years keeping the balls in the air on this scheme. To me that is a six-seven figure number of dollars.

It's a brain-fart, dumb, seriously stupid.