FRAUD SUMMARY - ROME

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ROME 000438

SIPDIS


DEPT FOR CA/FPP
INL/HSTC FOR GORELICK
CA/VO FOR KAGARISE AND LOPES DA ROSA
DEPT ALSO PASS TO KCC
POSTS FOR FRAUD PREVENTION MANAGERS


E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KFRD KCRM CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC IT EUN
SUBJECT: FRAUD SUMMARY - ROME

REF: STATE 205073


1. COUNTRY CONDITIONS: Italy has relatively few
instances of fraud in connection with consular
services. Italians, who enjoy a developed economy
and access to the visa waiver program, find little
reason to commit fraud to obtain visas or passports.
The Italian government has a relatively secure
system for ensuring document integrity for official
civil documents such as birth certificates,
passports, and national ID's, and keeps good records
of the documents issued. Fraudulent use of genuine,
photo-substituted and/ or otherwise altered
passports appears more often in the cases of third
country nationals, especially Albanians, who seek to
board flights to western European countries or to
the U.S. A growing number of illegal aliens are
attempting to transit or stage in Italy and Europe
in general, en route to their final destination in
the United States. Those apprehended usually possess
counterfeit "old style" (paper and ink) national
identity cards made to match their passport data and
to boost their credibility. While the interception
of counterfeit Italian passports presented by
nationals of Albania is not a new trend, the
continued occurrence of these interceptions at ports
of entry Italy-wide bears mentioning. Mala fide
Albanians can utilize similarities in physical
appearance and Italian language proficiency, due to
the geographic proximity of the countries and often
long-time residence in Italy, to credibly
impersonate Italians.


2. NIV FRAUD: Since most Italians can travel to
the U.S.A. on the Visa Waiver Program, fraud issues
are rare and generally come from third-country
applicants. Most NIV fraud is easily detected at the
time of the interview and usually involves
unsophisticated attempts to convince officers the
applicant has spent more time in Italy or has more
assets than is really the case. Post also conducts
field investigations for all those cases that
warrant additional scrutiny.

NIV fraud at airports often involves Albanian,
Eastern European and Chinese impostors with
chemically washed pre-Lincoln NIVs. These aliens
have also been found in possession of counterfeit
credit cards and airline tickets as supporting
evidence.

The adjusted NIV refusal rate of 14.7% for FY05 is
heavily skewed by TCN refusals; the refusal rate for
Italian nationals is only 3%, while the refusal rate
for all other nationalities is 11.6%. TCN NIV
applications account for 35% of total NIV requests
in FY05. Visa Sections in Milan, Florence, Rome and
Naples process nonimmigrant visas for more than 150
nationalities. Requests for B1/B2s account for the
largest percentage of our workload.

F, M, J Visas - Although post sees a number of
candidates who do not meet the qualifications for
study or exchange visas, the Student and Exchange
Visitor System (SEVIS) has made it very difficult
for mala fide to successfully present fraudulent
documentation. In FY 2005 Rome refused 75 F-1, 9 M-
1, and 33 J-1 visa applicants.

R-1 Visas - In FY05, Rome refused 33 suspect
religious worker cases, most in consultation with
CA/VO. These applicants did not meet the spirit or
intent of the specific R-1 visa category. Post
conducts more in-depth investigations on religious
institutions whose legitimacy may be open to
questions.


3. IV/DV FRAUD: Naples is the only immigrant visa
issuing post for Italy and Malta. It is one of a
handful of posts designated to process Iranian IV
cases. A large percentage of Naples' IV cases are
for the U.S. military community based in Italy. IV
fraud on the part of Italian and other visa waiver
country applicants has not been a problem
historically. While no one in the section speaks or
reads FARSI fluently, the visa section staff has
developed a familiarity with Iranian documents and
is reasonably confident that there is little fraud
among Iranian IV applicants. There is fraud,
however, among third-country national DV applicants,
principally from the Balkans and Africa. Submission
of unfamiliar and frequently suspect supporting
documentation routinely requires follow-up with U.S.
missions in the applicants' home countries. Fraud
related to educational certificates is relatively
common. Naples has seen an increasing number of
suspect fiance visa cases involving applicants from
Ethiopia.


4. ACS AND PASSPORT FRAUD: Italy attracts thousands
of tourists annually who are targets of criminals
eager to get their hands on cash and credit cards.
In the process, they also steal U.S. passports and
other travel documents. Many of the passports are
quickly discarded and are subsequently returned to
post through law enforcement agencies. In some
cases stolen documents do end up in the hands of
professional smugglers, who alter them in an attempt
to transport mala fide passengers to the United
States and other desirable ports of entry. Law
enforcement officials contend there has been a small
increase in photo-substituted passports in the
possession of US-bound travelers. The company
employed by U.S.-flag carriers to inspect out-bound
travelers, International Consultants on Targeted
Security (ICTS),detected two photo-subbed passports
in Rome and three in Milan in FY-05. ICTS also
reported 4 imposters and 6 counterfeit passports
during the period.


5. ADOPTION FRAUD: The U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services (USCIS) in Rome, Italy is the
sole office responsible for adjudicating adoption
cases. USCIS in Rome does not currently maintain
centralized statistics relating to adoption fraud,
but has not found incidents of fraud in the recent
past.


6. ASYLUM AND OTHER DHS BENEFIT FRAUD: The USCIS
office in Rome is also solely responsible for
adjudicating refuge asylum cases and other
immigration cases in the region. They are not aware
of any asylum cases involving fraud.


7. COOPERATION WITH HOST GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES:
Post has developed effective relationships with host
government law enforcement authorities. Italian
police respond quickly and efficiently to our
inquiries.


8. AREAS OF PARTICULAR CONCERN: Due to the large
number of religious and quasi-religious institutions
in Rome, it is relatively easy for mala fide
travelers to assemble the ingredients for a
fraudulent R-1 application. We would value a SEVIS-
like system for vetting and tracking legitimate
religious institutions whose applicants will be
requesting religious worker visas.


9. STAFFING AND TRAINING: The Consular Section in
Rome has only one full time LES employee devoted to
fraud issues, Michelangelo Arezzo. He attended a
two-week fraud prevention course with the government
of Italy in 2003 and the EUR LES Fraud Prevention
Course at FSI in December 2004. The FPM, Hugo
Rodriguez, is also the Visa Chief. He arrived at
post in August 2005 and is assigned for a three-year
tour.

SPOGLI