Beywatch: YOUNG TUNISIAN MEN ASK: "IS THE MARRIAGE VISA

UNCLAS TUNIS 000226 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR NEA/MAG; HR/EL; CA/VO DAMASCUS FOR RCO MARY ELLEN HICKEY E.O. 12958: NA TAGS: KFRD SOCI CVIS TS SUBJECT: Beywatch: YOUNG TUNISIAN MEN ASK: "IS THE MARRIAGE VISA STILL AVAILABLE?" ¶1. INTRODUCTION: This report is one of a series drafted by Post's entry level officers which have the "Beywatch" caption. We believe the perspectives offered in the following vignette will give the reader a sense of everyday life in Tunisia. END INTRODUCTION. ¶2. SUMMARY: This cable is a look at some of the statistics related to spousal immigration from Tunisia to the United States. The picture these numbers form leads to several questions that may be informative when taking a broader look at immigration fraud and trends: What does it mean that 69 percent of women petitioning for their new husbands at post met them over the internet? Or that out of the one-third of all cases with a ten-year age gap between beneficiary and petitioner, the older party is almost always the female Amcit? Or that 40 percent of male petitioners at post are previous beneficiaries of spousal immigration? Is our system being abused? END SUMMARY. ¶3. During a recent speaking engagement at a Tunisian university, Conoff was taken aback by a young Tunisian man who eagerly wanted to know, during what was supposed to be a discussion about the student visa process, whether the "marriage visa" was still a viable option for immigration to the United States. While consular staff often note stereotypical patterns in marriage cases seen at Embassy Tunis-- older American women and younger Tunisian men, arranged marriages, etc. -- Conoff decided to take a closer look at the numbers. Although questionable relationships are routine in immigration work, the following provides a glimpse of Embassy Tunis' experiences. -------------- OLDER AMCITS AND THEIR HOT NEW HUSBANDS -------------- ¶4. This is one of the most repeated stories played out in front of the interviewing windows at Embassy Tunis: the older American woman looking for love on the internet, and finding it with a young Tunisian male who happened to seek the same thing using Yahoo or Skype. Although sometimes the couple doesn't share a common language (as was the case with the American woman who spoke no French but happened to wander into and fall in love on a French language chat room,) relationships often blossom quickly, resulting in a Tunisian marriage just months after online courtship, and usually only a few days after the petitioner's arrival in country. ¶5. In fact, of all CR-1 cases (Conditional Relative cases involving couples that have been married for less than two years,) interviewed in 2006, 69 percent of female petitioners met their husbands on the internet. Of all the immigration petitions filed at post during the same period, 38 percent were internet couplings, and every one of these petitions was filed by a woman born and raised in the United States. While the fact that 31 percent of couples filing petitions at post in 2006 had a 10 year or more age gap is not that astounding, the fact that over 98 percent of those age-gap couples were between older American women and their Tunisian husbands is a little bit surprising. (COMMENT: Post also receives petitions from Amcits marrying young Algerian men too, as many of the women are reluctant to travel to Algeria and so agree to meet and marry in Tunisia. END COMMENT.) ¶6. A large percentage of these Amcit women have never traveled outside of the United States before their trip to marry their husbands, and they usually don't stay very long after the wedding. They almost always arrive without family or friends, but are thrown large parties by their new husbands' families, who are quite happy to have the event photographed and videotaped for posterity-- and the visa interview. The young male beneficiaries are undeterred by the frequent realities of several ex-husbands, stepchildren their own age, or uncertainties about what their new wives do for a living. -------------- LADIES IN WAITING -------------- ¶7. When it comes to male petitioners, there is generally less doubt as to the validity of their marriages. Although marriages between cousins who barely know each other or between two people brought together by family interests are common in Tunisia, these couples are typically able to easily prove that they married for reasons other than immigration. What is perhaps most interesting about these couples is that about 40 percent of males petitioning for wives at Embassy Tunis got their citizenship by traveling illegally to the United States and then marrying an American. Very often, the ink is barely dry on their naturalization certificates when their American wives are served with divorce papers and they introduce Conoffs at Embassy Tunis to their new North African spouses. This statistic holds true for CR-1 interviewees as well; over 38 percent of female CR-1 applicants tell us that their husbands got their American citizenship from prior marriages to Americans. Of course, there are many possible explanations for this phenomenon. Perhaps these men did not just use their American wives for citizenship purposes. Perhaps they are driven to seek wives from their own countries after they became disillusioned with marriages so far removed from the culture in which they grew up. Perhaps not. In any case, these second marriages raise few eyebrows and usually appear legitimate. -------------- BIG BROTHER WATCHING OVER YOU -------------- ¶8. Of the 69 percent of male CR-1 applicants who met their wives over the internet, 31 percent had brothers who had traveled illegally to the United States some years before and had a hand in introducing the couple via chat room. (It is also common for couples to conduct relationships over the phone, with the now-legal brother in the U.S. setting up the communication.) In a recent case, the female petitioner was an employee of the immigrant brother. In another, the petitioner admitted that her brother-in-law had filled out all the documentation for the I-130 petition, even putting his own phone number on the application where hers should have been. -------------- AFTERMATH/GIMME SHELTER -------------- ¶9. Embassy Tunis' Consular Section has received a surprising number of inquiries from American women wanting the Section's help determining if their husbands are married in Tunisia as well as in tQ U.S., or asking what can be done when they realize they may have been used by their husbands to gain residency or citizenship. (Post has been working with USCIS officials recently on a case involving a Tunisian who recently married an Amcit, and then returned to Tunisia a year later to marry a Tunisian. The bigamist is currently attempting to naturalize, but a timely call from the pregnant Amcit who discovered her husband's two-timing may allow Conoffs and DHS officials to prevent his surreptitious maneuvering.) However, hope springs eternal: One American woman who had discovered her first husband had only married her for a Green Card, promptly divorced him and reappeared at the ACS window at Embassy Tunis with a new Tunisian husband, this time certain she'd found her soul mate. -------------- "CONSULAR" NOT "COUNSELOR" -------------- ¶10. Perhaps one of the more difficult realities for Conoffs to face is that when the Amcit in the relationship is convinced that she is marrying for love, there is little one can do to combat the high numbers of young Tunisian, Libyan and Algerian males on the prowl via internet. That the stats show that these Romeos will only divorce them for their high school sweethearts once they have a blue passport in hand is immaterial on a case-by-case basis. And while resources like LexisNexis and the Consular Consolidated Database are wonderful in unearthing large-scale fraud rings, if money is changing hands between the petitioner and the beneficiary's brother-- as is sometimes probable-- it is still impossible for Conoffs to tell gullible Amcits that their sweethearts are likely to be heartbreakers. -------------- WHAT ARE WE DOING ABOUT IT? -------------- ¶11. In the last two years Embassy Tunis returned about twenty spousal or fianc petitions to DHS with a recommendation for revocation due to suspected fraud. (COMMENT: Because of the long processing time for these reviews, there are no statistics regarding how often United States Citizenship and Immigration Services upheld Post's recommendation. Due to stringent standards on what is legally defined as proof of a sham marriage, often the glaring inconsistencies exposed in interviews are not enough to convince DHS officers to support conclusions drawn in the field. END COMMENT.) Tunis Conoffs pride themselves on careful interviewing and in-depth revocation memos, and set a high standard for what qualifies as proof of a relationship. That being said, Conoffs are eager to smooth the process for legitimate couples (no matter the age gap or cultural differences) and to prevent others from corrupting the system. Embassy Tunis' Consular Section also enjoys excellent relations with the ICE liaison officer and counterparts back in CA/VO, who help uphold a zero-tolerance policy concerning immigration fraud. GODEC