Despite so many court cases and real stories concerning scam systems, its consequences and problems people have, many immigrants still find those scammers who help them to receive different types of visa faster, even though it is much more expensive and risky. Few months ago, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) were cooperating with a federal jury to find Jason Shiao, who organized and operated about one hundred marriage fraud schemes. Turned out, those people who wanted to receive Green Card through marriage – most of them from China – paid huge sums of money to legalize marriage with the U.S. citizens. In result of this investigation, Jason Shiao was sentenced for two years imprisonment.
Shiao operated the Pasadena-based Jason (USA) International Law Corporation, and even being charged in this case 2 years ago, didn’t scare to try visas and marriage fraud again.
To start a process, he falsely claimed to be an attorney, found U.S. citizens to make a deal (giving them money for participation in his fraud scheme) and those immigrants who wanted to take benefit of living in the United States. To make everything look real, people were given instructions on how to pose for wedding photographs, and how to cheat the USCIS officials. Court documents have shown, that Chinese nationals had to pay around $50,000 to participate in this scheme, expecting to receive Green Card, that would give them rights to legally move to the U.S., work and study.
Jason Shiao cooperated with two people, one of them, Lynn Leung, his daughter, 45 years old, of Pasadena, who was sentenced to six months in prison. The third person was Shannon Mendoza, 50 years old, of Pacoima. The last was responsible for finding U.S. citizens to participate in sham scheme for a payment from $10,000 to $15,000. Lynn Leung was arranging the sham marriages and filing immigration applications.
According to the court documents, scammers prepared documentation that was filed with USCIS to support the validity of the sham marriages, together with the fake wedding ceremonies pictures and bogus tax returns, life insurance policies, apartment rent and joint bank account information.
“As an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, USCIS has zero tolerance for marriage fraud,” said Los Angeles District Director, Susan M. Curda. “Justice has been served with this conviction, and we remain vigilant in safeguarding our nation and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system.”
