AAO HOLDS THAT ONE WHO SUBMITS FALSE DOCUMENTS REGARDING A FICTITIOUS MARRIAGE, BUT NEVER ACTUALLY ENTERED INTO OR ATTEMPTED OR CONSPIRED TO ENTER INTO A MARRIAGE, IS NOT SUBJECT TO INA § 204(c) EVEN IF HE OR SHE ATTEMPTED TO EVADE THE IMMIGRATION LAW.
On April 9, 2015, in ruling on the appeal of a cook whose approved labor certification/I-140 visa petition was revoked for failure to qualify for the position, the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) noted that a marriage-based application for Adjustment of Status had been filed, even thought the beneficiary subsequently admitted the marriage certificate he had submitted was fictitious and he had never married, or even met, the petitioner. Initially, the AAO had upheld the VSC Director’s I-140 revocation and concluded the beneficiary was subject to INA § 204(c).
However, supplemental evidence overturned the revocation upon the AAO’s reopening (the Approval of the I-140 was reinstated) and the instant appellate opinion held that where an applicant does not actually enter into a marriage, but only falsifies documents that a marriage exists, he or she did not “enter into” or “attempt or conspire” to enter into a marriage and thus § 204(c) does not apply, citing to Matter of Concepcion, 16 I & N Dec. 10 (BIA 1976). The AAO also found that misrepresentations regarding a nonexistent marriage may render the beneficiary inadmissible under INA § 212(a)(6)(C)(i). Matter of Christo’s, Inc., 26 I & N Dec. 537 (AAO 2015).
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