How to Detect Fraud in an Application for Citizenship

U.S. passports are highly regarded around the world.

Acquiring citizenship of developed counties such as the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and Australia has become an activity sought by many individuals, particularly from developing countries and the third world. It is not infrequent that such individuals provide fraudulent information to become eligible for a citizenship of a developed country. There are many different types of paths that lead to citizenship, which means there are many opportunities for making false and fraudulent statements in a citizenship application. Fraud applications amount to a small fraction of all applications and applicants should be treated as legitimate unless fraud has been proven.

Instructions

1. Check the address of the applicant. Call the land line number of his residence provided in the application. If the applicant cannot answer the phone for a period of time, the chances are that he doesn't live there. Government officials working on citizenship applications can ask law enforcement agents to come and knock on the door.

2. Cross-check the papers of the applicant. Check the documents provided by the applicant against government databases. Check the applicant photo and signature is identical on all documents. There are many databases available to the public to find information about a person (for example, Abika, Online Records Retrieval, E-Verify). See the Resources section.

3. Check customs office data to find out when the person came into the country. This option is restricted to government employees with granted access. If the applicant claims to have worked for a certain employer, this information can be verified by contacting the Internal Revenue Service (see Resources). An option to check the legal status of a person is to use the E-Verify database developed by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service to track illegal immigrants. This can be used by employers.

References

• Australian Government: Losing your citizenship
• Greenberg Traurig: Immigration Alert
• Niren & Associates: Canadian Citizenship Fraud allegedly perpetrated by Immigration Consultants
• Center for Immigration Studies: Hello, I Love You, Won't You Tell Me Your Name: Inside the Green Card Marriage Phenomenon
• VOICE OF AMERICAN IMMIGRATION FRAUD VICTIMS: Research

Resources

• Abika: Free Background Check on People
• Online Records Retrieval
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: E-Verify
• Internal Revenue Service