This post deals with an immigration case that is currently under litigation. I have omitted the names of the principles and some of the factual information in order to protect the identities of the parties. Please take no reference from this article that I am referring to any particular parties. This post is about a case that is rather typical but it is based on real-life circumstances.
Earlier this year, I received a call from an immigration attorney wanting polygraph tests. This attorney hoped to support his client’s statements regarding why they got married. His clients contended that they married for love and other typical matrimonial reasons. This attorney hoped that the polygraph tests would help prove to immigration authorities that his clients did not get married to evade immigration regulations or laws.
This particular couple met each other over six years ago and continually dated until around 2009 when they got married. Like most couples, they had various arguments and brief separations from each other. The unusual part of their case was they both were immigrants from other countries. The wife was an immigrant from Europe and her husband was an immigrant from Pakistan.
For the rest of this article, I will refer to this couple as husband and wife to protect their identities. The wife, in this case, was naturalized as a US citizen around 2003. The wife had been recently divorced from her US citizen husband when she met her current husband. He had entered the country on a student visa but later dropped out of school and re-applied for a visa to work for a family owned business.
As most people know, immigration rules take a lot of time. The husband was trying to comply with everything but at some point was denied an immigration work visa. He was soon to be deported. His then girlfriend, soon to become his wife, agreed to marry him quickly before his deportation. As you might imagine, immigration thought that this marriage was being consummated to evade deportation regulations. The couple insisted, that the timing of their plans to get married might have been influenced by the deportation order but they were getting married because they love each other. The timing of the marriage could not have been worse from the standpoint of immigration authorities.
The relevant questions on their respective polygraph tests were about: did this couple get married for love or was it to evade immigration law. Both the husband and wife took polygraph tests and passed. Polygraph supported the husband’s and wife’s contentions that they were married for love. This case is currently being adjudicated and when I have an outcome of the case I’ll post it on this blog.