Officials at the New York City immigration center have revealed the questions which they ask to catch out couples they don’t believe are legitimately married.
With a huge increase in marriage rates for green cards, including among Irish immigrants, the information is a revealing insight into what people will face into at the interview.
According to the New York Daily News, the questions that immigration agents most frequently ask are:
- What restaurant do you and your husband usually order take out from?
- Where do you keep the menus?
- How did you celebrate New Year’s Eve last year?
- How much is your rent? Who writes the check?
- What’s the closest subway stop to your marital residence?
If the answers match, they are likely be approved.
Agents say those attempting a bogus marriage sometimes make incredible mistakes.
“They don’t know the names of the step kids,” said one officer.
Another man did not know his “wife” to be slept with an oxygen tank because of breathing difficulties at night.
“Life is stranger than fiction,” officer Barbara Felska told the New York Daily News.
Sometimes real mistakes occur and officers find that the couple are not lying, just unable to remember.
“We bring them together ... and say, ‘Your wife told me that last New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2011, right before midnight you were at home watching the Times Square celebration,’” Felska said.
“‘However, sir, you told me that you were at a party, with your friends from college.’
“And then the wife is like, ‘Honey, you’re talking about two years ago!’”
Sometimes the really suspicious marriages turn out to be real while those that seem genuine are fake, officials said.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Seanmor | May 22, 2012, 08:09 PM EDT
As training NCO for my marine platoon in Subic Bay Naval Base, I was required to give a few classes on English grammar, especially how to use it correctly in writing reports. The following are some of the frequent errors made by most of my fellow marines, including several in the higher emlisted ranks: Were is it at? I should have went. In back of. I never seen him. He drug it along the floor. At that time I had never attended a regular high school but had obtained a high school equivalency diploma. My English is by no means flawless. But the English spoken by today's young arrivals from Ireland is far better than that of those who came here from accross the Rio Grante.
Bythebay | May 22, 2012, 10:21 AM EDT
abhainn, your idiocy knows no bounds, you must be from the Ireland of 60 years ago. Irish men and women today are by no means uneducated, many have third level education which has been free for years and/or advanced qualification. Stop demeaning the men and women of 21st century Ireland with your lies.
abhainn | May 22, 2012, 09:27 AM EDT
Seanmor, your idiocy that "all [Irish immigrants] speak perfect English" gave me a bitter laugh. It is like the other myths that the Irish are all great talkers, great singers, excellent raconteurs, witty, and drunks, although the fact that many of us drink too much enables us to imagine we possess these glittering qualities. The truth is that the speech of many Irish people is diseased with illiteracies, while thoughts and sentences are assembled, modular fashion, from clichés and endlessly repeated catchphrases that obviate the need for real thought. Many of my countrymen and women are uneducated bores; fortunately for them, many American employers don't notice because they are the same.
Murph46 | May 21, 2012, 05:22 PM EDT
clevelander-Indeed,possibly the question of the year,decade,millenium!
Seanmor | May 21, 2012, 05:00 PM EDT
Very few undocumented Irish natives illegally entered this country. The vast majority of then came here on a visitor's visa and remained here when it expired. All speak perfect English and almost none is a burded to U.S.taxpayers. These positive aspects should facitate their attempts to obtain green cards. These Irish immigrants are willing and able to make valuable contributions to the community, state and nation. They should be given preference over non-English speaking foreigners who entered illegally and are often dependent on government handouts.
Bythebay | May 21, 2012, 03:25 PM EDT
This is to replace the E3 visas??
clevelander | May 21, 2012, 03:23 PM EDT
@Murph46 Who would have her?
Dompedro | May 21, 2012, 12:37 PM EDT
Would have flunked (born in Philadelphia) wife would have flunked (born in Minneapolis) - don't do take out, ie, no menus either; could do New Year's Eve; don't rent, i.e., no check, either; closest subway may be a few 1000 mikes away