To cheat and stay: how does the fake visa industry in the US

US President Donald Trump even before coming to power, promised to defeat illegal immigrants. And when he got the post, he honestly tried to keep his word. The problem of illegal migration in the United States does exist - recently, illegal immigrants are increasingly arriving in the country on airplanes on a completely legal visa, and remain for a much longer period — it is already illegal. Many, however, are trying to achieve legalization and often become victims of scam artists. How the US earns on visas and green cards and how this illegal business has become a whole industry in some parts of New York, the correspondent Rtvi Denis Cheredov.

Фото: Depositphotos

Donald Trump watched TV. He does this often and usually prefers the conservative Fox News. And on it showed a caravan of illegals. A thousand people (mostly women and children) who fled from dysfunctional Honduras went to the United States. The president saw the caravan and tweeted a series of emotional posts. Among other things, there was a threat to Mexico City - to cancel the free trade agreement. As a result, the Mexican authorities placed people on their territory, and the US President, having recorded this victory at his own expense, went further.

Trump decided to send the National Guard to the southern border of the United States at that time, until its “big and beautiful wall” was built, and Congress, as is known, does not give money for the wall. Guardsmen will patrol the perimeter without weapons and will not be able to detain offenders - they only need to support the border guards, as well as monitor the situation. Other presidents of the United States, Obama and Bush, for example, also decided to strengthen security in these places. Each time such actions of the central government were demanded by the situation - an increase in the flow of migrants or, for example, the aggravation of wars among drug barons in Mexico. This time, the president sent the National Guard under the border with the lowest inflow of illegal immigrants from the south in the 45 years. But the President of the United States will not leave the topic of illegal immigration, this is a critical direction for him - the most advantageous in terms of ratings.

Back in 2009, in New York, the director of the company Big Apple Music Awards Stella Boyadjian told reporters about the success of her own music competition for young artists. At 2016, things went even better - according to Stella herself, even the citizens of Afghanistan took part in it, but, unfortunately, not everyone managed to get to the contest.

In 2018, Stella Boyadzyan turned from a glamorous diva into a defendant: the US Department of Justice accused the woman of visa fraud, the illegal importation of foreigners into the US and money laundering. Now the enterprising citizen is waiting for the verdict of the American Themis.

Dina Hakobovna, who is also Diana Grigoryan, also appeared on the list of the accused, the TV presenter is widely known in Armenia - she worked on a local channel and at the same time supplied clients to her American acquaintance Stella.

Recently, a girl does not appear in public - they say that she is hiding somewhere in Yerevan. Americans have already declared Dinu Akopovna wanted.

“The United States and Armenia have no extradition agreement, but one thing is clear - we will use all our opportunities to bring this woman back here. Here she must be brought before a US court! ”, Says John Cronan, Acting Assistant US Attorney General.

“All Armenia talks about criminal schemes with visas,” says actress Nazeni Hovhannisyan. The scandal has already affected the work of the US embassy in Yerevan, and now many state-abiding citizens of the republic have closed state borders: according to the actress, she and many of her colleagues have already been denied a P-3 visa.

In total, three natives of Armenia were in the criminal group, they came up with a cunning scheme: the company Big Apple Music Awardsheaded by Boyadjian, helped everyone to get a P category visa. According to her, artists, musicians, artists and athletes are given the right to come to America to acquaint the States "with unique national creativity". Boyadjian and her associates creatively approached the matter: according to the investigators, they recorded Armenian pseudo-stars in non-existent dance groups, made up for them a tour schedule around the cities of the USA and prepared fake musicians and dancers for an interview. The cost of their services ranged from 3 to 15 thousand dollars, depending on the complexity of the case.

Firm Stella Boyadjian is registered in the center of Manhattan - on 31-th street. This is an apartment building, on the official website of the company the exact office number is not specified, but there is a telephone. However, if you try to call him - the subscriber will remain inaccessible.

US law enforcement agencies did not immediately open the scam. How many people managed to get fake visas over the years of boisterous activities of the Boyadjian company is unknown. But methods of working with clients were established - Boyadjian and her assistants first of all taught future stars to behave properly on the stage.

Pseudo-actors and fake singers carefully thought out their image and performances on the stage: for example, a bright shirt and an unusual headdress can give any costume any national character. And afterwards - a photo session is necessary, and nobody has yet canceled a smile!

The captured photographs are then applied to the case as evidence of popularity: the cap can be replaced with a cap, and here is a completely different image and a different presentation. In general, the flight of creativity is limitless, and from the outside it looks quite convincing.

Such tricks are also used by scammers who want to get an O-1 visa - these are applicants with supposedly extraordinary abilities, they need to prove to the US immigration service that America needs this or that talent.

The opera singer David Gvinianidze heard more than once from the pseudo-colleagues the history of visa fraud. After all, he himself had to prove for a long time that he was “not a camel,” but a real baritone. David said that among other documents there should be a huge folder with achievements: he has such a folder and awards from the President of Russia, two encyclopedic publications, and a star named after him in Sokolniki, and a gold medal for patronage of arts, and so on.

David Gwinianidze at the Metropolitan Opera. Photo: hero page on the social network

David has already received his green card. “Many people, unscrupulous people,” says our hero, “play on the confidence of America.”

Scammers play differently on American confidence; here are just a few of the scammers ’activities: the extraordinary abilities already mentioned (i.e., O1 visa), political asylum — in this case, applicants argue that they were persecuted at home because of race or nationality, religious beliefs or sexual orientation. Another option - a fake marriage.

At the office of lawyer Alexander Bibichev, the telephone is broken - the lawyer is now preparing more than two thousand immigration cases. However, at the first meeting, Bibichev is able to determine whether the client is lying or not:

“We are not obliged to report this to the migration authorities or the prosecutor’s office. Nevertheless, we do not have the right to provide assistance. Any lawyer must say goodbye! ”

Tatyana is afraid of revenge on her lover, so she hides her face - she met Igor on a dating site. After the first meeting, we are talking about marriage - fictitious. But it turned out that after a few months true love happened, and they got married - only it turned out that Igor simply, talentedly and without any help from intermediaries, played the role of a knight in love. After the wedding, he broke off his mask - the victim of a fictitious marriage managed to file for divorce before the husband received a green card. According to Tatiana herself, she is glad that everything ended like this - of course, she did not think about suicide, but it turned out to be quite a strong injury for her.

Sham marriage in the United States is one of the most common ways to legalize and obtain the coveted blue passport. Just go to one of the most popular sites for Russian-speaking residents of America. The rubric “dating” - here users openly offer to marry or get married. Marriage, business marriage - what is there just not! As a journalistic experiment, Lisa Kaymin calls one of the authors of the ad:

Our next hero, lawyer Michael Walds, has something to show, after all, he even consulted Melania Trump. Michael started talking about the problem of fake stories with a refuge for a long time, but so far he has not been heard. The lawyer explains that US Department of Justice officers cannot send a request, for example, to the Russian Interior Ministry and confirm the authenticity of the applicant's papers.

Michael Walds, lawyer: “Such cases are very difficult for officers to check, and many asylum seekers use this. But immigration services will check all information and documents more thoroughly, carry out investigations in detail, because they still have their employees abroad and now they will help with the checks! ”

Pretending to be homosexual or lesbian is almost a win-win option for legalization in America, says openly gay Alexander Yankin. There are similar stories when a person impersonates a member of the LGBT community and asks for political asylum - more than enough.

Alexander Yankin. Photo: hero page on the social network

This is because it is easy to concoct it - you can buy any papers with seals on Brighton or order them in Russia, find the history of bullying and beatings on the Internet, and remember to cry in an interview - then the officer can hardly guess that the gay is not real!

“It is wrong and it is a deception that a person, being heterosexual, submits an LGBT issue and claims that he is persecuted in his homeland. Of course, this is a hoax, but, as they say, people here are selling their parents for the American dream—any path is good for legalization,” says Yankin.

Even illegal immigrants live quite comfortably in New York, the director of immigration affairs of the city mayor’s office is sure. New York because, despite all the efforts of Donald Trump, remains a refuge city for undocumented people. The only thing Maribel Riviera warns about is that illegal immigrants should not break the law, any offense can lead to deportation.

Maribel Riviera, director of immigration affairs at the New York City Hall: “Everyone can count on our help in the city. It does not matter if you have documents or not. Only from the city administration, we allocated $ 30 million for the legal support of immigrants. That is, we have the resources, there are lawyers - we just need to provide easy access to them, and so about 50 thousands of people will use our services. ”

They count on the help of lawyers and those accused of fraud born in Armenia - a visa scam can play a cruel joke with clients of the company Big Apple Music Awards. There is a chance that pseudo-artists will be annulled visas, and even more so - will be brought to criminal responsibility.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Personal: Fictitious marriage in the USA: how much does it cost and what are the risks?

A group of Russian-speaking immigrants organized fake marriages in Florida for a green card

How Foreigners Get American Citizenship Through Bogus Marriages

How a divorce can affect immigration status

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