U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced conspiracy charges against Jingming Chen, a 31-year-old U.S. citizen from Quincy, Massachusetts, for allegedly entering a sham marriage with a Chinese national in exchange for cash payments. A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Ohio returned the indictment on 19 October, accusing Chen of fabricating joint bank accounts and crafting a false romantic history to support an I-130 petition for his “spouse.” According to prosecutors, Chen agreed to accept staged payments at each milestone of the green-card process and even instructed his co-conspirator to purchase a “cheap, fake diamond ring” to keep costs down. Investigators from ICE Homeland Security Investigations and USCIS’ Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate uncovered the scheme after irregularities were flagged in the petition file. Marriage fraud carries penalties of up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of USD 250,000. The foreign beneficiary, if convicted, would face removal and a lifetime ban on immigration benefits. The case underscores the Administration’s heightened focus on benefit fraud: USCIS has doubled the size of its fraud-detection workforce since 2024 and now shares real-time application data with ICE. Corporate immigration counsel say employers sponsoring legitimate family members for green cards can expect longer adjudication times as USCIS applies extra scrutiny to I-130 evidence—especially joint financial records and cohabitation proof. Applicants are advised to prepare robust documentation and anticipate follow-up requests for evidence or marriage interviews.
Source: USCIS
