858 immigrants provided false information on applications

Immigrating into the United States is sometimes a challenge. The laws are fairly strict and it is crucial that everything on your application is valid and verifiable. Seeking help with your applications is often a good idea to ensure you are getting things done This is especially true if you are trying to become a citizen of the country. Recently, a news story was published that the U.S. granted citizenship to 858 people mistakenly.

The immigrants who are at the heart of the story were from countries where immigration fraud is prevalent and countries that are considered security risks to the U.S. In the case of these 858 individuals, all of them had deportation orders when citizenship was granted.

In these cases, an internal audit discovered that the immigrants have used different birthdays or names to apply for citizenship. These issues weren’t noticed before the citizenship was granted because of gaps in the fingerprinting program that is used.

This doesn’t mean that everyone would be able to get away with the type of fraud that these individuals did. Instead, people who are applying for citizenship or immigration documents should make sure that they provide accurate information. If it is found that you didn’t provide accurate information, your petitions can be denied.

In the past, cases of immigration benefits fraud weren’t accepted by federal prosecutors in the U.S. For that reason, cases of fraud were widely ignored. That has recently changed because the United States Justice Department has agreed to focus on cases of immigration benefits fraud if the people involved had been able to get a job of public trust, security clearances or other security credentials. That means that you can also face criminal charges if you provide false information on immigration documents.

Source: WDTN-TV, “More than 800 immigrants mistakenly granted citizenship,” Associated Press, Sep. 19, 2016