Two arrested for fake documents in US visa

ISLAMABAD: A woman of Pakistani origin with the citizenship of the United States and a man were arrested by the Immigration Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for providing fake documents to US immigration authorities.

Officials told The Express Tribune that the US Consulate in Pakistan had written a letter to the FIA Immigration authorities asking them to investigate a case involving a woman who had supplied fake documents to the consulate for a US visa.

The woman had filed a visa application for a teenager who she said was her adopted son. However, the adoption documents were found to be fake.

“The US Consulate feared that the woman was misusing her status as a US citizen to send people to the United States,” an FIA official said.

An inquiry revealed that the claims made by the US consulate in the letter turned out to be correct.

The woman was arrested, along with a man who pretended to be her husband. However, the woman herself denied that he was her husband. She claimed he was a co-worker and that the two had been working for the past few years to send people to the United States through illegal means,” the official said.

The woman said the man was her relative and ‘business partner’. They posed as husband and wife and lured people by promising to provide them with US visas and permanent residence.  “The woman used her status as a US citizen to get visas for people, by showing boys to be her adopted sons,” the official said.

The two had set up an office in Rawalpindi, where they received millions of rupees in advance payments from their clients.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2010.