Q: I know more than one person who is involved in a sham marriage just to get a visa. How can I report that information to you without disclosing my personal data?
If you have information about a visa applicant committing fraud in any visa category, there are several ways to report that to us. You can notify the Inquiries Unit of the Consular Section by calling 225-7965 or send an email to visageorge@state.gov. Also, you can write a letter and mail it to the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy. If you choose to include your contact information, it is never disclosed.
Q: If I want to send a fink letter to the U.S. Embassy, am I required to include my contact information?
No, you don’t have to include your contact information. We have received many anonymous fink letters that contained valuable information regarding applicants committing fraud.
Sometimes, though, we receive fink letters that are illegible or the information does not make sense. We would like to follow-up on such letters, but we can’t if we don’t have any contact information for the sender. When you choose to include your contact information, it makes it easier for us to follow-up with you in case we have any questions about the information or details provided. Keep in mind that although the information in the letter appears obvious to the person who wrote it, the writer should not assume that the reader is automatically aware of the visa case being referenced.
Q: What information should a fink letter contain?
There is no exact recipe for a fink letter. The key to writing a fink letter is to be as detailed as you can especially with names, dates of birth, addresses, or any other pertinent information you can provide about the parties involved. For example, we have received fink letters that mention a person by “call” name. The “call” name is a terrific way of identifying an individual in a small village where everyone knows the person; but since visa applications are filled out with the full legal name, it would be more accurate and valuable to provide the complete birth name so that we can track down a visa petition and link the information.
Q: If I give you information about someone committing fraud, will I have an easier time getting a visa for myself?
No, people who provide information are not rewarded with a visa. Unfortunately, when people commit visa fraud, they make it that much more difficult for honest people who are trying to get a visa. When you provide information on someone committing fraud, the reward you get is the satisfaction of helping to fight fraud.
Q: Why should I care about reporting visa fraud to you?
Fraud is unethical and unfair. Immigrant visas are allocated on a monthly basis to each country around the world in limited numbers. Much like the act of boring a line, it is not fair for people to commit fraud in order to migrate in visa categories that don’t pertain to them simply because they don’t want to wait their turn in the appropriate visa classes. Because some immigrant visa classes are allocated more numbers than other classes, some applicants are able to migrate a bit faster thereby giving some people the impression that it is worthwhile to commit fraud.
Furthermore, regarding non-immigrant visas, it is not ethical for applicants to present false information in order to qualify for them. When fraud is evidenced or perceived with increasing frequency in a particular country, it becomes more difficult to obtain a visa in that country. By reporting fraud before applicants successfully obtain visas, the general public is perceived as being intolerant of such behavior. With your cooperation, we are able to keep our statistics on fraud lower so that honest people are better able to obtain a visa.
Q: Do you take fink letter information at face value or do you check it out first?
Whenever we receive information through a fink letter or email, we research it to ensure that we are able to reliably link the information to a visa applicant. Although we do not assume the information to be true, it provides valuable leads for us during our visa interviews. Additionally, we must question the motivation behind the person sending the information because some people have been known to submit false information simply to sabotage someone else’s attempt at getting through.
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“Ask the Consul” is a weekly column from the U.S. Embassy answering questions about U.S. immigration law and visa issues. If you have a general question about visa policy please email it to us at AskGeorge@state.gov. We select questions each week and publish the answers in Stabroek News and on our website at http://georgetown.usembassy.gov/guyana/ask_con.html. For more information about visas please see http://www.unitedstatesvisas.gov or http://georgetown.usembassy.gov/.
Other than the questions we select, we DO NOT respond to questions sent to Ask the Consul. Please contact the visa inquiries unit (email visageorge@state.gov or call 225-7965 between 8 am and 4 pm Monday through Friday) if you have questions about a specific case.
