VZCZCXYZ0004
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTU #0226/01 0450805
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 140805Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY TUNIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2731
INFO RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS 3046
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1734
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1273
RUCNMGH/MAGHREB COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS TUNIS 000226 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR NEA/MAG; HR/EL; CA/VO 
DAMASCUS FOR RCO MARY ELLEN HICKEY 
 
E.O. 12958: NA 
TAGS: KFRD SOCI CVIS TS
SUBJECT: Beywatch: YOUNG TUNISIAN MEN ASK: "IS THE MARRIAGE VISA 
STILL AVAILABLE?" 
 
¶1. INTRODUCTION: This report is one of a series drafted by Post's 
entry level officers which have the "Beywatch" caption.  We believe 
the perspectives offered in the following vignette will give the 
reader a sense of everyday life in Tunisia.  END INTRODUCTION. 
 
¶2. SUMMARY: This cable is a look at some of the statistics related 
to spousal immigration from Tunisia to the United States.  The 
picture these numbers form leads to several questions that may be 
informative when taking a broader look at immigration fraud and 
trends: What does it mean that 69 percent of women petitioning for 
their new husbands at post met them over the internet?  Or that out 
of the one-third of all cases with a ten-year age gap between 
beneficiary and petitioner, the older party is almost always the 
female Amcit?  Or that 40 percent of male petitioners at post are 
previous beneficiaries of spousal immigration? Is our system being 
abused?  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶3. During a recent speaking engagement at a Tunisian university, 
Conoff was taken aback by a young Tunisian man who eagerly wanted to 
know, during what was supposed to be a discussion about the student 
visa process, whether the "marriage visa" was still a viable option 
for immigration to the United States.  While consular staff often 
note stereotypical patterns in marriage cases seen at Embassy 
Tunis-- older American women and younger Tunisian men, arranged 
marriages, etc. -- Conoff decided to take a closer look at the 
numbers. Although questionable relationships are routine in 
immigration work, the following provides a glimpse of Embassy Tunis' 
experiences. 
 
-------------------- 
OLDER AMCITS AND THEIR HOT NEW HUSBANDS 
-------------------- 
 
¶4. This is one of the most repeated stories played out in front of 
the interviewing windows at Embassy Tunis: the older American woman 
looking for love on the internet, and finding it with a young 
Tunisian male who happened to seek the same thing using Yahoo or 
Skype.  Although sometimes the couple doesn't share a common 
language (as was the case with the American woman who spoke no 
French but happened to wander into and fall in love on a French 
language chat room,) relationships often blossom quickly, resulting 
in a Tunisian marriage just months after online courtship, and 
usually only a few days after the petitioner's arrival in country. 
 
 
¶5. In fact, of all CR-1 cases (Conditional Relative cases involving 
couples that have been married for less than two years,) interviewed 
in 2006, 69 percent of female petitioners met their husbands on the 
internet.  Of all the immigration petitions filed at post during the 
same period, 38 percent were internet couplings, and every one of 
these petitions was filed by a woman born and raised in the United 
States.  While the fact that 31 percent of couples filing petitions 
at post in 2006 had a 10 year or more age gap is not that 
astounding, the fact that over 98 percent of those age-gap couples 
were between older American women and their Tunisian husbands is a 
little bit surprising.  (COMMENT: Post also receives petitions from 
Amcits marrying young Algerian men too, as many of the women are 
reluctant to travel to Algeria and so agree to meet and marry in 
Tunisia.  END COMMENT.) 
 
¶6. A large percentage of these Amcit women have never traveled 
outside of the United States before their trip to marry their 
husbands, and they usually don't stay very long after the wedding. 
They almost always arrive without family or friends, but are thrown 
large parties by their new husbands' families, who are quite happy 
to have the event photographed and videotaped for posterity-- and 
the visa interview.  The young male beneficiaries are undeterred by 
the frequent realities of several ex-husbands, stepchildren their 
own age, or uncertainties about what their new wives do for a 
living. 
 
-------------------- 
LADIES IN WAITING 
-------------------- 
 
¶7. When it comes to male petitioners, there is generally less doubt 
as to the validity of their marriages.  Although marriages between 
cousins who barely know each other or between two people brought 
together by family interests are common in Tunisia, these couples 
are typically able to easily prove that they married for reasons 
other than immigration.  What is perhaps most interesting about 
these couples is that about 40 percent of males petitioning for 
wives at Embassy Tunis got their citizenship by traveling illegally 
to the United States and then marrying an American. Very often, the 
ink is barely dry on their naturalization certificates when their 
American wives are served with divorce papers and they introduce 
 
Conoffs at Embassy Tunis to their new North African spouses.  This 
statistic holds true for CR-1 interviewees as well; over 38 percent 
of female CR-1 applicants tell us that their husbands got their 
American citizenship from prior marriages to Americans.  Of course, 
there are many possible explanations for this phenomenon. Perhaps 
these men did not just use their American wives for citizenship 
purposes. Perhaps they are driven to seek wives from their own 
countries after they became disillusioned with marriages so far 
removed from the culture in which they grew up. Perhaps not. In any 
case, these second marriages raise few eyebrows and usually appear 
legitimate. 
 
-------------------- 
BIG BROTHER WATCHING OVER YOU 
-------------------- 
 
¶8.  Of the 69 percent of male CR-1 applicants who met their wives 
over the internet, 31 percent had brothers who had traveled 
illegally to the United States some years before and had a hand in 
introducing the couple via chat room.  (It is also common for 
couples to conduct relationships over the phone, with the now-legal 
brother in the U.S. setting up the communication.)  In a recent 
case, the female petitioner was an employee of the immigrant 
brother. In another, the petitioner admitted that her brother-in-law 
had filled out all the documentation for the I-130 petition, even 
putting his own phone number on the application where hers should 
have been. 
 
-------------------- 
AFTERMATH/GIMME SHELTER 
-------------------- 
 
¶9. Embassy Tunis' Consular Section has received a surprising number 
of inquiries from American women wanting the Section's help 
determining if their husbands are married in Tunisia as well as in 
tQ U.S., or asking what can be done when they realize they may have 
been used by their husbands to gain residency or citizenship.  (Post 
has been working with USCIS officials recently on a case involving a 
Tunisian who recently married an Amcit, and then returned to Tunisia 
a year later to marry a Tunisian.  The bigamist is currently 
attempting to naturalize, but a timely call from the pregnant Amcit 
who discovered her husband's two-timing may allow Conoffs and DHS 
officials to prevent his surreptitious maneuvering.)  However, hope 
springs eternal: One American woman who had discovered her first 
husband had only married her for a Green Card, promptly divorced him 
and reappeared at the ACS window at Embassy Tunis with a new 
Tunisian husband, this time certain she'd found her soul mate. 
 
-------------------- 
"CONSULAR" NOT "COUNSELOR" 
-------------------- 
 
¶10. Perhaps one of the more difficult realities for Conoffs to face 
is that when the Amcit in the relationship is convinced that she is 
marrying for love, there is little one can do to combat the high 
numbers of young Tunisian, Libyan and Algerian males on the prowl 
via internet.  That the stats show that these Romeos will only 
divorce them for their high school sweethearts once they have a blue 
passport in hand is immaterial on a case-by-case basis.  And while 
resources like LexisNexis and the Consular Consolidated Database are 
wonderful in unearthing large-scale fraud rings, if money is 
changing hands between the petitioner and the beneficiary's 
brother-- as is sometimes probable-- it is still impossible for 
Conoffs to tell gullible Amcits that their sweethearts are likely to 
be heartbreakers. 
 
-------------------- 
WHAT ARE WE DOING ABOUT IT? 
-------------------- 
 
¶11.  In the last two years Embassy Tunis returned about twenty 
spousal or fianc petitions to DHS with a recommendation for 
revocation due to suspected fraud. (COMMENT: Because of the long 
processing time for these reviews, there are no statistics regarding 
how often United States Citizenship and Immigration Services upheld 
Post's recommendation.  Due to stringent standards on what is 
legally defined as proof of a sham marriage, often the glaring 
inconsistencies exposed in interviews are not enough to convince DHS 
officers to support conclusions drawn in the field. END COMMENT.) 
Tunis Conoffs pride themselves on careful interviewing and in-depth 
revocation memos, and set a high standard for what qualifies as 
proof of a relationship.  That being said, Conoffs are eager to 
smooth the process for legitimate couples (no matter the age gap or 
cultural differences) and to prevent others from corrupting the 
system. Embassy Tunis' Consular Section also enjoys excellent 
relations with the ICE liaison officer and counterparts back in 
 
CA/VO, who help uphold a zero-tolerance policy concerning 
immigration fraud. 
 
GODEC