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DE RUEHPA #0178/01 2731642
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
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FM AMEMBASSY PRAIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1829
RUEHPNH/NVC PORTSMOUTH NH
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHFT/AMCONSUL FRANKFURT 0350
RUEHPA/AMEMBASSY PRAIA 2701

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 PRAIA 000178 
 
SIPDIS 
 
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PLEASE PASS TO KCC WILLIAMSBURG KY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KFRD CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC CV
SUBJECT: FRAUD SUMMARY - PRAIA 
 
REF: STATE 057623 
 
PRAIA 00000178  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
¶1.  (U) Per reftel, the following is Embassy Praia's semi-annual 
fraud reporting cable covering March 2009 to August 2009. 
Responses are keyed to reftel. 
 
¶2. (U) A.  COUNTRY CONDITIONS: Cape Verde is an archipelago 
located 500 kilometers west of Senegal.  Cape Verde gained its 
independence from Portugal in 1975, but the Cape Verdean 
political and legal systems continue to have many similarities 
to its former colonial ruler.  It is a politically stable 
country that has held multiparty elections every five years 
since the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde 
(PAICV) relinquished its one party rule in 1991.  Official 
corruption remains quite low in Cape Verde but is anecdotally on 
the rise. 
 
In comparison to its West African neighbors, Cape Verde is 
relatively wealthy with an estimated per capita annual income in 
2008 of $3,800 USD.  In 2008, Cape Verde graduated from being a 
low-income development country to a middle-income development 
country.  Due to its extremely arid climate, less than 10% of 
the land is arable.  As a result, Cape Verde imports most food 
and other products.  Cape Verde is not economically 
self-sufficient and is heavily reliant on foreign aid and 
remittances sent from its diaspora in the U.S. and Europe. 
 
Cape Verde has a long history of immigration to the U.S. which 
continues today.  The Cape Verdean community in the U.S. is 
estimated to be between 350,000 and 500,000 with the 
overwhelming majority in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.  The 
Cape Verdean population in the U.S. rivals or exceeds the total 
number of Cape Verdeans in the archipelago.  There are many 
Americans permanently residing in Cape Verde, estimates range 
from 2000 to 4000.  In the summer months, there may be more than 
10,000 Cape Verdean-Americans in country.  Nearly all American 
citizens in Cape Verde are dual nationals or have access to dual 
nationality.  These AmCits are, for the most part, from two 
demographic groups: young children and senior citizens. 
Moreover, the AmCit children are either (1) children of retired 
naturalized AmCit fathers and much younger Cape Verdean mothers 
or (2) children born to Cape Verdean mothers while temporarily 
in the U.S. on non-immigrant visitor visas and paid for with 
public medical assistance.  Most of the adult AmCits in Cape 
Verde are naturalized Americans who have returned to their home 
islands of Fogo or Brava for retirement. 
 
¶B.  NIV FRAUD: Praia is a low fraud post that had a NIV case 
load of approximately 3500 NIVs for FY2009.  More than 90% of 
all NIVs are B1/B2s, and the next largest category, comprising 
approximately 3% of the workload, is K fiance visas.  In FY2009, 
post adjudicated few student visas: 79 F visas and 16 J visas, 
and even fewer employment-based visas: 0 H visas, 0 L visas, 1 O 
visa (for a local musician to tour with Jimmy Buffett), and 18 P 
visas.  The workload from March 2009 to August 2009 remained 
constant with the same time period last year. 
 
Most NIV fraud in Praia relates to B1/B2 visas and is not 
particularly sophisticated.  Applicants for student visas do not 
commit fraud on a large scale.  Some student applicants try to 
use student visas as means to "expedite" the immigrant process 
for petitions that are not yet current.  Other student visa 
applicants are simply interested in any means for an extended 
stay in the U.S.  In these cases, they are applicants who do not 
have a relative who is eligible to file an immigrant petition 
for them (i.e., aunts, uncles, or cousins) but who are enrolled 
in classes and offered room and board, with the applicant 
knowing very few details about the school or study program. 
 
With respect to visitor visas, most NIV fraud consists of fake 
job letters.  These are usually easy to catch because the salary 
does not match the job or the applicant's level of education 
does not match the job requirements.  Post received several 
turnaround reports relating to LPRs with criminal convictions 
but few, if any, for persons traveling on nonimmigrant visas. 
Moreover, conoff personally consulted with DHS/CBP in Boston in 
January 2009, and DHS reported that they had few refused 
admissions or adverse actions for the TACV flight from Praia to 
Boston. 
 
Third country nationals comprised roughly 6 percent of Praia's 
NIV cases in FY2009.  Of the third country national cases, the 
largest percentage of cases were from China followed by the West 
African nations of Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Senegal.  So far, 
no fake Chinese documents have been detected.  Applicants from 
West African countries cases, however, are among our most 
suspicious and the most likely to have fraudulent national 
 
PRAIA 00000178  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
residence cards or other documents. 
 
Between March 2009 and September 2009, post adjudicated 10 visas 
for Chinese nationals in contrast to the 33 applicants over the 
same period the previous year.  Interestingly, in January 2009, 
a Chinese visa recipient, who flew on the nonstop TACV flight 
from Praia to Boston, was refused admission by DHS and returned 
to Cape Verde.  Since this incident, post has noticed a sharp 
reduction in the number of Chinese who show up for their 
appointments to apply for NIVs. 
 
¶C.  IV FRAUD: Over 98 percent of IV cases processed at post are 
family-based, and nearly every Cape Verdean has some family 
member in the U.S.  Post has identified very little fraud in 
most family-based IV cases. 
 
The biggest concerns among all visa categories are K-1 fiance 
and CR-2 step child visas.  Fraud in these cases is difficult to 
prove because many times the husband and wife collude to claim a 
bona fide relationship.  Post suspects a high number of cases 
(perhaps 50 percent or more) are marriages of convenience for 
immigration purposes.  Given the fact that the Cape Verdean 
community in the U.S. is very tightly knit, many Cape 
Verdean-Americans will enter into marriages to help out a 
"friend in need," especially for the sake of the principal 
beneficiary's children. 
 
While formal marriage in Cape Verde is uncommon and most Cape 
Verdean couples live together for years without ever getting 
legally married, it is not unusual to see Cape Verdean-Americans 
married several times.  After each divorce, the Cape 
Verdean-American files another K-1 petition for a new 
prospective spouse or a CR-2 petition for their spouse's 
children who were left behind in Cape Verde years earlier.  It 
appears that many Cape Verdean-Americans marry and wait the 
necessary period of time for a spouse to obtain residency status 
or U.S. citizenship, divorce the petitioning spouse, and file a 
petition for a previous lover or parent of their child(ren). 
 
Finally, it is very common to see couples with a significant age 
difference of 20 years or more.  Usually, it is an older man and 
a younger woman, but petitions filed by older women for younger 
men are also becoming routine.  Many of these relationships are 
first seen in connection with CRBA applications and then later 
IV petitions, where retired men will develop relationships and 
procreate with young women in their early- to mid-twenties. 
 
¶D.  DV FRAUD: DV cases are rare in Cape Verde.  In FY2008, post 
did not process any DV cases, whereas in FY2009, post received 
and issued merely 8 DV applicants from three families. 
 
¶E.  ACS AND U.S. PASSPORT FRAUD: ACS fraud in Praia is 
relatively rare.  The most suspect cases involve children who 
were not registered immediately after birth.  However, more and 
more, births are registered at or near the time of the child's 
birth, but sometimes the birth or paternity of a child was 
registered a few months or years after the birth or even mere 
days before the IV interview or CRBA application.  In almost all 
CRBA cases, the biggest issue is the alleged AmCit parent's 
inability to document the requisite period of physical presence 
prior to the birth of the child. 
 
A birth certificate (available from the Conservatoria dos 
Registos) is always required for CRBA and IV applications.  This 
birth record includes a complete copy of all the significant 
events in a person's life from birth to marriage to death.  The 
registry book indicates when a child was registered, the date 
s/he was registered, and the civil status of the child's 
parents.  Most Embassy LE staff personally know Conservatoria 
officials who issue vital record documents, so the information 
can be verified quickly.  Cape Verde is also in the process of 
computerizing these records, and most birth, marriage, and death 
records are now electronic. 
 
Cape Verdeans are astutely aware of U.S. citizenship law and 
often take advantage of "tourist" visits to have their children 
in the U.S at the U.S. taxpayer's expense.  The children are 
issued U.S. passports when they are days or weeks old.  Five 
years later when the parents apply for the child's second 
passport, it is nearly impossible to match the five-year old 
child with the original passport photo.  Using age progression 
photos and the original passport application in PIERS to verify 
the parent's signature coupled with questioning of the child, 
one can often feel relatively certain that the child in the new 
passport application is the same as the original passport. 
However, unscrupulous adults and a well-coached child could 
 
PRAIA 00000178  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
potentially fool an officer. 
 
¶F.  ADOPTION FRAUD:  Adoption cases in Cape Verde are rare but 
have not appeared to be fraudulent. 
 
¶G.  USE OF DNA TESTING: Generally, if a birth or marriage 
document is suspected to be fraudulent, post verifies its 
authenticity with local officials.  Occasionally, DNA is 
suggested when the bona fides of a blood relationship cannot 
otherwise be confirmed.  To date, very few applicants have opted 
against DNA testing, and DNA test results have almost always 
confirmed the claimed relationship. 
 
¶H.  ASYLUM AND OTHER DHS BENEFIT FRAUD: Post has not processed 
any asylum (Visas 92/93) cases in the past three years.  Praia 
is not aware of any DHS benefits fraud cases. 
 
¶I.  ALIEN SMUGGLING, TRAFFICKING, ORGANIZED CRIME, TERRORIST 
TRAVEL:  Narcotics trafficking and alien smuggling are on the 
rise in Cape Verde, and given the geographical location of Cape 
Verde in relation to Africa, Europe, North and South America, it 
is likely to increase. In fact, Cape Verde's Minister of Defense 
estimated that one-fifth of the world's cocaine supply transits 
through West Africa.  Criminal groups involved in these 
activities typically are well-funded.  It is reasonable to 
believe that these organizations will use fraudulent documents 
in support of their criminal activities. 
 
In July 2008, the Cape Verdean Coast Guard intercepted a boat 
with 138 illegal immigrants, including children, who were on 
their way to Europe via the Canary Islands.  In September 2008, 
the Cape Verdean maritime authorities investigated an empty 
dugout on the island of Santo Antao.  The dugout contained an 
empty engine that was missing its propeller and which was 
suspected of being used to transport more illegal immigrants to 
the Canary Islands for entry into Europe.  All suspected illegal 
immigrants in both cases were sent back to their countries of 
origin (Guinea, Guinea Bissau, and Cameroon).  In October 2008, 
the Judiciary Police found 172 kilograms of cocaine in the 
engine of an old car at the Port of Praia.  Five suspects were 
arrested, one of whom died while in custody (presumed suicide) 
and another of whom was killed by unknown assailant (but was 
allegedly killed pursuant to an order by the one who was 
believed to have committed suicide).  All cases remain ongoing. 
 
¶J.  DS CRIMINAL FRAUD INVESTIGATIONS: Post does not have a 
resident RSO or RSO/I and does not have any ongoing local DS 
criminal fraud investigations. 
 
¶K.  HOST COUNTRY PASSPORT, IDENTITY DOCUMENTS, AND CIVIL 
REGISTRY: Most Cape Verdean documents are relatively simple with 
little or no fraud prevention features.  The two exceptions are: 
(1) national identification cards and (2) passports. 
 
NATIONAL ID CARD: Cape Verde has a national ID card essentially 
identical to that of Portugal.  The front of the national ID 
card has a picture of the person, the person's fingerprint 
(right-index finger), and the person's signature.  The back of 
the national ID contains the person's biographic data including 
his/her father's and mother's names, place of birth, date of 
birth, and current residence.  The ID is laminated to protect it 
from damage and presumably to avoid photo substitution. 
National ID fraud appears to be relatively low.  However, typos 
and other errors are more likely to be seen, and applicants are 
required to amend requisite documents prior to receiving their 
requested benefit. 
 
PASSPORTS: Cape Verdean passport books have a number of fraud 
prevention features.  In the past, passports suffered from poor 
quality control and lack of standardization.  Until recently, 
each municipality had the authority to issue passports.  Each 
place used its own typewriter to fill in a person's biographic 
page or hand wrote it, and there was no visible standard 
passport photo size.  Quality control on the placement and 
adhesion of passport photos was often quite poor.  The result 
was that photos often shifted locations after the laminate was 
applied to the photo. All of these factors made it next to 
impossible to detect passport fraud or photo substitution. 
 
Beginning in January 2006, the Cape Verdean authorities 
centralized passport issuance to four locations: Praia on the 
island of Santiago, Sao Felipe on the island of Fogo, Espargos 
on the island of Sal, and Mindelo on the island of Sao Vicente. 
For the last several years, the passport authority in Praia has 
issued machine-readable passports that now contain digitized 
photos.  This centralization of passport issuance services and 
 
PRAIA 00000178  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
the standardization of the biographic data page is a big step 
forward.  Unfortunately, to date, the quality of the digitized 
photos has been poor but is improving. 
 
With respect to how Cape Verdean citizens' names are listed in 
their passports, generally, domestically-issued passports 
include only a single final surname on the surname blank, and 
the given names and any other matronymics or patronymics are on 
the given name blank.  Overseas posts do not generally respect 
this naming practice, and often list all surnames, matronymics, 
and patronymics in the surname blank. 
 
One other factor that has hindered fraud detection is the length 
of the validity period of Cape Verdean passports.  Although 
their initial validity is for five years, they may be extended 
by stamping the inside page with an extended validity date. 
This may be done up to two times, for five years each, which 
means that a Cape Verdean citizen may have the same passport 
photo in his/her passport for up to fifteen years. 
 
RESIDENCE DOCUMENTS: Cape Verdean residence documents issued to 
third country nationals living in Cape Verde are extremely easy 
to fabricate.  A Cape Verdean residence document is a tri-fold 
piece of green cardstock paper.  There is a picture of the 
individual glued on one page and typewritten text on the rest of 
the pages.  There is no laminate to protect the photo or to 
prevent photo substitution.  In the past, residency cards had to 
be renewed annually, but a new rule adopted in 2008 allows for 
the residency cards to be valid for three to five years 
depending on the length of residence in Cape Verde. 
 
¶L.  COOPERATION WITH HOST GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES: Local 
authorities are generally very cooperative with Embassy requests 
for information, and they do not view fraud as a victimless 
crime.  However, Cape Verdean immigration police are 
under-funded, under-trained, and under-equipped.  Local 
authorities would welcome assistance, both training as well as 
equipment, to assist in fraud detection and prevention. 
 
¶M.  AREAS OF PARTICULAR CONCERN:  See paragraph I relating to 
alien smuggling and trafficking. 
 
¶N.  STAFFING AND TRAINING:  The Consular Section in Praia 
consists of one full-time consular officer (soon to be adding a 
second full-time consular officer), one part-time consular 
officer (with additional POL and PD responsibilities) and four 
LE Staff, one of whom is designated to assist with fraud 
prevention.  Praia does not have a resident RSO, but has a 
locally employed FSN Investigator (FSN/I) who assists with fraud 
investigations.  The LE staff member who works on fraud 
prevention attended PC542 FSN Fraud Prevention Workshop in 
September/October 2001.  Post will request that she attend a 
future training workshop to update her fraud prevention skills. 
 
Cases that have criminal elements or who are suspected of fraud 
are referred immediately to the FSN/I for investigation.  After 
each investigation, the fraud prevention LE Staff and/or FSN/I 
meets with the full-time consular officer to report on the 
result of the investigation. 
STEWART