Sham marriage
The essential point in the varying definitions is whether the couple intend to live in a real marital relationship, to establish a life together.
[1] A typical definition by the UK Home Office in 2015:[2] A sham marriage or civil partnership is one where the relationship is not genuine but one party hopes to gain an immigration advantage from it.
For example, Hollywood studios had allegedly requested homosexual/homoromantic actors, such as Rock Hudson, to conceal their homosexuality in a so-called lavender marriage.
[citation needed] Since the intersection of citizenship-by-marriage laws and affordable international travel in the latter half of the 20th century, sham marriages have become a common method to allow a foreigner to reside, and possibly gain citizenship, in the country of the spouse.
[12] In August 2010, a senior registrar in Ireland estimated that 15 percent of civil marriages were bogus, for the purpose of gaining residency.
In April 2011, the Border Agency issued guidance to clergy to help prevent sham marriages intended only to gain the right to reside.
[14] Since the Home Office hostile environment policy started in 2012, there has been criticism in the UK of heavy-handed action affecting genuine marriages.
[17][better source needed] Marriages, if legitimate, entitle the spouse to live and work in the United States, as in most other countries.
[18] A marriage that is solely for purposes of obtaining legal residence is considered a sham, and is a crime in the United States for both participants.
Citizenship and Immigration Services typically conducts an interview of marriage-based green card applicants, with additional scrutiny if they are from a developing country, have a different ethnicity or religion from their sponsor, have a large age gap with their sponsor, or have a history of prior marriage-based green card applications.
[29] Continuous controversy arose regarding the issue; Canadian officials have been accused both of being too harsh and harassing couples and of being too lenient in deciding what is a genuine relationship.
