Help, IO caught my wife lying in her interview...Does she have a chance of approval?

J

JSpike

New Member
Hi,

My wife just had her naturalization interview yesterday and we're very worried it didn't go so well. She passed all the civics test and all those questions just fine. When the IO asked her if she ever claimed to be a citizen she said no, the officer asked again and she repeated no. The officer then said something like 'you do realize every question I ask you I already know the answer to?' and was angry afterwards. At this point my wife started explaining about a time when she was about 14-15 yrs old she tried crossing the border and didn't know any english and the guy she was with just told her to say the words: "I'm a citizen" and then she'd be able to pass. So she did. Afterwards they asked her a couple questions, probably where are you staying or something like that but she couldn't answer because she didn't know english. So they detained her, but never officially deported her. When she got her permanent resident visa the officer never asked her this question so we thought they didn't have it on file.

My wife said no to the IO at the interview because we've heard a case from our lawyer about others getting deported and permanently barred from re-entry after claiming to be a citizen. So it's catch 22, we're damned if we tell them and we're damned if we don't. The IO continued the interview asking a series of other questions and finally ended saying that the case is pending some documents/bills showing both our names for the past so many months.

My question is would the IO go through with the rest of the interview and set our case as pending just to deny after we send in the rest of the documents? Or could he have just ended the interview and denied the application after asking my wife about her bout at the border?

We have four children together and will have been married together 10 years this August. Nothing about our marriage is a sham at all, we both love each other very much. I'm hoping that's one of the reasons why he didn't deny the case outright and also the reason he's requesting more documents that show we've been married/living together. We both know that lying about something like this is a huge mistake, but it doesn't seem right to be punished for something she did as a minor so many years ago.

Anyway, does she even have a chance to be granted citizenship at this point? Also could her visa be in jeopardy because of this? We're both very worried about the future of our family situation because of this.

Thank you very much for your replies.

JSpike
 
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Since your wife was under 18 at the time of the border incident, I think it should not affect her citizenship eligibility. How old is she now?
 
Most likely she will be approved, but it is important to remember that you are under oath at the time of interview and when you lie under oath, it can cause a lot of problems. She may have broken the law when she was a minor but now she committed perjury as an adult and may have to pay the price. Applicants should remember that the scrutiny at the time of GC is not so intense. At time of naturalization, they are more picky and should be. Hopefully, the supervisor will let it go, but this should be a lesson to all who think that just because so immigrants got away with lies under oath, they will too.
 
del0175 said:
Most likely she will be approved, but it is important to remember that you are under oath at the time of interview and when you lie under oath, it can cause a lot of problems. She may have broken the law when she was a minor but now she committed perjury as an adult and may have to pay the price. Applicants should remember that the scrutiny at the time of GC is not so intense. At time of naturalization, they are more picky and should be. Hopefully, the supervisor will let it go, but this should be a lesson to all who think that just because so immigrants got away with lies under oath, they will too.
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If the IO wanted to deny the application wouldn't he do it after the lie and just say because you did it, we're denying you? He wouldn't have to ask any more questions after that.
 
When she got her permanent resident visa the officer never asked her this question so we thought they didn't have it on file.
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Big mistake! They simply ignored it at that time because it happened when she was under 18, and the green card paperwork doesn't have any questions about false claims of US citizenship.

However, she came clean about that incident in the interview, so she'll probably be OK. If she didn't admit it, or if she waited for the interviewer to tell her what happened instead of giving her explanation, that's when she would be in trouble.
 
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