In the 2009 flick "The Proposal," Sandra Bullock attempts marital fraud by getting engaged to her assistant in order to avoid a deportation to Canada. In this lighthearted romantic comedy, Bullock, who plays an executive New York publisher named Margaret Tate, tries to dodge investigation and pull off a union which she guarantees will quickly end in divorce. In the end, like many romantic movies, the couple falls in genuine love despite the odds, and lives happily ever after. While this topic might make a sweet anecdote for a summer chick flick, marital fraud is actually a significant problem in the United States. Many men and women enter the country illegally and then find a natural born citizen to marry. They are not marrying for love, but for citizenship, and many of these unions dissolve as soon as the INS is not monitoring them.

In order to prevent this, the UCIS created a document filled with guidelines and principles for immigrants to follow. The Marriage Fraud Amendments of 1986 were added in response to the overwhelming amount of aliens who were marrying solely for citizenship in the United States. As a result of the demand for natural born citizen spouses, an underground "marriage for hire" trade evolved. Illegal aliens paid to marry an American, and then divorced when the marriage had been officiated for a few weeks or months. Congress also saw the difficulties the INS was encountering as they tried to determine whether or not the couples were truly in love or marrying only for citizenship.

In the Marriage Fraud Amendments of 1986, Congress established section 216 to the Immigration and Nationality Act. Here the government determined that people who gained permanent residence in the United States based on a marriage would need to undergo a period of conditional residence. This means that the alien is subject to the provisions of the IMFA and required to petition the Service two years after obtaining residence to get the "conditional" clause removed. During the petition, the alien must (in most cases) show that he or she remained married to his or her spouse.

There are provisions to this case, such as a situation where the U.S. resident left his or her spouse without any fault of the other party. A failure to petition for permanent residence after two years of conditional residence, or in the event that the petition is denied, then that man or woman will be deported from the United States. If there are complications with this petition, then there is a possibility that the couple can file a joint petition which will help determine the bona fides of marriage.

These rules apply to any alien who marries a citizen and will merit permanent residence, or any child of an alien who obtains permanent residence through his or her parent's marriage. These petitions are not filed by the former immigrant, but by the U.S. citizen spouse, known in Congress as the "petitioning spouse." Along with this conditional residence, the new amendments to immigration law state that it may be necessary to interview the couple prior to or during their matrimony. In this interview, a Service Center Adjudication Unit will assign a fraud level to the case.

A fraud level C is little to no threat, and a fraud level B means that there are no technical problems with the case, but some caveat creates suspicion about the marriage. A fraud level A is assigned when the adjudicator strongly suspects dishonesty. If a married couple is not living together, or a large age difference exists between spouses, it may be cause for doubt. Marriage which results in residence for an illegal alien is a complicated procedure, so if you are considering nuptials which would guarantee your residency, you should talk to a lawyer. There are many different aspects of this procedure, so you will want to talk to someone who is very familiar with the immigration laws in the United States.