The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has intensified its reviews of permanent residency obtained through marriage, implementing separate interviews for spouses, surprise home visits at night, and inquiries to neighbors and employers to detect marriages of convenience.
The immigration attorney Liudmila Marcelo explained the scope of these measures in an interview with Tania Costa for CiberCuba and left a clear message for those in a legitimate union: “Those who are truly married have nothing to fear; they should continue with their normal life.”
According to press reports cited by Marcelo, authorities plan to call neighbors as witnesses and contact employers to look for discrepancies that could reveal fraudulent marriages.
One of the most dreaded procedures is the so-called Stokes interview, in which the officer questions each spouse separately to compare their answers.
"The fact that they separate the couple is a bad sign, because it means they want to interrogate them separately to see if there are contradictions between them," warned the lawyer.
Among the everyday details that the officer may inquire about are how many rooms the house has, the color of the walls, who gets up first, who prepares breakfast, and what car each person drives.
Marcelo pointed out that even seemingly simple questions can elicit innocent contradictory answers: "There are questions as straightforward as sometimes asking which side of the bed each person sleeps on. And people view the side of the bed from different perspectives."
Another detail that may raise suspicions is the way the couple arrives at the interview.
"How they arrived here is very important because often couples come in their own cars, and the officer says: if you’re coming from your house, today is the most important day because it’s the day of the interview. How is it possible that you both came in separate cars?" Marcelo explained.
Their recommendation is straightforward: "It's most common for the couple to come in one car, even if they have two at home."
Beyond the formal interview, USCIS also conducts surprise home visits to verify that the cohabitation is genuine.
“Yes, they are doing surprise visits to the house at night, because it is supposed that the couple is there during the night,” the lawyer confirmed.
During those visits, the officials check that there are belongings from both of them in the room and, according to Marcelo, they even verify "that both toothbrushes can be seen in the bathroom."
This hardening is part of a broader trend of the Trump administration to intensify the detection of immigration fraud.
In August 2026, the Department of Justice dismantled a network that organized more than 1,000 fake weddings for Chinese citizens for about a decade, operating in eight states and generating tens of millions of dollars.
The organizers charged up to $100,000 for fraudulent residency.
Marcelo illustrated the process with real cases from his practice in West Palm Beach, Florida. A couple aged 21 —she entered on a tourist visa— submitted their petition in February 2026, had the interview the following Monday, and received approval for residency and a social security number on the same day.
The lawyer emphasized, however, that the timelines and outcomes vary: "It always depends on the officer handling the case."
"Fraud is never, ever the solution to anyone's migration problems, because that truly complicates your situation for life," Marcelo concluded.
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