Non-Attorney Immigration Consulting Business Owners Arrested on April 6, 2011

CERRITOS – Immigration agents arrested three members of a Yorba Linda family on suspicion of visa fraud at their immigration consulting business in Cerritos on Wednesday morning, officials said.


The three are suspected of filing fraudulent marriage and work visa petitions on behalf of foreigners who paid fees as high as $60,000, federal officials reported Wednesday. All three face up to five years in federal prison.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested Ajit Kumar Bhargava, his wife, Nisha Bhargava, and their daughter, Runjhun Bhargava, after the three were named as part of a criminal complaint filed about a week ago in the U.S. District Court, the Department of Justicestated in a release.

The three operate an immigration consulting business called MPEagle Consultants in Cerritos, which caters primarily to Indian nationals. Immigration agents with ICE Homeland Security Investigations executed a search warrant at the business early Wednesday.

The three members of the Bhargava family are accused of recruiting unemployed and low-income U.S. citizens with promises of $2,000 payments in exchange for marrying MPEagle's foreign clients, according to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement statement.

Federal officials allege that the three made the couples pose together for photos and open joint bank accounts to make the fake marriages appear real. The three would then file a fraudulent immigrant visa petition with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, officials said.

Ajit Bhargava quoted different fees to his clients depending on the type of visa they wanted, such as $15,000 for a work visa or up to $60,000 for a visa based upon marriage to a U.S. citizen, immigration officials reported.

"America's immigration system is not for sale and those who think they can game the system for personal gain will find there's a high price to pay," stated Claude Arnold, special agent in charge for ICE HSI in Los Angeles. "Visa fraud is a serious crime. Not only does it undermine the integrity of our legal immigration process and penalize those who abide by the law, it also poses a significant security vulnerability."

The investigation into the family began in September 2009 after officers with the Fraud Detection and National Security Division of USCIS in Santa Ana noticed suspicious similarities with 21 visa petitions traced back to MPEagle, officials reported. In some cases, the applicants used the same marriage certificates, divorce certificates, witnesses or even U.S. citizen spouses.

MPEagle's website states that it offers immigration services in several locations outside of Cerritos, such as Georgia, New Jersey and India.

Source: The Orange County Register

Do not be victimized by companies like MPEagle. Contact a U.S. licensed attorney for your U.S. immigration needs. 

If you have any immigration questions, please do not hesitate to contact our office. 
Sharlene Mae Bagon, Esq.
BAGON LAW FIRM
21550 Oxnard Street, 3rd Floor
Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Main: (818) 224-6632
Direct: (818) 539-0120
Fax: (888) 589-0804

www.bagonlawfirm.com


Popular posts from this blog

USCIS PREDICTS 2014 H-1B CAP TO BE FILLED BY APRIL 5, 2013.

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on March 15, 2013 that it will begin accepting H-1B petitions subject to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 cap on Monday, April 1, 2013. Cases will be considered accepted on the date that USCIS receives a properly filed petition for which the correct fee has been submitted; not the date that the petition is postmarked. The cap (the numerical limitation on H-1B petitions) for FY 2014 is 65,000. In addition, the first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of individuals with U.S. master’s degree or higher are exempt from the fiscal year cap of 65,000. Based on feedback from a number of stakeholders, USCIS anticipates that it may receive more petitions than the H-1B cap between April 1, 2013 and April 5, 2013 .  USCIS will monitor the number of petitions received and notify the public of the date on which the numerical limit of the H-1B cap has been met. This date is known as the final receipt date.  I...
Read more

Visa Processing Fees to Change on April 13, 2012

Effective April 13, 2012, the Department of State will adjust visa processing fees. The fees for most nonimmigrant visa applications and Border Crossing Cards will increase, while all immigrant visa processing fees will decrease. The Department is required to recover, as far as possible, the cost of processing visas through the collection of application fees. For a number of reasons, the current fees no longer cover the actual cost of processing nonimmigrant visas. The nonimmigrant visa fee increase will support the addition and expansion of overseas facilities, as well as additional staffing required to meet increased visa demand. Although most categories of nonimmigrant visa processing fees will increase, the fee for E visas (treaty-traders and treaty-investors) and K visas (for fiancé(e)s of U.S. citizens) will decrease. Nonimmigrant Visa Processing Fees Type of Visa Previous Fee New Fee Tourist, Business, Transit,...
Read more

Changes to Stand-Alone I-130 Filing Locations

USCIS Announces Changes to Stand-Alone I-130 Filing Locations Published Dec. 23, 2011; revised Jan. 1, 2012 WASHINGTON – On January 1, 2012, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) changed the filing locations for Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative.  Domestic petitioners will now mail their stand-alone I-130 applications to either the Chicago Lockbox or the Phoenix Lockbox, depending on their residence in the United States.  Updated filing addresses are available at this link: Form I-130 Direct Filing Locations .  This effort will balance workloads between the two locations and provide more efficient and effective processing of Form I-130.  There will be no change in filing locations when submitting Form I-130 along with Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status. Individuals filing these forms together will continue to mail them to the Chicago Lockbox facility. Petitioners filing from overseas addresses...
Read more