As a result of high cases of fake marriages and marriage fraud, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has put a lot of marriages under scrutiny and set down stringent rules to properly investigate a marriage before giving a green card.

A report by the Migration Policy Institute stated that the statistics of immigrants issued the United States permanent residency in 2023 was 969,000.

However, investigations by the USCIS discovered that most permanent residents granted to Nigerians between 2017 – 2023 were given because of marriages, but these marriages were invalid.

An Immigration Lawyer, Jim Hacking, speaking on his YouTube channel named Hacking Immigration Law, said that there are exceptional cases for Nigerian men who go to the US to marry US citizens and apply for a green card due to the high rate of marriage scams.

These are things you, however, need to know as a Nigerian person wishing to obtain a US green card through marriage.

1. Evidence to the USCIS that your marriage is real: As a beneficiary of a green card, the evidence of a valid marriage must show that you have a joint bank account, life insurance, wills, joint leases, and joint utilities

2. ⁠A legal marriage certificate: A document showing that you both are legally married must be presented

3. ⁠Proof of legal entry into the US for the beneficiary: A document showing that you have the beneficiary of the permanent residency entered into the country legally.

4. Birth certificate: The beneficiary’s birth certificate; in this case, a Nigerian must present his original birth certificate.

5. Proof of U.S. citizenship: For the sponsor of the permanent residency application, being a U. S citizen, you must also present an original certificate of citizenship.

6. Proof of divorce from a previous marriage (if applicable): Because the USCIS has discovered that many applicants for the green card do not perfect their divorce or they never really divorced their previous partners before marrying another person needs a document to prove that the divorce has been finalized.