Marriage Fraud Statistics.
If this happened to you, you are not alone — and you are not imagining it. The scale is documented, and the evidence is below.
Every figure on this page traces to an official government source or to sworn congressional testimony.
Marriage is the largest pathway.
“By volume, marriage to a U.S. citizen is the single largest and most fraud-prone pathway to lawful permanent residence in the United States.” — Congressional testimony of Cody M. Brown (June 25, 2025)
1,172,910
New lawful permanent residents in FY 2023 alone.
276,080
Green cards issued to spouses of U.S. citizens in FY 2023.
1 in 4
Nearly one in four new green cards (23.5%) went to a spouse of a U.S. citizen.
| Fiscal Year | Total New LPRs | Spouses of U.S. Citizens | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY 2021 | 740,000 | 251,830 | 34.0% |
| FY 2022 | 1,018,350 | 238,630 | 23.4% |
| FY 2023 | 1,172,910 | 276,080 | 23.5% |
Source: DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, U.S. Lawful Permanent Residents: 2023 (Sept. 2024), Table 2.
And the filings keep climbing. USCIS received 981,200 Form I-130 petitions in FY 2024 — the most in five years.
View the full I-130 filing data, FY 2020–FY 2024
| Fiscal Year | Petitions Received | Petitions Completed |
|---|---|---|
| FY 2020 | 712,000 | 840,800 |
| FY 2021 | 757,200 | 755,100 |
| FY 2022 | 883,200 | 702,300 |
| FY 2023 | 924,400 | 856,200 |
| FY 2024 | 981,200 | 816,500 |
Source: USCIS, Annual Statistical Report FY 2024, p. 9.
Nearly tenfold in a decade.
A VAWA self-petition lets a foreign spouse seek a green card without the U.S. citizen’s knowledge or participation — adjudicated entirely ex parte. Filings have grown from about 7,000 a year to more than 70,000, a rise USCIS itself calls “exponential.”
70,200
VAWA self-petitions received in FY 2024 — a 38% jump over FY 2023, and the most on record.
~10×
Growth in annual filings since FY 2014, when USCIS received about 7,360.
53%
Of 631 self-petition fraud cases USCIS closed with a disposition (FY 2014–Mar. 2019), fraud was found in 332 — 53 percent.
View the underlying VAWA filing data
| Fiscal Year | Self-Petitions Filed | Filed by Spouses | Spouse Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY 2014 | 7,360 | 7,131 | 97% |
| FY 2015 | 7,987 | 7,687 | 96% |
| FY 2016 | 9,393 | 8,905 | 95% |
| FY 2017 | 11,445 | 10,478 | 92% |
| FY 2018 | 12,801 | 11,213 | 88% |
Source: U.S. Gov’t Accountability Office, GAO-19-676 (Sept. 2019).
| Fiscal Year | Self-Petitions Received | Completed |
|---|---|---|
| FY 2020 | 14,900 | 11,200 |
| FY 2021 | — | 11,700 |
| FY 2022 | 32,700 | — |
| FY 2023 | — | — |
| FY 2024 | 70,200 | 14,500 |
Source: USCIS, Annual Statistical Report FY 2024, p. 19 (VAWA I-360, reported separately from Special Immigrant Juvenile I-360). Dashes mark years the source chart did not label numerically.
USCIS officials admitted to the GAO that “the self-petition program is vulnerable to fraud” — even as filings climbed past 70,000 a year.
+305%
Growth in self-petition fraud referrals — from 198 in FY 2014 to 801 by March 2019 (2,208 leads and cases in all). GAO-19-676.
Ex parte
The self-petition is adjudicated entirely out of the U.S. citizen’s view — no notice, no chance to respond. GAO-19-676.
No profile
As of 2019, USCIS had not conducted a formal fraud-risk assessment of the program, used data analytics against it, or (until FY 2019) offered tailored antifraud training. GAO-19-676.
The schemes GAO documented are concrete: self-petitioners who submitted false or forged leases to fake having lived with the alleged abuser, and foreign marriage or divorce certificates later found to be falsified to manufacture a good-faith marriage.
If this is you If you were blindsided by a petition filed without your knowledge — sometimes a false abuse allegation — the growth and fraud rates above show how common this has become. It is not an anomaly, and it is not your fault.
USCIS reports a fraud rate that rounds to zero.
USCIS publishes no fraud-denial statistics for marriage-based forms. A private citizen’s Freedom of Information Act request compelled the disclosure of internal denial data for 2016–2019 — including Form I-751 (removal of conditions) and Form I-360 (the form VAWA self-petitions are filed on).
| Form | Form Type | Adjudications | Fraud Denials | Fraud Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I-129F | Fiancée Petitions | 203,143 | 13 | 0.006% |
| I-130 | Immediate and Preference Relatives | 2,742,339 | 7,357 | 0.268% |
| I-485 | Family-Based Adjustments | 1,320,023 | 5,808 | 0.440% |
| I-751 | Remove Conditions on Residence | 567,808 | 2,024 | 0.356% |
| I-360 | Immigrant Petitions | 120,564 | 82 | 0.068% |
Source: USCIS, Denied-Fraud By Fiscal Year and Quarter: Fiscal Years 2016–2021 (FOIA response, released 2021), as tabulated in the congressional testimony.
Rounded to the nearest whole number, USCIS reports a 0% fraud rate across every major marriage-based immigration form — while its own fraud unit, when it actually investigates, finds fraud in the majority of closed VAWA self-petition cases.
If this is you If you were told your case “isn’t fraud,” these numbers show how rarely anyone actually looks. A reported rate near zero reflects what USCIS records — not whether fraud happened to you.
A federal felony, almost never prosecuted.
Congress made marriage fraud a standalone federal felony in 1986 — punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The offense has lived at 8 U.S.C. § 1325(c) since 1996. The Department of Justice’s own case-processing data show what happened next.
16
Total cases filed under 8 U.S.C. § 1325(c) since 1996 — in nearly three decades.
7
Cases closed under the provision in that same period.
0
Cases filed between 2017 and 2020 — despite an explicit Attorney General directive to consider marriage fraud for felony prosecution.
Source: U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Federal Criminal Case Processing Statistics (FCCPS); U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Memorandum on Renewed Commitment to Criminal Immigration Enforcement (Apr. 11, 2017). As reported in the congressional testimony.
The system may be failing. You don’t have to.
These numbers describe a national failure — not a verdict on your case. What happens next is still yours to shape, and you do not have to navigate it alone.
Washington has known since 1984.
INS investigates 62 major fraud rings in a single fiscal year — some involving hundreds of sham marriages facilitated by immigration attorneys, ministers, or criminal brokers.
An INS survey of three cities suggests “as much as 30 percent” of spousal immigration cases “may be fraudulent.” Congress responds with the Immigration Marriage Fraud Amendments — making marriage fraud a felony and creating conditional residency.
USCIS officials admit to the GAO that “the self-petition program is vulnerable to fraud” as VAWA filings climb 74% in five years. (GAO-19-676)
The GAO finds USCIS’s antifraud efforts still lack basic safeguards — decades after being established. (GAO-22-105328)
Cody M. Brown testifies before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, compiling the record above and proposing the restoration of INA § 204(c). Read the full testimony →
Where every number comes from.
- DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, U.S. Lawful Permanent Residents: 2023 (Alicia Ward, Sept. 2024), Table 2.
- U.S. Gov’t Accountability Office, Immigration Benefits: Additional Actions Needed to Address Fraud Risks in Program for Foreign National Victims of Domestic Abuse, GAO-19-676 (Sept. 2019).
- U.S. Gov’t Accountability Office, Immigration Benefits: Actions Needed to Address Vulnerabilities in USCIS’s Antifraud Efforts, GAO-22-105328 (2022).
- USCIS, Annual Statistical Report FY 2024 (v1.0) — Form I-130 (p. 9) and VAWA Form I-360 (p. 19).
- USCIS, Denied-Fraud By Fiscal Year and Quarter: Fiscal Years 2016–2021 (through Mar. 2021) (FOIA response, released 2021).
- U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Federal Criminal Case Processing Statistics.
- Testimony of Cody M. Brown, Restoring INA § 204(c), U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement (June 25, 2025) — full text and video.
FAQs
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