On February 15, 2019, USCIS pushed forward a new form that would allow members of the public to accuse foreign nationals or naturalized citizens of immigration fraud.
The form will have the title “USCIS Tip Form” and the form number G-1530.
According to the government, the form will make it easier for USCIS to collect of information from the public regarding credible and relevant claims of immigration benefit fraud.
The government states that not only will information it expects to collect impact open, unfinished cases, it will also impact “closed” cases (e.g., cases in which the foreign national already received the benefit he sought).
One fact that may surprise non-attorneys is that frequently we get calls from individuals who want to know how they can prevent someone from receiving an immigration benefit or how they can get the government to revoke the immigration benefit. These callers are so intent on denying someone immigration peace of mind that they are presumably willing to fork over money to do so.
We never have and never will take these cases. But, considering these calls, it is not surprising that USCIS expects that informants will use the Tip Form a lot. In fact, USCIS predicts that there will be 55,000 submissions each year.
It does not require an immigration Einstein to imagine the likely consequences of such a high number of submissions. It is easy to imagine that this form will lead to many fraud investigations, many immigration-benefit revocations, many deportation proceedings, many fines, many arrests, and even prison time.