But Who Is S/He Really?

Madam remembers - with more than a little wicked glee - how often she was the only consular officer in the room, whatever that room's size, who didn't hate the Lottery.  How often, she wants to recall, did she hear other conoffs wail about how HARD it was to tell whether the applicants' bona fides were bona fide, since - gasp - we didn't know anything about them.

(Not knowing anything about them - she could only presume, since the complaining officers couldn't articulate otherwise - must have meant that there wasn't a CIS-approved petition to lean on. We all know how fraud-free approved petitions are, don't we?)

Well now there is a new reason to wail. Even though same-sex spouses and fiance(e)s will have approved petitions, Madam can't help but suspect that some of those same officers might now be suffering a new kind of worry: how can we tell if these purported relationships are real, or are just a new avenue for scamsters, and one that is at present so new and so sensitive that we fear to question it?

Maybe the same way we tell if all the other purported relationships we see are real:


We talk to the people involved, asking the same questions we would ask of any heterosexual couple.

If the petitioner comes to the interview, we observe the couple together.

We gather all our wits and decide if the relationship appears to be genuine.

Then we issue the visa.

Or not.

Next!