Sham marriage will be deemed a crime

WEDNESDAY, NOV 23: Entering into a sham marriage is set to become a criminal offence.

And Bermudians who marry people from overseas will have to undergo a two-year “trial period” aimed at ensuring the marriage is genuine, if new legislation is approved.

National Security Minister Wayne Perinchief said that bogus marriages — which enable foreigners to obtain the right to live and work in Bermuda — had become a big problem.

“Some Bermudians are marrying foreign spouses in what are not real marriages — they’re marriages of convenience,” he told the Bermuda Sun in an -exclusive interview.

“We think it’s a big problem because we’ve come across quite a few people who, once they are married, spend almost no time together. People are seeking to acquire spousal letters and spousal rights, then they aren’t actually living together in a true marriage.

“It means the partner who is the foreign partner has a job a Bermudian could have. We want to correct this abuse of marriage and spousal rights.”

Mr Perinchief said the law change would mean foreign spouses of Bermudians would have to obtain special permission to work for a two year period after marriage — and that the work permit could be refused if Government is not satisfied the marriage is genuine.

He said: “We know that, on occasion, a Bermudian partner will take money to keep their mouth shut about what is an arranged marriage.

“In one case, a Bermudian spouse was on their partner’s health insurance and was being paid what amounted to a salary. This went on for a long time.

“It’s a complex issue — if we can’t prove a couple haven’t lived together for ten years, we end up with a person who has got Bermuda status unfairly.

“What we’re proposing is to create a statutory offence of marriage fraud, together with penalties for abuse of marriage rights.”

Mr Perinchief added there had also been cases where a foreigner had married a Bermudian bigamously as they still had a spouse overseas.

He said: “We can’t always check that — it’s difficult to find out if someone is legally married to someone else in another part of the world.”

Other abuses include:

• A foreign national who was married and divorced from three Bermudian women in the space of a few years;

• A Caribbean island national who overstayed his work permit and was deported, but later married a Bermudian in his homeland and wanted to return as he had a child in Bermuda.

Mr Perinchief said: “He also got a conviction for drugs possession in his own country which, in the opinion of the Minister, made him undesirable and not of good character. He also has a child in his country of domicile. We do believe this is a sham marriage — he was told to quit the country and almost immediately marries a Bermudian in order to return. But we have found both males and females are involved in these kinds of sham marriages.”

Mr Perinchief is understood to have taken his proposals to Cabinet yesterday with legislation likely to be tabled in the House of Assembly soon.

What do you think? E-mail feedback to reporter Raymond Hainey: [email protected]