For a lot of immigrants who make it to the U.S. on temporary visas as students or employees, the question isn't how they can get legal permission to stay. The real question is, "How much can you afford to pay if you want to stay?" One of the hottest areas of immigration fraud in the last decade is turning out to be scams that allow people to pay for phony sponsorship through so-called "visa brokers." Before you get involved in a scam that could keep you out of the U.S. for good, this is what you should know.

Fake Universities And Student Visas

Immigration laws are fairly friendly toward students who are pursuing a degree, and many foreign-born individuals are legitimately in the country to pursue a higher education. However, there are also fake universities and schools that exist solely for the purpose of allowing people to buy their way into a student visa. For example, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) just exposed a network of people running the "University of Northern New Jersey." The University was a fiction that existed only to provide "student" immigrants the paperwork that they needed to keep their visas active and legal.

Phony Employers And Work Visas

Immigration rules also make room for people who have special skill sets that make them highly desirable within certain industries. For example, the tech industry in the U.S. is often looking for employees who have highly competitive programming skills—and there are fraudulent companies that take advantage of this in order to fool Immigration. In exchange for substantial fees, job brokers will provide foreign-born workers the necessary documentation that states that they have valuable skills or experience that the bogus company needs—paving the way for an employee visa.

The tech industry isn't the only place that these shadowy job brokers exist. For example, in 2011, a total of 27 people were charged with operating a highly complex scheme that provided thousands of people with everything from fake employment sponsorship paperwork and letters of experience to justify their labor-based certifications to fake pay stubs and tax returns. In return, immigrants paid as much as $30,000 for the privilege.

Ruined Chances And Lost Privileges

If you're just desperate enough to stay in the U.S. to pay one of these brokers for fake paperwork? You could very likely find yourself out of a lot of money and lose any chance at getting a legitimate visa in the future. If you're caught, your legal status in the U.S. could be terminated immediately, and you can be deported. Depending on the circumstances, you could even serve time in jail before being deported.

In addition, lying to immigration and document fraud is considered a crime of moral turpitude. You could be permanently refused admittance to the U.S. again on that basis alone. 

Don't let your desire to get an extended-stay visa drive you to an illegal act. Instead, contact an immigration attorney in your area and for more info and to discuss your case and your options for getting a legitimate extension.