Neeraj Sharma became a US citizen in 2017. Two years later, he was arrested on charges of visa fraud and naturalization fraud.
50-year-old Neeraj Sharma is one of 17 US citizens set to lose their citizenship over their crime. The Department of Justice announced on Monday that it has filed citizenship deprivation cases against these 17 individuals accused of serious crimes.
Only US citizens can have their citizenship revoked, visa holders cannot have their citizenship revoked. Citizenship of natural-born citizens also cannot be revoked. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a naturalized U.S. citizen may have his citizenship revoked, and his certificate of naturalization revoked, if naturalization was obtained unlawfully, by concealment of a material fact, or by intentional misrepresentation.Neeraj Sharma, an Indian American, was the owner and CEO of Magnavision LLC, a staffing firm based in New Jersey.
Sharma used to hire workers on H-1B visas, but he never had a job for them. He filed 11 petitions for the H-1B visa, each of which included false representations that the visa recipients would work for a particular global financial institution. The petitions also included letters on company letterhead with forged signatures of executives.In 2017, Sharma applied for naturalization, the process of becoming a US citizen after living in the United States for the required number of years as a permanent resident (green card holder).
During the naturalization process, Sharma falsely asserted that he had not: (a) committed a crime or crime for which he was not arrested; (b) giving any U.S. government officials any information or documents that were false or misleading; and (c) lying to any U.S. government official to obtain immigration benefits.Based on these material lies, USCIS approved his application, and Sharma became a US citizen in December 2017.In 2019, he was arrested and charged with visa fraud and one count of naturalization fraud. The complainant said that Sharma himself was a contract business analyst in the bank where he promised jobs.“U.S. citizenship is a privilege, and it must be earned honestly. If you come here to break our laws, and lie in your immigration proceedings, you lose that privilege,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullen said of the new citizenship deprivations. “DHS will not stand idly by while Americans are harmed by criminals including sex offenders, fraud perpetrators, and drug traffickers who have taken advantage of our generosity and gamed our immigration system.
We will continue to use all legal means to strip foreigners of their citizenship and deport them.”
