New Jersey couple charged with sham marriage for US residency
NEW JERSEY (PIX11) — A New Jersey woman and her Albanian husband are accused of entering into a sham marriage so he can become a permanent U.S. resident, authorities said.
Elvis Harizaj, 25, an Albanian national, and Natasha Flores, 27, of Newark, were both charged with making false statements to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), according to federal prosecutors.
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Harizaj came to the U.S. on a student visa in 2017 and married Flores in 2021 before filing for permanent resident status a year later.
During their individual interviews with USCIS in 2023, Harizaj and Flores allegedly told different stories about when they moved in together, whether Flores had any student loans, and the details of the proposal, according to the federal complaint.
The couple allegedly submitted a few bills and a lease to a fake Maple Shade, N.J. address as part of their citizenship application, according to court records. But the couple never lived together, and Flores' landlord in Newark proved she had been living there since 2019, officials said.
Flores also claimed she was never married before, but she had previously married a Brazilian man to help him get his U.S. citizenship, prosecutors alleged.
Harizaj eventually withdrew his permanent resident application and admitted his marriage to Flores was a sham, according to court records. He was also charged with marriage fraud.
The charges of false statements and marriage fraud both have a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and a term of three years of supervised release, prosecutors said.
Mira Wassef is a digital reporter who has covered news and sports in the NYC area for more than a decade. She has been with PIX11 News for two years. See more of her work here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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