Indian American Pleads Guilty to Fraudulently Obtaining US Citizenship Through Lies, False Documents

An Indian American has pleaded guilty to procuring US citizenship based on fraud documents and telling lies, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said.

Following an investigation by the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Jaiprakash Gulvady, 51, who now lives in Florida pleaded guilty to procuring citizenship or naturalisation unlawfully, misusing evidence of citizenship or naturalization, making false statements in a passport application, and using a passport secured by false statements.

Gulvady faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison.

His conviction for unlawfully procuring citizenship or naturalisation will result in the automatic revocation of his US citizenship when he is sentenced. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

According to the plea agreement, Gulvady came to the United States in 2001 on a temporary business visa.

In August 2008, less than two weeks after divorcing his wife — a US citizen he had married the year before — he married another US citizen. Based on that marriage, he adjusted his immigration status and became a lawful permanent resident in June 2009.

Two months later, in August 2009, he travelled to India for the first time since his 2001 arrival in the United States.

While in India, he married an Indian woman. On a subsequent visit to India, Gulvady and his Indian spouse conceived their first and only child, who was born in January 2011.

In August 2013, Gulvady’s marriage to his US citizen wife was dissolved, ICE said.

The following year, Gulvady filed an application for naturalisation and falsely stated that he was not currently married; that he did not have any children; and that he had never been married to more than one person at the same time.

Based on that application, Gulvady became a naturalised US citizen in August 2014.

Using his fraudulently obtained Certificate of Naturalisation as evidence of US citizenship, Gulvady filed an application for a US passport and falsely omitted his Indian spouse, ICE said.

The Department of State issued Gulvady a US passport, which he then used to reenter the United States on at least three occasions, ICE said.