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Hello, I hope you are well. You might remember a few years ago, the UK broadcaster, Channel 5, released a hit series about marriage immigration fraud, called Holiday Love Rats Exposed. The series explored this little-known area and brought these scams, and the terrible impact on sometimes vulnerable men and women, to public attention. The contributors involved thanked us for giving their cases traction. You may have come across an organisation called Immigration Marriage Fraud UK (immigrationmarriagefrauduk.co.uk); we’re working with founder Dee and contributor Kim to make a further documentary. I'm keen to hear from someone who has been affected by marriage fraud to help me understand these horrible scams more. If anyone is available for a quick chat over the phone so I could explain a little better, and if you felt like it, you could explain your experience - you do not have to speak about anything you don't feel comfortable about. Ideally, this would be someone who went on holiday and met someone, perhaps married them, brought them home to the UK or America (or planned to do so), only to find that their partner was sadly only with them for a visa, money etc.. Does this ring any bells for you? You could be based in the UK or further afield. We do of course understand that discussing these matters is highly sensitive but I can assure you that any initial conversations will remain confidential and be for research purposes only. If you then feel comfortable taking it further, we can discuss it. Nine Lives Media, the independent television company making this documentary, has won two Baftas, an International Emmy plus RTS awards and prides itself on working with contributors on sensitive issues. If you think you fit the bill, please feel free to message me, call me on 0044 (0)161 832 2007 or email me on [email protected] Our turnaround time is quite tight, and we’ll need to identify potential contributors swiftly, so it would be great to hear about your story soon! Many thanks!

Hello Everyone I would like to introduce myself,I am 25 years old born and raised in a super small town in Georgia. I am new to this forum and I have recently started dating a Turkish man and some things have been a little on the too good to be true side of things with him and I need to insight and some advice. I've never dated anyone that was from another country before so this is all new to me. And I just want to protect myself if need be. So I will start from the beginning on how my relationship came about with my Turkish boyfriend... I just moved to California from a small southern town in Georgia a month ago (huge difference obviously) and my friend told me about this online dating site to where you can possibly date someone or just be friends with people and since I am new to the area I decided to give it a shot. Granted I have never done the whole online dating scene but again I gave it a shot. So I met this man (which is now my boyfriend who is Turkish) And our first date was simple we met for coffee and talked for like 3 hours. And he seemed normal. And seemed really sweet. By the second date again he was very sweet and a gentlemen, he took me to a romantic restraunt and whooed me so to speak(which I've never had that done for me before) so it was nice. And granted the date went really well. By the third date he told me that he was really happy with me and that he really liked me and all this and I felt the same way which is very true. Now we've only been boyfriend and girlfriend so to speak for 2 weeks and he's already told me that he's in love with me. And telling me that I am the only one for him, and that he can't live without me and thank God he found me, and that he wants to spend forever with me, and wants to marry me. So as I've talked with several of my girlfriends about this they all think that is really sweet of him and they say oh my god he's the perfect man. I on the other hand think that's pretty odd especially since we don't really know one another. So anyways we've been dating for 2 weeks and I've already met most of his family that live here in California. And I have spent the night with him a few times and he's pretty much confessing his undying love for me. And says that he wants to marry me and make LOTS of babies with me. His family seems to like me which is good I mean I am very family oriented myself and I know that if family doesn't like the person you are dating 9 times out of 10 its not going to work. However his parents tell him that I am a beautiful and nice woman and that he needs to hang on to me and hurry up and marry me. He has even said that he wants to take me to Turkey this September. I have never been out of the country so its a little scary for me. But he said that he wants to take me. Now I have googled alot of things about dating turkish men and what are some of the issues American girls have with them and I must say that I am a little freaked out. My boyfriend is very sweet, charming, and makes me really happy and treats me very very well but at the same time I feel like he's rushing things. And I feel like maybe he is too good to be true. But then again I don't want to think negative about him because I know that not all Turkish men are the same. But since we come from two different cultures that kinda concerns me. My family are hardcore southern people who freaked out when I moved out here just because I wanted to experience life. And I am afraid that with our families being so different that it will cause a problem in our relationship. So if ya'll could comment and give me some advice on what you think that I should do or how to approach this whole situation would be great because I am totally clueless.

Merhaba everyone I am new to the forums. I am dating a man from Adana and we have been dating a little over a month. He seems very sweet, but he is also very hard-working....which makes talking to him kind of hard, at times (because he is always at work!). Sometimes we have communication problems because he speaks English fairly well, but oftentimes he comes across something that he doesn't know how to say. Unfortunately, I do not know Turkish. I have been trying to learn it but it is a lot more difficult because it is nothing like the languages I already know! (Spanish and English). Anyway, I was wondering about cultural differences. This man has been a real gentleman. He always pays, he always drives, etc. But I feel bad for him paying; when I offer to pay he tells me, "I would feel so bad if you paid!". Also, my birthday passed, and he gave me some pretty elaborate gifts considering the short amount of time we were dating. He gave me a very elaborate Turkish shawl, an evil eye, and a shirt. I'm not used to someone spending that much money on me, and it makes me feel kind of guilty! But I do not want to offend him or make him think that his generosity is not appreciated. However, although I think this guy has good intentions, I worry that he is trying to "own" me by buying me so many things. However, he said that Turkish men are taught to impress a woman like this and that Turkish women expect this from them (I don't know if this is true!! He seems pretty Westernized in some aspects. I was really worried about coming across as an easy, American girl, so I tried to not show a lot of skin in public, but he has traveled a lot outside of Turkey so I think that it doesn't really bother him. He is Muslim, but non-practicing. Anyway, what can I expect in a relationship with a Turkish man? My guy seems very sweet and although he says that all Turkish men are jealous, I have never seen him get jealous or controlling. What do Turkish men want out of a relationship with an American girl? I am very independent and I worry if that is a problem. I just want to understand that cultural differences I can expect so that I can understand them and work through them. Also, he plans on staying in the US to work. He is in the process of getting his PhD.

Hello, I am a Turkish psychological counselor (MA) and life coach who is very interested in cultural differences. I was also trained as a relationship therapist. So I thought maybe I can help you if you have some issues with your relationships and other daily issues here. It would also be a good experience for me to take your opinions. Just share and I will do my best to help.