Federal authorities say a former Afghan interpreter for the U.S. military has admitted he falsified records to obtain a visa and come to Rochester.
With his plea and conviction, Dilbar Gul Dilbar faces possible deportation, according to a plea agreement filed this week in U.S. District Court. The fate of his wife and five children was not immediately clear.
Court records show the Afghan national admitted to paying someone to submit what he knew was a false approval letter from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul as part of his application for a Special Immigrant Visa.
A limited number of Afghan SIVs were reserved for interpreters who assisted the U.S. military and government officials for at least two years. Authorities have confirmed Dilbar worked for the armed forces during the war in Afghanistan, but intermittently. In the plea, he admitted that he attested to the accuracy of his SIV applications in 2017, but was denied, then again in 2021, as Afghanistan fell to the Taliban.
Dilbar received the SIV on the second go-around, was vetted, accepted into the United States and brought his wife and four children to Rochester in April 2024. A fifth child was born here. He obtained lawful permanent residency in July 2024, and was arrested at his workplace in May 2025.
The plea comes with a recommendation that he be sentenced to six months in prison, pay a fine of $500 to $9,500 and be placed on supervised release for not more than two years, records show. The charge otherwise carries a maximum prison term of 10 years.
Plea negotiations had been ongoing for months with previous court records noting that an immigration attorney was retained to advise on “the potential collateral consequences involved with this matter.”
"The defendant understands that no one, including the defendant's attorney or the district court, can predict to a certainty the effect of the defendant's conviction on the defendant's immigration status," the plea agreement states.
The agreement goes on to state that Dilbar “nevertheless affirms that (he) wants to plead guilty regardless of any immigration consequences that the guilty plea may entail, even if the consequence is the defendant’s automatic removal from the United States.”
