Officials at the New York City immigration center have revealed the questions which they ask to catch out couples they don’t believe are legitimately married.

With a huge increase in marriage rates for green cards, including among Irish immigrants, the information is a revealing insight into what people will face into at the interview.

According to the New York  Daily News, the questions that immigration agents most frequently ask are:

- What restaurant do you and your husband usually order take out from?
-  Where do you keep the menus?
- How did you celebrate New Year’s Eve last year?
- How much is your rent? Who writes the check?
- What’s the closest subway stop to your marital residence?

If the answers match, they are likely  be approved.

Agents say those attempting a bogus marriage sometimes make incredible mistakes.

“They don’t know the names of the step kids,” said one officer.

Another man did not know his “wife” to be slept with an oxygen tank because of breathing difficulties at night.

“Life is stranger than fiction,” officer Barbara Felska told the New York Daily News.

Sometimes real mistakes occur and officers find that the couple are not lying, just unable to remember.

“We bring them together ... and say, ‘Your wife told me that last New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2011, right before midnight you were at home watching the Times Square celebration,’” Felska said.

“‘However, sir, you told me that you were at a party, with your friends from college.’

“And then the wife is like, ‘Honey, you’re talking about two years ago!’”

Sometimes the really suspicious marriages turn out to be real while those that seem genuine are fake, officials said.