A recent development in Congress is worth some attention by those
involved in the international romance pursuit.
On July 25, 2003, Rep. Rick Larsen and Sen. Maria Cantwell,
both of Washington State, introduced legislation in
the U.S. Congress concerning the "International Marriage Broker"
industry. The bill has been referred to the appropriate committees
for consideration after the summer recess in September.
For the text of the bill captioned "International Marriage Broker Regulation
Act of 2003", see this site and type in H.R.2949.
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.html
(Companion Senate Bill S.1455)
This bill is largely driven by media reports about a recent shock
case in Washington State in 2000. Anastasia King, a 20 year-old
foreign bride from Kyrgyzstan (former Soviet Union), was murdered
by her husband Indle King, Jr. The couple met through a so-called
"marriage broker agency". Mr. King had been the subject of a
prior court restraining order by his ex-spouse, another Russian bride,
whom he had abused. Anastasia had no information beforehand
about the prior restraining order. Meanwhile, Mr. King,
shortly after his wife's death, had filed another fiancee visa petition
with Immigration Service for yet another lady.
The bill, which is modeled after a recent Washington State law, essentially
states: A visa petitioner can only file for one fiancee visa at a time
in a one year period. An international marriage broker must inform the lady
foreign client of her domestic violence rights and get her "informed consent".
The broker must collect from each male client his criminal history
and other history such as domestic violence, past visas, marital history.
The broker must disclose this to the lady client before releasing her
personal contact information to the male client. Immigration Service
and U.S. Consulate must run extensive criminal background checks,
and disclose directly to the lady visa applicant, any criminal and other
history information on the male client and information about her
domestic violence rights and resources.
I OPPOSE the bill provisions which impose direct regulation on International
Marriage Brokers as excessive and unnecessary. I believe that the type of
requirements imposed on brokers will make their activities prohibitively costly
and simply drive many of them offshore or underground. Moreover, these regulation
requirements can easily be done less disruptively by Consular and Immigration officers,
most effectively at the visa application interview stage.
Brokers should not be asked to take on private investigator and government data collection functions.
I DO NOT HOWEVER OPPOSE bill provisions requiring mandatory criminal
background checks on petitioners by Immigration, and disclosure by
U.S. Consulate at the visa application interview point to the foreign lady
about her domestic violence rights and resources, and any information
available on the gentleman petitioner.
With the current post 09-11 sentiments in Congress
favoring more restrictive immigration regulation, I believe that
there is a material prospect that this bill may be reported out of
committee favorably and may have a real chance
to pass on the floors of Congress.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Those of you with an interest in this field, be you owners, clients or friends,
may wish to contact your local Congressman and Senator's offices, as well
the important committee members' offices, and make your views heard now
before any final vote on this bill.
We suggest phone call, e-mail, fax and registered letter.
SEE: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
CHAIRMAN JOHN HOSTETTLER, HOUSE SUB-COMMITTEE IMMIGRATION
http://www.house.gov/hostettler/
CHAIRMAN SAXBY CHAMBLISS, SENATE SUB-COMMITTEE IMMIGRATION
http://chambliss.senate.gov/
For more information on this topic, see:
http://www.usaimmigrationattorney.com/InternationalMarriageBrokers2003.html
Good luck to all,
Gary Bala
