Press Release
March 4, 1999
INS Reports to Congress on Mail-Order Bride Businesses
WASHINGTON — The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) last Thursday released a report to Congress which indicates that the number of international matchmaking organizations, commonly known as mail-order bride businesses, is growing rapidly. Congress mandated the report, under Section 652 of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, because of concern that the international matchmaking industry — which is unregulated — may exploit women and promote fraudulent marriages.
While INS does not gather information directly related to mail-order marriages, a review of the agency’s records found that less than 1 percent of the domestic violence cases now being brought to the attention of the INS can be identified definitively as relating to the mail-order bride industry. Similarly, only 1 percent of cases that appeared to involve marriage fraud could be linked to this industry.
The report also indicates that:
- More than 200 international matchmaking organizations operated in the United States in 1998, and the number is growing.
- These organizations bring together approximately 4,000 to 6,000 couples yearly who marry and petition for immigration of the female spouse to the United States. This volume represents between 3 and 4 percent of the direct immigration of female spouses to this country and only 0.4 percent of all immigration to the United States.
- Most of the women come from the Philippines or from the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union.
To prepare the report INS did extensive research and compiled a vast array of information that already exists on the subject. In addition, INS contracted with an academic expert, Robert J. Scholes of the University of Florida, to provide an estimate of the number of mail-order bride marriages. INS also reviewed a sample of its records to determine the extent of domestic violence and marriage fraud within such marriages.
Moreover, to gather as much information as possible from divergent sources, on
July 16, 1997, INS published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register to solicit input from the public. INS received responses from individuals who have used mail-order bride businesses with both favorable and unfavorable results, owners who defended their right to conduct such businesses, advocacy groups representing battered immigrant women, and academics who have conducted research in the field.
To further comply with the statute, INS is drafting a proposed rule to require international matchmaking organizations to provide information to their recruits on their rights and obligations under U.S. immigration law. The proposed rule is expected to be published in the Federal Register this summer.
— INS —
The Report