To: Senator Cantwell

Regarding: Proposed legislation concerning International Matchmaking Organizations (IMO's)

Please accept the following proposal for your consideration when drafting new Federal Legislation further regulating International Matchmaking Organizations. Please note that this proposal has widespread industry support witnessed by the accompanying signature list.

We, as an industry, support the concept of criminal background checks on the petitioners of Fiancee Visas (K1) , as well as providing relevant information regarding spousal abuse to all foreign women entering the country on a Fiancee Visa (K1). Below is our proposal. Following the proposal we have included some of the reasons why we believe this proposal will be the most effective way to accomplish the goal of providing as much information to foreign women contemplating a serious relationship or marriage to an American man.

  Proposal:

• Mirror the Washington State legislation, with one exception. Make it mandatory for all matchmaking companies dealing with foreign singles for a fee, regardless of whether or not it is their primary business. Ticket Master owns Match.com, they profile thousands of foreign women on their site, that may not be their "primary" business, but why should all those foreign women not receive the same information other smaller companies have to supply? Those women are at just as much risk as women from a smaller site, even more so since Match.com and other large sites like Yahoo and MSN reach many more men.
• Provide that a criminal background check on the petitioner become a part of the Fiancee Visa process, and the results of that check be disclosed to the woman at the time of her interview. Increase the cost of the visa to cover the cost of the criminal background check.
• Provide all women with written information about their rights at the time of the interview.

By doing these last two steps at the time of the interview we are ensuring that all foreign spouses, not just the small percentage who immigrate via IMO's will receive the same protection as the women who use IMO's.

  Reasoning behind the proposal:

• The Scope of the International Matchmaking Industry is extremely large and varied. There are US based companies that deal primarily with International Introductions. There are US based companies that deal with Domestic and International introductions. There are foreign-based companies that market heavily to American men for International matchmaking. To pass one law that will regulate any entity dealing with foreign matchmaking is difficult due to the diverse nature of the companies offering essentially the same service. For example, it would be difficult to regulate Yahoo personals or Match.com, which contain thousands of foreign women, in the same exact manner you would regulate a US company working primarily with foreign women. However, the larger companies like Yahoo and Match.com, due to their large size, may actually profile more foreign women than smaller companies just dealing in International matchmaking. The foreign-based companies are another problem altogether since the US laws will not affect them in the least. They will still be able to market to American men via the Internet and provide the service, and the women will receive absolutely no information about their rights. This is one of the major concerns of the US based companies. If the legislation is too restrictive it will grant a huge competitive advantage to the foreign companies, possibly to the point where the complying US based companies can no longer compete. If that were to happen the women would have no choice but to use the foreign services and receive no information at all about their rights.
• It is also a fact, according the Justice Department, that only 4 to 6 percent of all foreign spouses use the services of an IMO. Even if that number is as high as 20 percent, it would still mean that 80 percent of the foreign spouses coming to this county would not receive any information or support, unless it was given to them by the Federal government at the time of the Fiancee Visa.
• The current Federal legislation already provides that matchmaking companies distribute information to the women who join telling of their rights in the case of spousal abuse. The Washington State and Hawaii legislation go a step further, providing that the women are told that they have the right to request criminal and martial background information. By extending that to the Federal level, the women joining IMO's would know that, if they are interested, they could request that information. Of course this only helps the small percentage of foreign spouses who actually use IMO's.
• It would be logistically impossible to force a man who is only contemplating meeting someone, and is only at the letter writing stage, to submit criminal background information to the IMO and/or to the woman or women he is interested in corresponding with. The fact is that if a man writes 10 letters he may receive an average of 0 to 3 responses. Why should he have to send criminal background information to a woman whom has no interest in him anyway? It would also be a huge burden on the women, if IMO's were forced to send criminal background information on every man who requested their address. The woman would not have time to read all of the information, and it would lose all impact and simply be discarded. It makes much more sense and will be much more effective if the woman is told that she can request a criminal background check on any man she is interested in. Again, this only helps women who interface with complying IMO's. If this legislation does not apply to the large companies like MSN and Yahoo, as well as the foreign-based companies, then women using those services would not receive that information.
• By making the criminal background check mandatory at the time of the Fiancee Visa, as well as providing information concerning spousal abuse and her rights, we ensure that no foreign spouse will fall through the cracks. If the foreign spouse used a foreign-based company or a non-complying US based company, we will be assured that she will receive any criminal history and her rights prior to coming over. After learning of the criminal history, if any, it will be her choice, as an informed adult, to proceed.

We, as an industry feel that this will be the most effective and efficient manner to ensure that the foreign women contemplating marriage with an American men will be armed with as much information as possible for her to base her decision on.

Sincerely,
John Adams
A Foreign Affair

I concurr with this proposal