Dating Foreign Woman, Have you done your Homework

Apparently men in America using online dating sites to find woman living in other countries could be breaking a federal law. The law is called the "Marriage Broker Regulation Act" (IMBRA) and requires men who use a fee-based dating site to submit to a criminal background check, a sex offender check and must certify all previous convictions or arrests, marriages, divorces and children. An online dating service not compliant with the legislation can be sued for $5 thousand to $25 thousand and the dating service executives could face up to 5 years in prison. There is no law dealing with the woman US men may meet or US woman meeting foreign men through a dating service.

As stated in the article, the reason for the creation of the IMBRA is:

to protect foreign women and was championed by many women's groups here in the United States, primarily by the Tahirih Justice Center, who claimed foreign women, in these online relationships, suffered from a higher rate of abuse by American men. However, the 'claim' of abuse in the only official study done by the INS was in 1999, which found the reverse to be true. In fact, the rate of abuse within an international marriage was one seventh that of domestic marriages.

I'm not sure what the law makers was thinking here since the study found that these foreign women receive less abuse. The woman lobby groups must be pretty powerful.

I have found no reports yet of this law being used to charge an online dating site yet. I also have trouble believing in this idea of dating foreign woman through the internet. It seems that in most cases the woman just wants to get out of her country and is willing to do it by marrying someone she hardly knows. Where as the American man sees it as an easier way to meet a younger and prettier woman.

For more information about the "Marriage Broker Regulation Act" check out the Red Herring.