International Marriage Broker Regulation Act

International Marriage Broker Regulation Act

The International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005 (Subtitle D of Title VIII (Sec.831-834) of United States Public Law 109-162), or IMBRA, is a United States federal statute that requires background checks for all marriage visa sponsors and limits serial visa applications. Additionally, the law requires background checks for all persons wanting to receive contact information, something that is necessary in order to communicate. The impetus for its introduction were two cases (including the Susanna Blackwell case in 1995 and the Anastasia King case in 2000) in which foreign women had been abused and eventually murdered by men who had used a K-1 fiancée visa issued by the US State Department to bring them to the United States. In the King case, the husband had physically abused a previous foreign bride before murdering Anastasia. King had met Anastasia through his own advertisement in a Moscow newspaper (not through an "international marriage broker"). In the Blackwell case, the husband had a clean record, therefore IMBRA would not have prevented her murder. It was intended to stop abuse of "mail order brides" by prospective husbands with criminal histories. At the same time there are thousands of international marriages between Americans and foreigners without problem.