See

http://www.immigration.com/newsletter1/IMBRA072106.pdf



WHat I gather from this is that

1.the IMBRA doesnt apply to K-3's.

2. And this memo seems to give complete leeway to the USCIS officer to make his/her own decision about whether a waiver should be granted(except not in criminal history cases). The key thing in this USCIS interoffice memo is the petitioner providing supporting evidence as to why the waiver should be granted. It seems you cant just ask for it, you must explain your poor luck hardship situation that made this situation no fault of your own.

Ive been monitoring everyone's waiver results, and so far, all have gotten approved waivers except one recent member here saying they are getting a intent to deny letter. This is the only case I have seen that is running into difficulty. So, Im not so sure if they are merely starting to strictly enforce the IMBRA or whether this petitioner had very limited supporting evidence as to why they should be given a waiver.

I have had 2 fiances in the last 3 years and so I sent in proof of my fiances letters,amails , and faxes clearly written by them explaining why they changed their minds on me(too young), and I even provided both of their phone numbers in case the USCIS officer wants to call them to verify my story. My fiance is 32 and I am 39 and neither of us have ever been married, so if ever there was a case for approval, Id think ours is it. There's no freaky age difference , and she is clearly a humble, very plain looking girl, not a racy potential bar girl type. But, we'll see. Its been 3 months and Ive heard nothing yet. I included the waiver request in the petition but I only hope they dont ask for it again like what happened to another member here. That must really suck to get asked for it again!!

Only the IMBRA multiple filing limitation does not apply to K-3.....

Well the person you are talking about is ME. And I will shortly be able to tell you what the results are. I had included a waiver request in my petition. I am also not the only person who has received an intent to deny based on imbra. Another guy did as well and both of us were given very very very little time to respond. I received the letter April 28 and was given until May 8th to respond. That is very little time. The other guy who was applying for a K3 got the same letter witha request for a waiver and waivers do not even apply to k3 but they had over looked his I 130 and apparently never closed out his old case. The reason you havent heard is that they probably are not working your case yet. They ignored my waiver and then asked for a new letter. I have absolutely no criminal record. I also was very shocked with the quick response time. I was given two reasons by an attorney. He told me either they are going to deny my case with IMBRA and they just want to expedite things. Or they are just missing this waiver request and when they get it, they will approve it, I just saw a girl in teh Vermont center actually bring the guy here and marry him and she got the waiver. My ex never even went to the interview or the consulate. And he is the one that did not want to come here. So you have a very uneven application of waivers and the law. But do not think the IMBRA is a slam dunk. You hear what you hear from visa journey but that is not the case across the board. Not every one is getting waivers and as the law is older and older, they are starting to strictly enforce it. My denial was not an RFE. It was a strict interpretation of IMBRA. And you will see more and more denials. Someone dumping you is not a reason to waive the imbra or a break up. It doesnt matter if you have evidence. Its not a reason. Reasons are death.... sickness.. etc. So do not expect to get your waiver. According to 2 different big immigration attorneys that I talked to, both told me that we will see lots of denials. The process is now up and running and the days of easy imbra are over. The other man is a complete example. He was not even doing a K1 and got a denial. He was doing a k3 ..but the system flags multiple filers. I will know something very shortly and even though it is embarassing to put denials on here and why... cause I see some timelines just stop when people get bad news, I promise I will keep all of you informed as to what exactly happens with the waiver and appeals process so that you guys will have updated topical information. My paper states that IMBRA is the reason and I am welcome to file again after the 2 year waiting period. I was not even going to respond but one of the attorneys told me if I did not respond, then I have a denial in my file instead of a technical denial. I did not get Rfed for the relationship. I was RFE d for the waiver alone.

I do not think they are working on your case yet .. I think that why you dont have any news yet. They clearly ignored my imbra request . I will be curious to see how they handle my letter request for a waiver

While it is certainly possible for individual adjudicators to make that interpretation, the portion of the memo to which you refer, gives two examples that are on far ends of the spectrum. The memo makes it clear that death or other circumstances making it impossible for the beneficiary to come to the US and marry the petitioner is sufficient grounds to grant the waiver. The next example used refers to 12 petitions filed, indicating a pattern of behavior that is clearly not acceptable. This leaves a broad range of possible scenarios where any individual adjudicator may decide to draw the line. Unfortunately, appealing these decisions when necessary, can take significant time.

The problem is that they dont tell you what you can and cannot do to appeal it if anything. In my case, all the paper said was the whole ineligble because of IMBRA. I had enclosed a waiver... they ignored it and asked for another one... they only gve me like 10 days to respond and I am really nervous and upset now. my fiancee and i are looking into marriage much sooner than expected because of all of this... we wanted a beach wedding now I have to find out a way to get civilly married and quickly so I can do the K3... I didnt bring 12 women here.. I never beat up anyone or went to jail and now because of this poorly written law gues s what? I will have to apply for a waiver with the k3 or god knows what.. I am so depressed... so so so depressed

I feel your pain and unfortunately don't have a solution you don't already know about. I'm just discussing subject matter and disagree that others should expect the worst case scenario because you didn't experience the best case scenario.

thats true. I am watching men who brought the woman here get waivers for next to no reason ( past... not now) and I got an intent to deny with the waiver enclosed. It depends who gets your file and what mood they are in. Its importatnt to state that NOT ALL WAIVERS ARE GRANTED and that they are tightening up so make your best case first

The USA , the land of the free,....NOT!!!! Thanks to that ###### maria cantwell. Messing up innocent people's lives

Steve55,

It is your own fault that you are not on the committee for the upcoming lawsuit. If you are not willing to sue even when there are groups out there who would gladly foot the legal bill, then you don't deserve freedom.

A lawsuit can get a restraining order on IMBRA tomorrow morning if just one person took action.

Everybody here knows the government has no right at all to interfere in our personal lives like this. This "Congress has total power over immigration" crap is just that. And how many people here have paid $40 for broadcast email software and asked someone for a database of Congresspeople to write to once per week? Nobody? Thought so. Lazy people don't deserve freedom.

It ain't hard to file a complaint in federal court. The European Connections case was so full of holes that it could easily do well on appeal, but EC is not going to appeal until it sees a few other cases get started, so EC can refer to them in the appeal.

Frankly, the next lawsuit is not going to deal with the visa application part of IMBRA unless someone convinces the plaintiffs otherwise.

The plaintiffs for the next case will be people who do not want to get married.

Remember as well that Preston Steckel of European Connections said in his trial "I think the visa application part of the law is wonderful"

That is correct.

That means that this hasn't even been challenged yet by anyone.

Just one rich person who challenges this will win. A challenge will require, of course, spending $50K on public relations as well.

If you want to get a really good idea about how Evangelical "Christians" joined with the far left to get IMBRA passed, read the following excellent article:

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2004-08-25/ne...olitionists.php

It is quite simple, "trafficking" is narrowed down to "sex trafficking" which is conflated with all prostitution resulting in policies like US AID being given only to those countries that outlaw prostitution (do the bidding of Americans on moral issues) after which prostitution is conflated with dating websites and a law is made to regulate dating...after which anyone at all who wants to bring a foreigner into the US gets harrassed.

It is all quite logical. So logical that the kind of people in the above article lost the 2006 elections and will lose the 2008 elections.

This type of person keeps changing the goalposts showing why we need to elect people who have the attitude "no new laws".

A good book to read on this subject is "The Elephant in the Room" which describes civil war between conservatives and libertarians inside the Republican Party.

Most of this article is about christian/feminists groups parading around in foreign countries like some kind of American Cowboys coming to the rescue or save these girls from prostitution and also pointing fingers and criticizing these countries governments for not stopping the prostitution industry. Yet they offer little in solving the problems that cause it. Unless they offer continued support for these girls they claim to be saving, what good are they really doing?? These rescued girls will be back in the same game again because they have to survive, or for many, rather than working in a low paying clothing store or local mall, they simplychoose to work in the bars . Ive seen it over and over again in the Philippines. These self proclaimed do gooders need to offer continued support after the so called rescue if they really want to back up their talk. This was a little off subject, I know.

All ties into the feminsits move to label american men who marry foreigners as buying sex slaves or conducting in human trafficking. Thats what the IMBRA is all about. 95% of us suffer for the bad deeds or sensationalized stories of a few bad apples.

Midnight, why don't you post some links to this for those who might be interested in getting involved or for those who want to at least follow the progress.

Almost the only place where plaintiffs are gathering against IMBRA is http://www.online-dating-rights.com, but a Google search can find a half dozen websites where people complain. Until the European Connections case ended with a shocking "decision" a few weeks ago, nobody had any reason to challenge the law themselves. Everyone was sure that Judge Clarence Cooper would behave reasonably and at least deal with the arguments he made in his own TRO that can be seen at http://www.veteransabroad.com/TRO.pdf.

IMBRA is about the most easily overturned law imaginable. Especially the part about limiting the number of foreigners an American can bring into the USA for a visit, not to mention the government effectively telling Americans how many foreigners they can marry.

Cooper said "You have to prove that Congress was irrational, not just acting on false information". That ain't hard to do, believe me.

There are 120 single men for every 100 single women in many parts of the USA.

Here is what I recommend for visa applicants: About 5 visa applicants go to their local federal courthouse and put in a challenge to IMBRA based on the fact that the government, despite it's right to control immigration, has no right to an unwarranted search of its own citizens nor harrass them for wanting to socialize with foreigners. There is plenty of ammunition on this that can be found with a Google search on IMBRA.

One of the five judges will issue a restraining order forcing the processing of all visas without regard to IMBRA at all.

Those who get restraining orders denied, can then just drop their cases. No use dealing with idiot judges. It will not effect anyone's specific application. If it did, that is another challenge that can really win.

The person with the restraining order then gets full backing by a lot of people for trial and through the process to the Supreme Court.

There will be other lawsuits happening simultaneously.

If nobody at VJ sues, there will still be several lawsuits in the summer of 2007. The more the merrier however.

A major point for a challenge is this:

A background check on an American should not take more than 48 hours...72 hours tops.

So who in the government is using IMBRA as an excuse to slow things down and harrass people?

Which brings me to a point: I filed for a Freedom of Information Act delivery of all government documents related to IMBRA. The agencies are trying to stonewall this. Important people probably do not want the public to find out what outside groups have been pressuring their buddies in government to put the screws on visa applicants.

Try it yourself. The Freedom of Information Act is at your disposal. Ask a federal judge to request the IMBRA files for you.