Buying a bride

Friday, 30 January 2009 00:00

“AV014 Cindy” clutches her fur coat around her chest and sends a leering look out of the computer screen. She is interested in, “dancing and fashion” and “wants to find the man of her dreams, to make him happy” and she is one of the thousands of Latin woman participating in international dating service Web sites.

TLC Worldwide Inc., where AV014 Cindy's profile is stored online, is just one of the many companies advertising foreign women seeking marriage to American men.

The Web site claims the company has produced, “5,000+ happily married clients” and calls Latin women, "sincere, traditional and marriage-minded."

“All we ever did here was try to form traditional families from guys who wanted to know Latin women,” said Bruce T. White, President of TLC Worldwide Inc.

TLC Worldwide Inc.'s Web site has photo albums of Latin women who are listed first as a number, then as a name and followed by a brief description.

“Beautiful, single Latin women seeking relationships leading to marriage with American men of all ages!” reads the introduction on the company's Web site. “We have the largest database of beautiful single Latin women and the most complete and up-to-date product line of Latin women.”

These dating sites have earned the nickname, “mail order bride industry” but there is a lot more than postage involved.

The companies serve as a middle-man, where American men pay for communication and arranged face-to-face meetings with women from foreign countries.

Many companies such as TLC Worldwide and A Foreign Affair offer “singles vacations” or “tours" where men pay to attend gatherings, in foreign countries, of the women listed on the company's Web site.

TLC Worldwide Inc. created a YouTube account advertising such tours.

A Foreign Affair has offices in foreign countries and hosts large socials where men can meet foreign women, said Tony Chavez, a customer service representative for A Foreign Affair, based in Phoenix, Ariz.

Tours range from $1,500 to $4,000, which includes lodging.

“We try to arrange it for one guy there will be anywhere from seven to 10 girls,” Chavez said.

After a couple has met in person, the man can apply for a, “fiancé visa” which allows him to bring his foreign fiancé to the United States. The couple must be married within three months or the visa expires.

Chavez said their company is an international dating industry providing tours around the world and communication with women from foreign countries.

A Foreign Affair has more than 30,000 profiles of women from South America, Colombia, Peru, Russia, Costa Rica and other countries.

He said women participate in the service because they are looking for a better life.

“A lot of these countries the men can be very abusive,” Chavez said. “I can tell you that all three owners are married to Russian women, so they are proof that this actually does work.”

In 2006, the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act (IMBRA) was enacted, requiring background checks for individuals before they apply for a fiancé visa and limiting multiple visa applications within a specific time frame.

White said the law implements restrictions on tax-paying citizens.

“It puts restrictions on me as a business person, trying to do a simple dating service and am now deemed to be a marriage broker even though I don't arrange marriages,” White said. “It is more of a dating friendship site.”

The law was enacted after two high-profile cases in which Susana Blackwell and Anastasia King, both foreign women, were murdered by their husbands who they met through an international marriage broker.

White said before the law, he published magazines and video interviews of women interested in meeting American men, but the restrictions of the law have discouraged him and he will close his business by the end of the year.

In a statement regarding the new law on his Web site, White encourages clients to continue to use the service even if more background checks are required.

“If you don't participate, the feminists win,” according to White's Web site.

White said the law is unfair because there are no marriage restrictions on American men even if they are, “wife beaters” or, “child molesters.”

“It's assuming that American men […] there's something wrong with them,” he said. “It wants to know about arrests. Anything in a man's past. Any little mistake he's made.”

White said his business was, “a great resource for women abroad with limited marriage opportunities” who come from societies that have many abusive, “machismo” men.

“Generally speaking, men in this country are pretty good guys,” he said. “Women across the world have a pretty good opinion of us.”

White said his service was free to interested women, who participated on their own volition.

“Nobody put a gun to anybody's head,” he said.

Written by Cody Calamaio You are reading Buying a bride articles