Homeland Security delays thousands of weddings (AP/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

Change in forms slows process for foreign spouses seeking visas

Tuesday, June 13, 2006; Posted: 7:40 p.m. EDT (23:40 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- True love waits for no one -- except maybe the Homeland Security Department.

Red tape has put weddings on hold for about 10,000 U.S. citizens seeking visas for their foreign brides and grooms as the department works on new paperwork for their applications.

The form change was required as part of a law, enacted in March, to protect foreign mail-order brides from abusive American spouses. But Homeland Security missed its deadline three months ago, putting the visa applications of thousands of law-abiding lovers in limbo.
***
Advocates estimate that as many as 15,000 foreign women annually meet their American husbands through for-profit marriage brokers. That number, provided by the Virginia-based Tahirih Justice Center, marks a sharp rise from a 1999 estimate by the former Immigration and Naturalization Services of 30,000 women who came to the United States through a marriage broker during the previous five years.

Spurred by stories of foreign women -- largely from Eastern Europe and Asia -- being abused or even murdered by their American husbands, Congress in December approved new protections for mail-order brides. They included amending the application form for fiancee visas with two new questions: Whether the romance was arranged by an international marriage broker, and had the U.S. citizen ever been accused of a violent crime or convicted of three or more alcohol- or drug-related crimes.

President Bush signed the law on January 5, putting Homeland Security under order to draw up the new paperwork. But the forms weren't finished by March 6, when the law took effect, resulting in the department shelving all fiancee visa applications written on the old forms that were received after that date.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/13/homeland.wedding.delays.ap/index.html

[Redstone]

1. Is there ONE SINGLE THING that DHS doesn't fuck up?

I can't think of one.

Redstone

[MadMaddie]

2. Guess they have never heard of Microsoft Project..

They have never been good with scheduling and planning....

<snip>
President Bush signed the law on January 5, putting Homeland Security under order to draw up the new paperwork. But the forms weren't finished by March 6, when the law took effect
<snip>

[wordpix2]

4. more ineptitude by DHS, our heroes (not!)

[treestar]

3. Same people that say foreigners have no rights

Suddenly they are "protecting" people who have never even been to the US yet?

Just another example of how inefficient the USCIS is.

[tanyev]

5. Oh gosh, how will the freepers find wives now?

[rainbow4321]

6. They're the Stepford Wives, remember??

As long as the wife factory/production isn't affected, the repukes will still have plenty to pick from.

[Voltaire99]

7. "True love waits for no one"

Thanks, AP, for always sugarcoating fascism for us. Your little trivializing witticisms make swallowing our fate so much easier!