An extension of another piece of post-World War II legislation, the War Brides Act of 1945, the Fiancées Act granted the fiancés of American servicemen a special exemption from previously established immigration quotas that allowed them to enter the United States.
Following the War Brides Act of 1945, which allowed foreign spouses and children of American servicemen to enter the United States without regard to previously established immigration quotas, the U.S. Congress passed the Fiancées Act on June 29, 1946, extending immigration exemption to foreign women engaged to marry American soldiers.
In 1946, nearly 45,000 foreign-born women entered the United States under the provisions of this act. However, foreign-born fiancés who did not marry the American men who sponsored them after arriving in America were subject to
Bankston, Carl L., and Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo, eds. Immigration in U.S. History. 2 vols. Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press, 2006. Hutchinson, E. P. Legislative History of American Immigration Policy, 1789-1965. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981. Lowe, Lisa. Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1994.
Green cards
Intermarriage
Mail-order brides
Marriage
“Marriages of convenience”
Picture brides
Quota systems
War brides
War Brides Act of 1945
Women immigrants
World War II
