As Harpoon mentions…it happens. If you are valuable to the government then they ‘bend’ the rules so that you can continue to provide whatever level of support they need you at. It’s completely selfish of the gov’t, and I can’t say I disagree, but at the same time from an outsiders perspective, say someone who was turned down, they might give it the old WTF?! you know.
On the subject of foreign wives and family members, and I speak from experience here, those aren’t really in the ‘waiver’ category. It more comes down to can the risk be mitigated by looking at country/city of origin (Prague vs Mexico/England/NZ/etc) and how at risk are you of being manipulated via ‘foreign affections’. Are they an allied country or adversarial you know?
A true waiver would be like SBU mentions - you’ve done something, it was a one off, reported and now you’ve ben counseled, etc. You get a ‘letter’ and told not to do it and then you stand up take it on the chin and dont do it again.