When it comes to a mail-order bride business, it’s rather interesting to compare how it all started and how it is going.
In the early 17th century, at the very beginning of mail-order bride history, men could indirectly buy a wife. The Virginia Company encouraged single European women to come to the US to choose a husband and paid compensation to brides, while men paid the company if one of the immigrants chose them.
In the following centuries, the golden era of marriage agencies began. They were the middlemen between brides and grooms. Future spouses exchanged letters but still married nearly strangers. The worldwide web has changed it all and transformed the business into what it is now.
Now, mail-order bride dating is quite similar to regular online dating. The only serious difference is the distance between potential partners. If so, why not just search for a match on Tinder? What are the benefits and pitfalls of finding a mail-order wife in 2024? Read on to find out!
5 top-rated mail-order bride sites & dating sitesJollyRomance
So, over 90% of men who marry mail-order brides meet them online, on reputable websites designed only for singles seeking marriage and willing to date internationally. Such platforms must be legal and meet multiple quality criteria.
Our experts have chosen the most promising sites with the best features and hundreds of thousands of members in top mail-order bride countries and regions:
- SofiaDate — best for finding a mail-order wife overall
- SakuraDate — best for meeting Asian brides
- La-Date — top international dating site with Latin singles
- BravoDate — best for meeting Slavic singles
- TheLuckyDate — best for dating worldwide
You can meet foreign brides and single women seeking long-term relationships with foreign men on any of these platforms. Just learn more about each and pick the website that meets all your criteria and expectations.
Reasons why people choose to become mail-order brides or marry them
If such marriages wouldn’t work for anyone, this business just would have never existed. There are certain reasons why women become online brides and why men choose them over local singles. Contrary to common belief, they don’t have much to do with money or the desire to find a fully dependent spouse.
Why women in Asia, Europe, and Latin America become mail-order brides:
- Local problems related to the institution of family and marriage. These problems are diverse and vary greatly from region to region and country to country. For example, in some Asian countries, men focus more on careers or even opt for “herbivore life” (life without relationships, sex, and family). In many Latin countries, machismo is still a serious issue. In some countries of Eastern Europe, the gender imbalance makes the competition between women more fierce, and high alcohol abuse rates don’t make the situation in the dating & marriage market any better.
- Attraction to Westerners. You’d be surprised to find out how many women from different countries all over the globe just think that Westerners are attractive. Sometimes, it’s about a sexy accent. Sometimes, it’s about height. Sometimes, it’s about reliability and readiness to work hard to provide for a family. But the fact is that dating a Western is prestigious in many countries all over the globe.
- Strong desire to start a family. We bet you know dating is a lottery. You may invest just a little and start a family with someone special in just a year of dating. Sometimes, it takes years and years and lots of unsuccessful attempts to find the right person. Many foreign women just improve their chances of getting married in the near future.
Why men in the UK, US, and other countries want to find a bride abroad:
- Stronger family values. Many men correctly believe that there are a lot of places where women put marriage and family first. If that’s what they have been always looking for, they have a real chance to meet a family- and marriage-minded girl in particular countries from Ukraine and the Philippines to Brazil and Mexico.
- Old-school femininity combined with independence and a talent for hard work. In nearly all mail-order bride countries, femininity in the best sense possible is still praised both by men and women. But don’t get us wrong. Foreign brides are far from being submissive. They are usually self-reliant and strong. They just don’t think that if you want to be a decision-maker and a problem-solver, you need to sacrifice that unique woman’s charm.
- Opportunity to start a family in the near future. Yes, that’s exactly the same thing that foreign women are looking for. Men also are well aware of the fact that mail-order brides are more likely to agree to start a family with a compatible partner than most local women they can meet on mainstream dating apps.
A man looking for a girl for marriage in the UK can expand his search to foreign countries and benefit from it. The same goes for mail-order brides who want to date internationally. The scheme may be beneficial for both parties that start happy families together, but the best-case scenario is possible if you develop an effective dating strategy.
The process of finding a mail-order bride
Let’s say you’re looking for mail-order brides in the UK or other Western countries. How do you get started and what should the process be like? In most cases, it’s divided into the three main stages.
Stage 1. Background research
Ideally, everyone who’d like to meet a foreign mail-order bride in the UK without leaving the country should start by taking the following steps:
- Do research on national characters and choose the country. In most cases, men search for brides in Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, so you can focus on these regions, especially considering that most sites are regional platforms with local mail-order brides. But you should know who exactly you are looking for, what cultural differences you should consider, and what your actual compatibility with local women is likely to be.
- Research the online dating market and choose the right website. Once you choose the location, it’s time to start looking for a reputable mail-order bride website or international dating website. Pay attention to the target audience, profile quality, selection of features, and, of course, prices.
Unfortunately, many don’t take this stage as seriously as it should be taken. But a lot will depend on how you start your international dating journey. Basically, that’s when you make some of your most important decisions, so make an effort to have the best experience possible and end up having a family with the right person.
Stage 2. Searching for a bride online
Once a man chooses the site, he should do the following:
- Create the most competitive profile. It must be a personal page that contains all the important information about you, from your education to religion to expectations about a relationship and photos. Ideally, all singles should also add videos.
- Use search features and focus on the best matches. Setting certain priorities and search criteria is essential for everyone who doesn’t want to spend years and years and thousands of pounds on a dating site. There will be good search features and algorithms, and singles should use them to succeed sooner.
- Communicate until you starts a relationship. The idea is to find someone special, tell this person about how you feel, and start dating.
Note that on top sites, you are not just chatting. There are multiple communication features like video chat, gift delivery, Mail service, etc. All of them are added to help singles build emotional connections at a distance, so use them to get close to someone online.
Stage 3. Taking a relationship to a new level
Let’s say a man already has a long-distance relationship with a foreign bride. Further steps should be as follows:
- Meeting in real life. Men can’t literally mail-order women. That’s just a myth. In reality, a man meets his girlfriend in real life (usually, he goes to the bride’s country for at least a week), and then they both decide what to do next.
- Proposal and application for a visa. If this relationship is what both partners have been looking for, they decide to get married, and the groom helps his bride get a visa, move in with him, and stay in his home country.
Remember that though it’s the mail-order bride segment of the dating market, things in this world work pretty much the same way. Couples do build genuine relationships before they start families, and though things usually move faster than in regular relationships, it’s still about finding a compatible partner, getting to know each other better, feeling a strong bond, and maintaining healthy relationships at a distance and within the same country.
Cultural and legal considerations
For some, marrying a person from another culture and country doesn’t seem to be the easiest option. Most fears are associated with cultural and legal aspects of dating, but the good news is that there are simple ways to avoid most difficulties.
Cultural barriers
First, they are inevitable. A person from another cultural and social environment will be different from most women in the UK and other Western countries. Nonetheless, a lot of binational couples note that their differences only make them stronger.
As we’ve noted previously, one of the reasons why the mail-order bride business is still going strong is that it allows two people with similar values but from different parts of the world to build relationships and start families.
There are two keys to success. It’s the right choice of the country to find a wife and the ability to listen to your partner and compromise. People don’t break up because one of the spouses likes New Year better than Christmas or because spouses have different baby shower traditions. People break up if their fundamental values are different and if they can’t truly accept and respect one another.
Legal barriers & visa policies
Though application for a visa and immigration aren’t simple processes, the good news is that there are legal procedures for foreign brides migrating to the UK or other countries. If you have a foreign partner, you just need to help them get a spousal visa. The law sees no difference between people who meet online or offline. You only need to collect the necessary documents and prove that you have a genuine relationship.
Criticism surrounding mail-order brides
Despite the fact that the modern mail-order bride meaning doesn’t have much to do with the definition of the mail-order bride of the past, many are still concerned about mail-order bride marriages. What are the most common problems associated with this business? We list some and explain them in more detail below.
1. A business deal for two
The main stigma is associated with the business nature of mail-order marriages. Some believe that both parties just get what they want — a man gets a much younger wife who’d agree to do anything he wants her to do, and a wife gets a visa to a developed country and financial stability.
In reality, people do benefit from such relationships but exactly in the same way we all benefit from relationships. Grooms and brides expect to find a similar-minded partner, love, support, trust, and dedication, and contrary to common belief, these are the key elements of relationships of bi-national couples.
2. Violence against women
According to some studies, in the 2000s, mail-order brides were six times more likely to experience domestic violence. This is one of the main concerns about this type of relationship, and fortunately, now the rates are much lower mostly due to the changing legislation and the fact that partners of foreign brides now have no power to cancel their visas.
For example, in the US, there’s the VAWA act aimed at protecting foreign women from being trapped in a house with an abuser. In the UK, females and males who entered the country on spouse or partner visas, suffered from domestic violence, and broke up with their partners can get legal help and still apply for ILR (indefinite Leave to Remain).
3. Failed expectations of men
You probably heard those stories about men who married gold diggers from Asia or Eastern Europe. The truth is that such stories are real, but we’d like to stress that though they usually grab a lot of attention, the vast majority of mail-order marriages work and last for years. Choose a partner carefully, try to build a genuine relationship and a legitimately deep emotional connection, and make serious decisions only if you see no red flags.
Conclusion: Exploring the pros and cons of mail-order brides
What are mail-order brides? In the modern world, these are single foreign women who have their reasons to believe that they can find better husbands in the UK or other Western countries. Is marrying one of these women a perfect option for all single men? No, it’s not. There are no perfect options.
You’ll need to go through the long-distance phase, face mail-order bride stigma, and cope with cultural barriers. But if you make the right choices, are patient enough, and aren’t afraid to make serious decisions, you can change your life for the better by starting a family with someone who shares all your views of life and family.
This article can contain sponsored content. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and exercise their own judgment before making any decisions based on the information provided in this article.
