Do mail order brides still exist? Yes, they do, and the number of mail order marriages is larger than most people expect it to be. In particular, in 2019, over 31,500 foreign brides from 9 top mail order bride countries in Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe applied for a fiancee visa to the US only.
The number of applicants in 2010, by comparison, was 13,500, which basically means that the number of foreign brides is growing year by year. There are also interesting statistics that show that around 1 in every 7 mail order brides is a woman who already has children and immigrates with them.
However, figures aren’t enough to understand who a mail order wife is, what her motivation is, and how the mail order bride system actually works. That’s why we explain it in more detail below.
Top 5 dating sites to find a soulmate
№1 TheLuckyDate
Best for: Meeting singles all over the world
Why we picked it: Most international dating websites focus on a specific target audience, for example, Slavic women and Western men. TheLuckyDate is an exception to this rule, as it accepts singles worldwide.
Here, a man can meet women from Asia, Latin countries, and Europe. Also, though it’s a global dating site, it works rather like a dating app. If you’ve ever been using good old Tinder, you’ll experience no difficulty with understanding how the TheLuckyDate system works.
Pros
- Great dating pool
- High response rate
- More detailed profiles than on most apps
Cons
- No app
- No free messaging
Additional information: Everyone can join TheLuckyDate in just a few minutes, get a detailed profile and get a bonus of 2 thousand free credits from the company. So, you can start a conversation without paying. Also, this is one of the sites where members can exchange audio messages (currently in beta testing).
№2 UkraineBride4You
Best for: Finding someone special in Eastern Europe
Why we picked it: UkraineBride4You is a Slavic dating site for serious relationships that connects Eastern Europeans with Western singles. It has a lot of great communication features, including video chat, but it also has very detailed and, most importantly, verified profiles, as well as a great selection of advanced search filters and top matchmaking features.
All this together helps a user find a perfect match in the shortest time possible, contact them in plenty of different ways, and have a great overall experience.
Pros
- Free registration
- Welcome bonus for new members
- A lot of communication services
- Strict moderation policy
Cons
- Pretty high prices
- Not all members are available for video calls
Additional information: Once you join the site and complete your profile, you can get 2 free chat vouchers and 2 free greeting messages a day. That helps to learn enough about the site (search, access to profiles, support, and some other features are completely free), chat with a few members and decide whether you’d like to keep using UkraineBride4You.
№3 La-Date
Best for: Finding a partner in Latin America
Why we picked it: La-Date is one of the most popular modern casual dating sites designed to connect singles from a specific region with Western singles.
Now it has hundreds of thousands of users from Latin countries, namely Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, etc., all looking for relationships with foreigners. It’s not a site for serious relationships only, but it is still a place where many users find love.
Pros
- Modern and functional design
- Fast & free registration
- Lots of detailed profiles
- Live chat, Mails & virtual gifts
Cons
- No mobile app
- No video chat
Additional information: On La-Date, users who create an account for free get access to lots of detailed profiles, can send winks and favorite others, view their publications, and use swiping or search filters to find new matches. Also, there’s a welcome bonus that allows them to start a few first conversations without paying, as well as discounts for their first credit packages.
№4 EasternHoneys
Best for: Starting a relationship with one of the Asian singles
Why we picked it: EasternHoneys is a very popular niche Asian dating site created for singles seeking intercultural connections and relationships. There’s a great dating pool, and the response rate is one of the highest in the international online dating market.
Basically, it has everything that a good dating platform should have, from a great online messenger to virtual gifts and top moderation & security systems. Also, it works for people seeking a relationship of any type, but most users join the community to start a casual relationship and see how it goes.
Pros
- A lot of verified Asian singles
- Different types of search features
- Active community
- Profiles with lots of photos and profile videos
Cons
- Mail services and messaging are available only to paying users
- No mobile app
Additional information: Everyone who joins the community is encouraged to complete their profile, but obviously, the requirements are stricter for female members. Men are the ones who pay for communication, so the system seems fair.
As for the prices, they aren’t low, but a user can optimize the dating strategy to cut costs, and there are some great bonuses for new members, too.
№5 JollyRomance
Best for: Social media users
Why we picked it: JollyRomance is the site where singles can meet women from Slavic countries. However, it doesn’t work like a regular dating platform — there are also features that make it a half-social media site where users can share their photos and thoughts with others.
That helps people learn something about potential partners before they actually contact someone and improves the experience overall. Also, there are standard communication features like instant chat and Mails.
Pros
- Free registration
- Bonuses for newcomers
- Detailed profiles
Cons
- No mobile app
- No free messaging
Additional information: Here, members buy credits instead of paying for premium plans, so users can control their spending. Also, there are bonus credits to test the features before you upgrade. In addition, there are free winks, and members can favorite each other and view profiles and posts on the Newsfeed.
Mail order bride — Who is she?
First of all, we should emphasize that modern mail order brides are just foreign women who meet men from the US and other countries like Canada, Australia, and the UK online. It’s not about marrying an attractive stranger anymore, there’s no financial compensation of any kind, and women are interested in building a healthy relationship with a man, not just in marrying someone who’ll get them a Green Card.
So here are a few facts that explain who a modern foreign wife is:
- Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Ukraine, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Dominican Republic, and Colombia are the countries most foreign women for marriage come from.
- Most mail order brides are young women in their 20s or 30s who’ve never been married, and around ¼ of them are divorced.
- The vast majority of ladies looking for foreign husbands are employed.
- Nearly all foreign girls for marriage want to start a family in the near future and have children (usually 1–4, and the number of kids largely depends on the country and local views of the family).
So, that’s who a modern foreign bride actually is, but another important question is why she makes this choice, and we’ll answer it below.
How much does a mail order bride cost?
Let’s take a look at the approximate costs of getting a mail order bride. These are the average amounts that men usually spend, and the prices can be higher or lower depending on multiple factors that we’ll explain below:
- Online dating services — $600-$2,000
- 2 two-week trips to a mail order bride’s country or a third country — $6,000-$12,000
- Visa — $1,200
- Wedding, gifts, and other optional expenditures — $500-$40,000
As you can see, there is a great variation in prices just because, as we’ve previously mentioned, the total cost will depend on the choices that one makes, from the dating site a man is using to a hotel he stays at in a bride’s country.
Mail order bride price — major expenditures explained
Let’s say that you want to estimate the approximate cost of getting a mail order bride. How do you do it? Should you add $6,000 or $12,000 as travel expenses, and how do you estimate the cost of online dating services? You’ll find the answers in this paragraph.
💻 Online dating services
Generally speaking, all the dating sites that can connect you with mail order brides from a certain country or region fall under two main categories:
- Sites with monthly subscription plans. There are not so many such websites, but they still exist and offer some good services. The costs of monthly plans vary, but the average price is usually around $50.
- Sites where users buy credits. Most mail order bride sites and niche international dating sites that connect users seeking serious relationships with foreign matches run on credit systems. It means that different services have different costs, and a member can control their spending. On such platforms, members usually spend around $100 a month on average.
Considering that most top websites are the sites where members buy credits, you can count the cost based on the assumption that you’re going to spend $100 a month. On regular dating sites, members searching for local matches use online dating services for 2 months on average before they meet someone special.
On mail order bride sites, the terms are nearly the same, but members spend more time on the site just because they usually prefer to get to know each other well enough before meeting in real life, which isn’t cheap. So, let’s say you spend a year on a dating site. In this case, the total cost will be around $1,200.
✈️ Trips
Choosing the country is important not just because you need to know where exactly you will have the best chance to find a perfect match and choose a regional dating site but also to estimate the total cost of getting a bride.
Let’s take a look at the average cost of going to some of the most popular mail order bride countries and staying for 2 weeks:
- The Philippines — $3,500
- Ukraine — $1,900
- The Dominican Republic — $3,300
- Vietnam — $2,700
- Thailand — $2,700
Note that though the costs seem similar, there are much more expensive countries to visit. For example, if you search for a wife from China or Argentina, you’ll spend more than that. Generally speaking, the cost always depends on the following things:
- Costs of the tickets. It’s not just about the class of the flight but also about the season. There are also other circumstances — for example, the costs of tickets to China during the pandemic have risen to $6,000-$7,000 for a round trip.
- Duration of the trip. Of course, you’ll spend more if you stay for a month than if you stay just for a few days. Still, 2 weeks is the optimal term as you have time not only to take your relationship with a girl you’ve met online to a new level but also to learn more about the culture, meet her family, etc.
- Your traveling style. There’s always a choice between a hostel and a luxury hotel, a dinner at a fancy restaurant and a dinner at a mid-range place, etc. Just consider your preferences when calculating the price.
So, as we’ve noted previously, the cost of 2 two-week trips may range from $6,000 to $12,000.
🎁 Wedding, gifts, and other optional expenses
- Let’s start with gifts. You can buy them both online and offline during your trip to a bride’s country, and, of course, everything depends on your personal choices. On top of that, you can spend on gifts as low as $0 when dating online or just send one cute gift or a virtual gift a month.
- Note that on online dating sites that provide gift delivery services, items are more expensive than on online stores. Just decide whether you are going to spend money on them and how much you’d like to spend on surprising your girlfriend.
- As for weddings, the variation in prices is more than just wide. First of all, you need to consider the location. Sometimes, getting married in a bride’s country is cheaper than in the US and most other Western countries, but in this case, your wife will need to apply for a foreign relative visa and not for a K-1 visa.
- For instance, a wedding in India can cost just $10,000, while in Italy, it will cost you around $40,000. In the US, the average price is $30,000. Again, you can just pay for a wedding license that costs around $50 on average.
📃 Visa
As we’ve noted previously, a foreign bride can apply for a K-1 fiancee visa or a foreign relative visa depending on where a couple is planning to get married: in the US (a woman comes as a bride) or another country (a woman comes as a wife of an American citizen).
The costs don’t differ much, and most mail order brides and their grooms still prefer to apply for a K-1 visa and get married in the United States. The visa costs around $1,200 (petition, medical exam, biometrics included), but after a bride gets it and gets married, she’ll also need to apply for adjustment status, which will cost $1,200 more.
3 main reasons why women become mail order brides
Generally speaking, it’s always because for some reason, a woman thinks she has a better chance to find a decent husband overseas. As for the more specific factors, in most cases, they are as follows:
- Social, economic, and cultural reasons — it may be high alcohol abuse rates, cheating as the main reason for filing a divorce, economic reasons, or all these factors together.
- Bad previous relationship experience — that’s the personal experience that leads to disappointment in local men and an attempt to find a more loving, caring, and loyal partner overseas.
- Social pressure — in some countries, women feel a lot of pressure from parents and friends to get married at a certain age, and they know they have a better chance of finding a family-minded man abroad.
In addition to that, often it’s also about the impact of Western culture — in many countries, especially Asian ones, dating a foreigner is considered prestigious.
3 main countries with mail order brides
What countries are considered the best places to find a wife? Now, these are:
The Philippines.
With 7,000+ marriage immigrants, the Philippines is an absolute champion in the international dating market and some of the best places to find a wife who’d be completely devoted to a relationship.
Brazil.
With over a thousand mail order brides immigrating to the US yearly, Brazil remains one of the best Latin countries to find a spontaneous and family-minded wife.
Ukraine.
There are fewer mail order brides from Ukraine (around 800+ applicants a year), and this is a great country to meet a family-minded, educated, and sociable woman.
There are many more countries to find a wife in Asia, South America, and Europe — you only need to learn more about the options and make the right choice.
How to get a mail order bride?
So how to find a wife online? Well, there’s a simple algorithm that works in the vast majority of cases:
- Choose the country where you would like to find a wife (learn more about mail order bride regions and local cultures to make the right choice)
- Find a good niche mail order bride website with high-quality features and many members from a chosen area
- Complete your own profile, write a good bio, and add photos
- Test the site and if it works for you, upgrade to premium or buy credits
- Communicate with ladies and get close to someone special
- Take a relationship to the next level by meeting your mail order girlfriend in real life
- Enjoy your relationship, propose when you feel ready, and help a bride to apply for a visa to your country to marry her
That’s how the system really works — there’s nothing complex, but it’s actually about building a relationship that will work for both and last over the years.
FAQ
- Do mail-order marriages still exist in 2024?
Yes, they do, but of course, these aren’t marriages between Western men and women for sale. In the modern world, mail order brides are single foreign women looking for Western partners on purpose. They meet online, get close to each other, then meet in real life and only after that decide to get married.
2. Are mail order spouses illegal?
No, they aren’t. The thing is the modern term mail order bride has nothing to do with the old-fashioned term mail order bride. The modern mail order wife is just a foreign woman a man meets online. A couple is actually dating and building an authentic relationship and only then meets in real life — that’s the only legal way to get married in any Western country, including the United States.
3. What is the best mail-order bride site?
It’s hard to say which of the sites is the best just because it must meet your specific criteria and expectations, not to mention the specific region where most of its female members come from. Still, we can recommend JollyRomance as a top site with legit users, top-quality features, and reasonable prices.
Read also:
- 7 Best Countries to Find a Wife in 2024
- Real Mail Order Bride Sites That You Should Try
- How to Meet Foreign Women
- Asian Mail Order Brides: Love in Asia
- Are Mail Order Brides Real? Exploring the Truth Behind the Trend
- Are Mail Order Brides Illegal — Find the Answer in the Article
- Latin Mail Order Brides Guide
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.
