Buy a Bride Online On Mail Order Bride Sites
The mail-order bride industry seems to be an industry of myths and uncertainties.
Who’s a typical mail-order bride? Is she an Asian dreaming of the sole fact of immigration, a Slavic gold digger, or a marriage-minded woman seeking true love? Will finding a mail-order bride cost you $5,000 or $20,000? Can you even legally marry a woman you’ve met online, on a niche dating website?
Our main goal is to help you develop realistic expectations about this business and the potential journey you may take to find a foreign wife.
Top Rated Mail Order Bride Sites – Trusted & Legitimate Websites
Today, international dating websites and mail-order bride sites are out of competition. However, if you want to find a future spouse online, you need to make a legitimately good choice, and we have some ideas for you.
Is it realistic to buy a bride online?
Mail-order brides for sale are nothing but a myth.
You can’t find a catalog with profiles of women who’d agree to marry foreigners in exchange for financial compensation or the sole opportunity to migrate to another country.
“In reality, men can meet family- and marriage-minded women on niche websites designed exclusively for Westerners and foreign brides. Such platforms are never free, but members only pay for credits or coins—the virtual currency that can be spent on messaging, video calls, virtual gifts, and other premium features.
The idea is to connect similar-minded people living on different continents. It’s about matchmaking, advanced online communication, and building a real relationship (a couple always meets online before they get married). The modern mail-order bride business has nothing to do with direct or indirect purchases of spouses, arranged marriages, and human trafficking.
Is it legal to mail-order a bride?
So, are mail-order spouse illegal in US? Considering that mail-order brides aren’t women for sale and that “to mail-order a spouse” means “to meet a foreign woman online and build a genuine romantic relationship with her”, they aren’t illegal.
“Basically, a mail-order bride marriage is just a marriage to a foreign citizen, and it’s perfectly legal in nearly all countries. Americans can marry non-Americans, Australians can marry non-Australians, Canadians can marry non-Canadians, and so on. There are certain procedures that allow foreign nationals to migrate to different countries to get married. The genuine relationship with a local is what makes a mail-order bride legal in the eyes of the law.
To sum up, are mail-order brides legal? Yes, they are if a mail-order bride and her boyfriend who’ve met online build a genuine emotional connection and have met each other in real life as required by the laws in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and most other countries.
How does a mail order bride industry work?
Let’s start with the mail-order bride definition.
“What is a mail-order bride? She is a single foreign woman who wants to get married and start a family in the near future. She isn’t trying to find a partner in her home country, though. For certain reasons (usually, a combination of various social, cultural, political, economic, and personal factors), she expects to find a partner in another country.
“Most often, she is searching for a future spouse in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, or countries of Western Europe. She’s motivated to build a healthy romantic relationship. A modern mail-order bride doesn’t want to marry a stranger. Her goal is to find a compatible person, meet him offline, build a healthy relationship, and migrate to get married if necessary.
As you can see, that’s not what many people expect a modern mail-order bride to be. Another interesting question is how the entire system works. It’s more like standard dating, actually. In most cases, the main stages are as follows:
- Both a man and a woman choose the country or region where they’d like to find a spouse. It’s less important for mail-order brides as most sites and agencies work with a wider pool of males from all the Western countries. But it’s crucially important for men who usually need to choose between Asia, Europe, and Latin America—the three main regions that top companies usually “specialize” in. If a man wants to meet a bride from Vietnam, he needs to find a good Asian platform.
- Singles set up accounts on one of the niche websites for mail-order brides and their potential husbands only. Singles find the site that meets their criteria and join the community. For both men and women, registration is always free. However, for women, the process is usually more complex and time-consuming. Men are the ones who pay for dating services, and women are the ones who can share as detailed information about themselves, as possible, and are usually obliged to provide their IDs to prove they’re real persons behind the profiles.
- A bride passes checks, while a man is testing the site and upgrading his account to premium. Here’s how it works in most cases. If a bride shares high-quality photos and videos, writes a good bio, provides all the necessary details, and verifies her identity, she accesses the websites and can communicate with men for free. Men are also encouraged to create detailed profiles—some sites offer quite generous bonuses for verifications, but they don’t have to meet that many criteria. After they upgrade, they can spend their bonus, and test all the free features, but they’ll need to spend some real money to keep communicating with brides.
- They search for matches and communicate. Everything else happens just like on a regular dating site, but the system is more complex, and the features are more advanced. For example, there may be suggested and the most compatible matches, multiple extended search filters, and swiping. There may also be not only text chat but also different types of emails, message templates, video calls, phone calls, gift delivery services, translation services, etc.
- They find someone special, start a long-distance relationship, and schedule a date offline. Usually, a man and a woman meet each other, get to know each other better, then realize they are compatible, and keep building emotional connection. Once they feel ready, they start a relationship online first and schedule a date in real life. Trips aren’t arranged by the company, bought through the site, etc. A couple just exchanges contact details, and in most cases, a man goes to a bride’s country (we’d definitely not recommend sending money to any “brides”—this is just a scam).
As you can see, mail-order bride online dating is more like mainstream online dating nowadays. Of course, there are differences. Mail-order bride services are never free but they are still much cheaper than services provided by marriage agencies. Communication features and matchmaking are much better than on mainstream sites.
All in all, you set the criteria. For example, you’re a man who’s looking for a marriage-minded Slavic woman in her late 30s ready to go to the United States and stay to start a family. You choose the niche site and get instant access to thousands of profiles of women who meet all your main criteria. The rest is pretty much up to you. No one makes you go to Europe or charge extra fees for trips. No one decides how and where a date will take place.
So, the chance of finding a mail-order wife is rather high. But do mail-order marriages work? Yes, and the success rate is over 40% and is actually increasing because these are not marriages between strangers anymore. Couples meet online, start a long-distance relationship, meet offline, introduce their partners to their families, etc. They build emotional bonds, and that always improves the chance that partners will stay together for a really long time.
Where do most mail order brides come from?
The best mail-order bride countries do exist. Usually, these are the countries where mail-order marriages aren’t stigmatized, countries where many women are attracted to foreign men, and countries where women are more marriage- and family-minded than guys.
Research and statistics help distinguish places where women migrate to get married most frequently, as well as the demand for Asian, Slavic, and Latin brides in the international online dating markets.
So, what’s the best country for mail-order brides? Currently, there are three top options to choose from:
1. Ukraine
Much can be said about Ukraine and its role in the global mail-order bride segment of the international dating market. Most importantly, that’s the place where tradition meets modernity. On the one hand, beautiful Ukrainian women still want to get married, marry young and want to have children. Building a family is the absolute main way to achieve social and personal fulfillment. On the other hand, local women are quite open-minded, well-educated, usually employed, curious, lively, and adventurous.
Also, multiple restrictions in the USSR did exactly the opposite of what they were supposed to do—instead of becoming dangerous in the eyes of Ukrainian women, foreigners became attractive, and dating them was a bit prestigious.
2. Japan
It is the new star in the Asian online dating market. Obviously, there are other Asian countries where many locals marry foreigners, but the demand for Japanese wives, as well as the “supply” just skyrocketed in recent years. Japan is getting less homogeneous, it’s modern, it’s more Westernized than many people think, and at the same time, it’s still traditional.
The institution of the family is strong, women want to get married and have children (unfortunately, social pressure plays its role here, too), and they are rightly known as some of the most caring, supportive, and loving wives and mothers. It’s a mistake to think they are submissive, though. They are just quite reserved and perfectly mannered. They are equal partners and often become top family managers.
3. Colombia
Colombia is now the number one Latin country on the list. With the largest number of single women seeking foreign husbands, it remains the best place to find quite a young, family-minded, beautiful, and smart woman. Colombian women are mostly characterized as kind and benevolent, strong and self-reliant, emotional and ambitious, family-minded women who care most about their loved ones. Also, loyalty, mutual support, and mutual understanding are some of the core values. All that attracts men who like Latina women, and it seems that the number of Colombian brides won’t be decreasing within the foreseeable future.
How much do mail order brides cost?
Now, it’s time to reveal the secrets of mail-order bride pricing. As we’ve mentioned previously, no one can buy a bride, but paradoxically, you can still meet the “cheapest mail-order brides” or spend much more money on finding a foreign wife.
A man pays only for the services he needs to use to meet a girlfriend, build a long-distance relationship with her, meet her offline, and get officially married. That’s why the main expenses are as follows:
- Spending on dating sites. The costs vary greatly. The total price of dating services will depend not only on the policy of the particular platform but also on the choices that you make. As we’ve noted before, you’ll need to buy credits and coins and spend them on messaging, video calls, gifts (optional), and other services. Not only credits but also different services have different prices. So, you’ll need to join the site, see the price list, and estimate the approximate cost. Of course, the more women you contact and the more expensive tools you are using, the higher the price. All in all, most men spend around $100 per month on top niche websites.
- Flights and trips to a bride’s country. A lot will depend on the location. Needless to say, a trip to South Korea will cost you more than a trip to Vietnam. Again, we’re considering independent trips. Trips arranged by an agency would cost much more. Costs of such mid-range trips (including flights) for two weeks usually range from $1,500 to $3,000 depending on the country, season, city, etc.
- Visa. The cost will depend on the country, but in most cases, it’s nearly fixed. For example, a K-1 visa to the United States will cost you around $1,000. A foreign partner visa in the United Kingdom, for example, costs $1,800 for foreign citizens applying for it outside the UK. Also, if a bride has children, the cost will be higher.
Hence, the longer you stay on a dating site searching for a bride, the more times you go to her country, the more expensive her country is, the higher the price, and vice versa. So, these were the basic principles of mail-order brides pricing. Consider them when planning your budget and keep in mind that the final cost will largely depend on the choices you make at every phase of your international dating journey.
| Mail-order bride country | Average cost of a mail-order bride |
| Ukraine *considering that visiting Ukraine isn’t safe, we provided costs of trips to Poland | $3,800-$5,000 |
| Japan | $4,100-$5,700 |
| Colombia | $2,200-$3,000 |
| The Philippines | $3,000-$4,000 |
| Mexico | $2,900-$4,500 |
| South Korea | $5,000-$6,500 |
| Brazil | $3,300-$4,500 |
| Thailand | $3,300-$4,500 |
| Dominican Republic | $3,200-$5,200 |
| Vietnam | $3,000-$3,800 |
* The mail-order brides cost includes 1-2 trips, 10 months of using one of the top websites, and a visa to the US. It doesn’t include spending on romance—gifts, weddings, dates offline, etc. Again, the price may be higher or lower depending on the location, circumstances, and your choices.
How to find a mail order bride?
So, how to find mail-order brides? You can do it online, on niche dating websites, and mail-order bride sites. There are alternatives, though, but marriage agencies are less popular, more expensive, and not always effective, so we’ll consider the option that works for the majority of singles.
Still, we realize it’s quite easy to say, “Go online.” How exactly should one get started? Which choices matter more than the other ones? How do you choose the site, and how do you not get scammed? These are legitimately important questions. That’s why we’ve created a step-by-step guide for all the newbies and even experienced daters.
Again, a man can’t buy a mail-order bride, literally or figuratively, despite it seeming to be an easier way for some people. A site or a company that offers you to order a bride online is always a scam.
In reality, you can find a mail-order bride more natural and healthy way. You can build a genuine emotional connection, a bond that won’t be ruined after you get bored or start discussing your plans, especially if you find out they are completely different. It takes more time, but it’s always worth it.
7 Common myths about mail order brides
You’ve surely heard at least one of those stereotypes before. Want to know what’s wrong with all those myths about mail order brides? Here, we’re going to debunk them.
- “They’re gold diggers”. In reality, you might meet a gold digger everywhere—in a restaurant, in a mall, on Facebook, or on a dating site. There’s no shred of evidence that the chances of meeting a gold-digger in another country are higher than in the US.
- “There are no real brides online”. This myth is based on unhappy users of poor-quality dating websites—unfortunately, a lot of people use fake and scam dating sites where they obviously can’t meet a real foreign bride. The good news is that there are real brides online, actually. You just need a 100% trusted and legit dating app with good reviews.
- “They only want a green card”. Of course, there might be some women who only want a green card. But if there were many of them, the divorce rate in mail order bride marriages would be higher than the nation as a whole. But in reality, it’s quite the opposite: the divorce rate in mail order bride marriages is actually lower than the national average. So no, it’s not true at all.
- “This is human trafficking”. No, because mail order brides score 0 out of 3 points. You’ll see what we’re talking about in the next paragraph.
- “You can buy a mail bride online”. No, you can’t. If you could, it would be human trafficking!
- “They are conservative, religious, stay-at-home wives”. Well, this one is probably the closest to the truth. Yes, a lot of foreign brides are more traditional and have more conservative views on gender roles than American women. However, they all are Westernized, they all are educated, and they all heard about feminism. They are not passive, obedient dolls anymore—even if we’re talking about the women from countries with a patriarchal society.
- “Cultural and language barriers are impossible to overcome”. That’s not true, and it’s actually good news! It’s not the 19th century anymore and women from Asia, South America, or Eastern Europe watched the same Disney cartoons as you did during childhood, they listen to the same music, they watch the same movies as you do, and they probably know about the Diddy scandal. As for the language barrier—this problem is not even worth discussing because the majority of mail order brides are at least confident English speakers (B1-B2 CEFR level).
There are many, and most of them annoy Ukrainian women, so be careful when talking or directly asking about them, if you really want that.
Legal issues surrounding mail-order brides
The concept of mail order brides has been with us for hundreds of years. Every single year tens of thousands of foreign nationals enter the US on a K-1 visa and get married to American citizens. According to some sources, more than 55% of the K-1 visa applicants first met online, so it would be safe to assume that a lot of them met on mail order bride websites. What we’re talking about here is that every year thousands of Americans meet foreign brides online and marry them—but the legal side of the mail order bride phenomena is still surrounded by certain myths. Some people say it’s actually not legal, some say it’s human trafficking, the others think that brides are not protected by law when they’re in the US…
Let’s talk about these myths.
Is it actually legal?
Yes. As long as you and your bride meet all the requirements, it’s 100% legal for you to marry a foreign woman and bring her to the United States. In the US, your bride/wife will be able to get a green card—therefore, she’ll become a US permanent resident. After 3 years, your wife will be able to apply for US citizenship under the Married Permanent Resident category. It’s perfectly legal, too.
Isn’t it human trafficking?
No. When we say “human trafficking” we mean the AMP model. The model consists of three elements:
- A is for Act
- M is for Means
- P is for Purpose.
“Act” means that the trafficker recruits, transports, or transfers a person through “Means“—threats, fraud, deception, coercion, or fraud. All this is done with a “Purpose”—prostitution, sexual exploitation, slavery, etc. And mail order brides have literally nothing to do with that.
There is no trafficker—they are not transported or transferred to the US, they buy a ticket when they decide to meet their partner. When it comes to Means, there are no threats, fraud, or deception—all mail order brides create profiles on dating sites because they want to find a foreign husband, that’s all. And as for the Purpose, it’s simple, too—mail order brides want to marry a foreigner because they dream of living a better life with a respectful and loving man, this has nothing to do with slavery or sexual exploitation.
So it’s zero out of three and that’s all you need to know about it.
Are mail order brides protected by law?
Yes. Some people think that when a bride arrives in the US, it’s kinda a grey zone because she already left her country but hasn’t become a US citizen or resident yet. During this period, foreign brides are vulnerable and defenseless, and unfortunately, this sometimes leads to abuse and other family violence.
The bad news is that brides are really vulnerable when they enter the US. They often don’t know the laws and some men use this to their advantage.
The good news is that they are not actually defenseless. The VAWA Act (passed in 1994) allows foreign brides who suffered from abuse to continue their green card application process without their abusive husbands. This means that men can’t blackmail their foreign brides with threats of divorce anymore—even if the marriage is annulled, a foreign woman will still become a US resident. There’s also the IMBRA Act (passed in 2005) which is focused on informing foreign brides about their rights and on preventing human trafficking.
How can we help you find a foreign wife?
Our project was created to help everyone, from a newbie in online dating to an expert in local dating, expand their borders and find a partner overseas. Information that you can see on this page is the most important thing recommended to know, but it’s basically only the tip of the iceberg.
We have over 10 years of experience in the field of online dating and over 6 years of experience in the field of international online dating. We faced hundreds of complex situations and problems, tested hundreds of dating websites, collected lots of statistics and research, and provided analytics services to be able to say that we can:
- Find the most promising and most effective websites for meeting mail-order brides and international dating sites that work well enough for people seeking serious relationships with foreign partners.
- Give recommendations on how to get started, how to cut costs, and how to improve your dating strategy.
- Share information on local dating cultures, and give recommendations on how to communicate with mail-order brides from different regions.
- Give legal advice on how to invite a foreign bride to your country.
- Help singles all over the globe avoid catfishing and situations when you buy tickets for a bride and then never see her coming to your country.
So, our ultimate goal is to create a database, an information portal where you’ll be able to find all the information without spending your time researching the market, finding decent websites, comparing them, reading academic articles about the family institution in foreign countries, and so on and so forth.
Simply put, we work to get you covered at every stage of your international dating journey.
