The topic of mail order brides and mail order marriages has always been able to spike the interest of single men all over the world. The concept of having a mail-order bride, someone who meets all your desires and requirements and appreciates you deeply, is something you cannot easily give up on. But how much for a mail order bride, and why is money involved in the process in the first place? Let’s look at the average cost of mail order bride and how to estimate the potential cost of finding a future spouse.
Are Mail Order Brides for Sale?
When browsing the internet, exploring the idea of mail-order brides or beginning the process of searching for an international partner, you can often run into the expression “brides for sale.” However, we need to assure you that this expression does not actually mean what it seems to mean. There are no brides for sale on the internet, which is something any guide on how to order a bride would tell you. This expression is simply used for brevity to convey the idea of dating and marrying foreign women while paying money for it.
Why Is There a Mail Order Brides Cost?
It shouldn’t be surprising that mail-order brides involve financial costs: very few things in life are free, especially as life-changing and important as finding a future spouse. The journey of getting a mail-order bride can extend beyond a year and consists of several important steps. Naturally, you need to invest a certain amount of money into making it more effective and pleasant. In other words, you pay money to increase the probability of first finding your perfect match and then developing your dream relationship with her.
How Much Is a Mail Order Bride? Detailed Cost Breakdown
The crucial notion to understand is that the mail order bride price is never known in advance, and there are several types of expenses that go into it. In most cases, you will need to pay some money at three stages of the process: dating online, dating in real life, and making your relationship official by getting married. Here is how much you can expect to pay at each stage.
Online Dating
The greatest love story of your life will likely start on an global matchmaking platform. Dating services can use different monetization models to charge their male users for services. There can be a paid membership option, which can cost anywhere between $10 and $70 per month. This membership will typically include certain perks compared to free users, such as highlighting your profile in the search results.
Most sites, however, use a credit-based system. With this system, you purchase a certain number of credits and then spend them on communication features. From a financial standpoint, this system works better because you only pay for the features you actually use. Credit packages start at $2.99, and men typically spend around $50 per month on credits. This does not include the cost of gifts or flowers that you may send from time to time to your bride.
Offline Dating
Meeting in real life at least once before getting married is not just a way to test your relationship — it’s a legal requirement for your bride to get the coveted K-1 visa. This is why, if you have serious intentions, meeting offline is something you should definitely plan for.
As a foreign suitor of a mail order bride, you are the one expected to cover all the expenses of your trip. Here is how much a two-week trip to a foreign country can cost you in total:
- Plane tickets — from $500 to $1,700.
- Hotel — from $1,500 to $2,500.
- Food (for two) — from $700 to $1,200.
- Entertainment and dates — from $400 to $800.
- Transportation services — from $300 to $500.
Moreover, you may choose to bring gifts for your bride and her family, which can add another $500-$1,000 to your budget. Overall, you can expect to spend between $3,000 and $5,000 on a visit to your bride’s country.
Legal Expenses and Marriage
When it’s time to tie the knot and start your new life in the US, you should be aware that Your bride will require a K-1 visa — a specific visa intended for foreign fiancés of U.S. citizens. The visa application fees typically amount to $2,500. Moreover, some couples prefer to work with an immigration lawyer to speed up the process and minimize the chance of failure, which can cost around $1,000. Finally, the cost of the marriage itself can range anywhere between $1,000 and $20,000+ — this is something you and your bride can decide upon together.
Which Factors Influence Mail Order Bride Pricing?
Mail order brides pricing isn’t standardized and includes various types of expenses. Moreover, several different factors can influence mail order bride prices, and many of these factors are not obvious at all. Here are all the things that can factor into the cost of mail order brides:
- Search duration. On average, it takes a man 12 to 18 months to find a future wife. However, that time period can be significantly longer, especially if you have a long list of desired qualities or are simply not lucky enough. Naturally, the longer it takes to find your significant other, the more it’s all going to cost.
- Language differences. There are plenty of English-speaking brides online, and their number continuously increases as more women learn English. However, this is not a given, and if you fall in love with a girl who doesn’t speak English well, you may need to pay for translation services.
- Courtship period. When dating online, you will obviously use every available method to build a perfect relationship with a woman and eventually convince her that you’re the one for her. This can be done using different site features, and while some are fairly inexpensive (chat and virtual gifts), others are more costly (video chat and gift delivery). The more expensive features you use, the more you’ll end up paying.
- Bride’s country of origin. Surprisingly enough, even the country your bride is from can influence the final mail order bride price. The farther away from the US your bride is, and the more expensive it is to visit as a foreigner, the more your budget will need to increase. For example, brides from Asia tend to be more expensive, while brides from Latin America are usually more affordable.
How to Bring the Cost of Meeting Your Spouse Down
Evidently, the cost of a mail-order bride can vary widely, and while some men are lucky enough to spend just a couple of thousand dollars, others have to face expenses upwards of $10,000. In some instances, the final cost of a mail order spouse may even depend on luck, but there are steps you can take to influence it to bring down your total cost of mail order bride. Here is how you can achieve a lower cost of a mail order bride:
- Choose a reliable site. Mail order bride sites can use different tactics to attract users, and a lower upfront cost doesn’t always mean the lowest overall expenses. A site that offers a cheap membership can end up charging you for more things than you expect, while a credit-based site typically has a more predictable cost with no hidden fees.
- Look for discounts and promotions. The competition against dating services is getting stiffer, and sites can go to great lengths to increase their audience size. Discounts, promotions, and various bonuses are a popular way to do it, and this is where you can save a considerable portion of your budget. For example, you can get some bonus credits or a half-price membership as a new member.
- Choose paid services wisely. The variety of paid features offered by dating websites is constantly growing, but you don’t always need to use every paid service available, especially if you’re dating on a leaner budget. For instance, translation services may not be a particularly wise investment when there are free translators available online, and paid matchmaking doesn’t necessarily work better than doing your own search.
- Be smart with gift giving. Gift and flower delivery is a service offered by most dating platforms, but while it’s a great way to indicate your interest, make the woman’s day, or congratulate her on an important day in her life, it’s not always wise to be sending gifts regularly because this can get rather expensive. Virtual gifts, on the other hand, are a fun and inexpensive way to make someone feel special.
- Plan your trip in advance. When it’s finally time to meet your bride in person, you need to plan your visit well in advance. This helps you not only know exactly where to take your bride and how to have the most memorable dates, but also get the best possible prices for plane tickets, hotels, and other major expenses of visiting a foreign country.
Final Thoughts
“How much does a mail order bride cost?” is one of the first questions men have when they start considering looking for a life partner from abroad. This can be easily explained by the fact that this service is typically thought of as a pretty expensive one. The good news, however, is that the mail order wife cost is not that high when you’re looking for her in the right places, and there are plenty of ways to spend less on your search as well. So, if you can easily see yourself being married to a mail order bride, the cost shouldn’t be your concern at all.