In the modern world, you can’t buy a mail-order bride; there are no catalogs with accurate mail-order bride prices and no special offers from dating agencies. The market works differently, and in this guide, we’ll tell you why you may find a wife and spend only $6,000 or end up spending tens of thousands of dollars. Read on, and you’ll find out how to plan your budget correctly.
Busting the myths: Do brides for sale exist?
Let’s start with the basic yet essential information with the two definitions of mail-order brides. The first one is an old false definition that has nothing to do with modern industry. The second one is the correct definition of the modern foreign bride.
❌A mail-order bride of the past is a foreign woman who wants to marry a foreign man and is ready to do it without building a deep emotional connection with her future husband. She’s primarily motivated by certain opportunities she gets (stability, financial support, etc.) and is ready to take risks. In some cases, a man could meet such a woman by paying a fixed price to a dating agency.
✅A modern mail-order bride is a foreign single woman who is ready to start a family and believes that she can find a better partner abroad. She isn’t financially compensated by a man, a dating site, or an agency. Her main goal is to find a decent partner, and she’s aimed at building an authentic romantic relationship with him.
You can see the difference. The motivation of a modern mail-order bride explains why you can’t pay a fixed price to a company and get a bride. The mail-order wife cost varies greatly and may range from $5,000 to $20,000+ just because you aren’t going to meet a woman who’s motivated only by certain benefits. You pay for the services that let you find the right person, your perfect match, and you never know how soon you will meet her and what the process will be like.
Best mail-order bride & dating sites
Most modern brides are seeking partners online on specialized websites. Such platforms may work great or be completely ineffective, so choosing the right dating service provider is incredibly important. If you need some ideas to get started, take a look at the top websites with great offers chosen by our experts. Each of them is legal.
Most Popular Choice
Mail-order bride price: Basic calculations
Though there’s no such thing as a fixed cost for a foreign wife, it doesn’t mean we can’t do some calculations. The mail-order bride pricing depends on certain factors, namely:
- Cost of online dating services
- Cost of trips
- Cost of a visa
- Your dating preferences (the money you spend on gifts, dates, the wedding, etc.)
Basically, we can calculate the minimum cost of getting a mail-order bride if we add the minimum cost of online dating services, one three-week trip to a bride's country, the cost of a visa, and a minimum spending on romance.
So, what’s the range? We did some calculations for the three most popular countries for finding a partner in three different regions, so take a look.
| Country | Cost of online dating services | Cost of a three-week trip (tickets included) | Cost of a visa | Minimum spending on romance | Total |
| The Philippines | $600 | $2,500 | $1,000 | $1,000 | $5,100 |
| Ukraine* | $600 | $2,000 | $1,000 | $1,000 | $4,600 |
| Mexico | $600 | $3,000 | $1,000 | $1,000 | $5,600 |
* If you find a Ukrainian bride, you’ll need to choose another country for meeting your girlfriend, as visiting Ukraine is not safe. In the table, you can see the cost of a three-week trip to Poland.
Now you know a bit more about mail-order brides pricing, but it’s just basic information. If you are considering finding a foreign wife and want to plan your budget, read on—we share some useful insights below.
Mail-order bride cost: Average price in details
You’ll need to make important decisions at every stage of your online dating journey. Use the information below to avoid mistakes and see the real picture.
💻 How much for online dating?
How much for a mail-order bride? As we’ve noted previously, men don’t pay large sums of money to dating agencies anymore, but niche websites (international dating sites with singles from a certain country or region looking for foreign matches or mail-order bride sites) are never free.
Moreover, on most specialized sites, you can’t just buy a premium plan—you are most likely to buy credits instead, and their costs, as well as the costs of using different communication features, vary greatly from platform to platform.
Let’s take a look at some examples based on what real companies currently offer:
- On Site #1, the costs for credits start at just around 0.08 per credit. However, you’ll spend 20 credits on 10 minutes of texting.
- On Site #2, the costs of credits start at around $2 per credit, but messaging will cost just 0.5 credits for 10 minutes.
That’s why considering the pricing policy of a particular website is so important. Moreover, you’ll need to control your spending. Messaging is the most useful feature, but other services, for example, video chatting, sending Winks, sending virtual gifts, or real gift delivery, may be more or less expensive. So, if you don’t want to top up your balance too frequently, you’ll need to learn how to make the right decisions on the site.
Most men who choose one of the top sites with mail-order wives spend $100 monthly. Hence, if you spend six months looking for a bride and start a relationship with your girlfriend online (that’s the average term in the mail-order bride world), you’ll spend around $600 in total.
✈️ Cost of trips—Why location is important
How much are mail-order wives trips? To answer this question, you need to choose the location. There are three top regions for meeting mail-order brides—Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. In each of those regions, there are the countries where local women marry foreigners most frequently.
Currently, the best countries to marry a woman are as follows:
- Europe — Ukraine, Poland
- Latin America — Mexico, Brazil, Colombia
- Asia — China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand
Considering that a man can’t marry a foreign woman he’s never met in real life (that’s prohibited in nearly all countries; the bride just won’t get a visa), you’ll need to take at least one trip to your girlfriend’s country.
Of course, there are alternatives. For example, you can invite her to your home country (only that is usually more complex and expensive) or meet a girl from China in Italy—there are no limitations or restrictions. However, you should always consider the total cost of the travel services.
As for the figures, they can be very, very different. At a certain period, the cost of tickets to China reached $1,500 and even more. Prices are relatively low in countries like Poland, but if you go to South Korea, you’ll spend a lot. The average price for a trip usually ranges from $2,500 to $3,000, but we’d still recommend checking out the current cost of trips to different mail-order bride countries to properly assess the situation.
The more often you go to another country and the more expensive your hotels and restaurants are, the higher the total “cost of the wife.”
📝 Making it official—Cost of a visa
Things are much more straightforward with visas. For example, the total cost of a K-1 visa to the United States is just around $1,000 (you don’t need to pay for a visa itself, but you’ll need to pay application fees, medical exams, etc.). However, if your bride has children, the cost will be higher, as they’ll need visas to enter the country and stay with their family, too.
🎁 Spending on gifts, dates & wedding
Is giving gifts to foreign brides you meet online a must? No, it’s not.
You don’t have to spend money on romance just to get a chance to start a relationship with a foreign girl. However, it’s also a normal part of dating, so you can hardly marry someone without buying any gifts. Just don’t ignore those expenditures—plan your budget considering how much you usually spend on such things.
Another big question is whether you are ready to pay for a wedding. You may need to invite your bride’s relatives, and even a regular wedding costs at least $20,000. If you’re on a budget, we’d recommend thinking about that carefully. A big celebration will cost you more than all the other services you’ll need to use to find a wife.
How to cut the cost of a mail-order bride
As you can see, there are multiple things that a man should consider when looking for a foreign spouse. Here are some direct recommendations on how to spend less—follow them to cut costs.
Choose a site with reasonable prices
A good website must meet multiple criteria—good features, high-quality profiles, and, of course, real members. But it must also offer good value for money and have no hidden costs.
Choose potential partners carefully
There’ll be thousands of attractive women, but you can spend a fortune trying to contact random beauties. Focus on the things ladies are saying in their bios, communicate, and don’t be afraid to move on if you see something is just not right.
Learn how to protect yourself from scams
Speaking of the things that aren’t right, you need to learn how to distinguish real brides from scammers. Never send money to anyone who asks for it, never ignore red flags, and leave the site if you see a lot of auto-generated messages or fake profiles.
Spend money on gifts carefully
On mail-order bride sites and international dating sites that provide delivery services, gifts are expensive. Order them only if you think you’ve met the right person.
Choose the right country
If you’re not dreaming of a girl from a specific country, consider choosing a place where local women are likely to meet your personal criteria (appearance, family values, religion, etc.)—but also a place that is affordable. For example, if you like Asian women, you may consider finding a bride from Vietnam instead of searching for a match in South Korea.
Choose the right time for trips
You’ll spend much less on flights if you avoid high seasons. If you go to a bride’s country during the hot season, you’ll spend more not only on tickets but also on hotels, especially if you’re going to visit a popular tourist destination.
Consider the alternatives
Sometimes, it’s cheaper for both of you to go to a third country than for you to visit a bride’s country. Also, you can combine the trip with your vacation. We’d recommend booking hotels and searching for good, affordable restaurants in advance.
Don’t be afraid to make serious decisions
The more time you spend on a dating site and the more trips you take to a bride’s country, the higher the final costs.
The mail bride cost will depend on you. Try to be less emotional and more rational, and you’ll be able to save a lot of money.
Final thoughts
So, how much is a mail-order spouse? Costs vary greatly, but finding a bride at just $6,000 is possible. You only need to develop a good strategy. Even if you spend more, that should be your conscious choice, so do research—in the end, you’ll see it was worth it.
