Mail Order Bride Cost: How Much Does a Wife Cost?

How much is a mail order bride? That’s a very common question that, paradoxically, raises even more questions. Are mail order wives for sale? Are there any fixed prices for foreign brides? Is that even legal? Should you trust the company that offers you to buy a mail order wife?

In short, mail order bride cost has nothing to do with direct payments for a woman’s immigration. Buying a wife is illegal, but it doesn’t mean you can’t get a foreign wife. The system is way more complex, and we’ll explain how it actually works in this in-depth guide.

🌐 Most popular countries	💰 Average cost of a mail order bride*	💻 Top dating site
Ukraine	$4,900	SofiaDate
The Phillipines	$6,100	SakuraDate
Vietnam	$5,500	EasternHoneys
Dominican Republic	$5,600	La-Date
Mexico	$5,500	LoveFort

*Price includes online dating services, 1 two-week trip to the country, K-1 visa and adjustment status

International dating sites with best prices in 2024

The mail bride cost largely depends on the pricing policy of the dating website you choose. We selected the best mail order bride sites and international dating sites for dating and marriage that offer great value for money.

4.9

How much does a mail order bride cost

So, what’s the average cost of a mail order bride? Let’s take a look at major expenditures:

Online dating services — $1,300 on average (for a 1-year period)
Trips — $4,000 for 2 two-week trips to a not-too-expensive country
Visa — $1,200 for a K-1 visa, not including further application for an adjustment status
Extra expenditures — $1,500 on small gifts and flowers

The average cost of mail order brides is around $8,000. However, if you’re looking for the “cheapest mail order bride”, you can find a wife at a lower price of $5,000 or even less, or you can spend $20,000 or even more. Everything, including mail order bride prices, depends on the choices you make.

Can you buy a wife online?

So, as we’ve mentioned previously, the term ‘mail order brides cost’ doesn’t refer to a fixed price for a wife. If so, why it’s still used? The answer this question, we should give the definition of a mail order bride first.

A mail order bride is a foreign woman, usually from Asia, Eastern Europe, or Latin America, who’s intentionally searching for a husband overseas. She isn’t financially compensated either by a dating agency or a dating website or her future husband. First and foremost, she’s motivated to find a decent partner, build an emotional connection with him online, and then, if everything goes right, get married and immigrate.

As you can see, this definition is a bit different from the definition that most would offer. The thing is, many people rely on the mail order bride history, the relics of the past, without considering the fact that this industry, just like anything else in the world, is evolving. The mail order bride cost has nothing to do with the financial motivation of the bride herself or the agency she’s working with or a site she’s registered on.

In fact, the mail order bride price refers to the total cost of online dating services, whether a premium membership plan or credits, the cost of trips to meet a future mail order wife, and the cost of a K-1 visa for a bride (if a man is going to cover such expenses, which is usually the case).

If so, how much is a mail order spouse? That depends on multiple things, the most important of which we explain below.

What a mail order bride price includes

So, let’s take a closer look at the things that actually affect the mail order bride cost:

Type of the site, its payment system & actual prices. Mail order bride pricing depends on a website’s policy or its multiple aspects, to be exact. That includes the type of payments accepted on the platform, costs of particular services, the efficiency of the platform, the time you spend there, etc.
The cost of trips to a mail order bride country. The location matters, and so does the number of trips. You can’t marry a foreign girl without meeting her in real life; that’s just a myth, so you’ll need to spend money on tickets and hotels, too.
Visa and immigration expenses. A bride can’t enter the US or any other Western country without getting a visa, and it not only takes time but also costs money.
Extra expenditures. In this case, everything depends on a man. Will he help his bride financially? Will he celebrate the wedding? Will he buy virtual or real gifts? All this should be estimated, too.

Yes, mail order bride pricing is actually complex. There are even more nuances to consider, and we’re going to explain them in more detail.

Type of the site, its payment system & actual prices

If you want to estimate the mail order wife cost, you need to choose the website carefully. Let’s start with the two main types of mail order brides sites where you’ll have the best chance of finding a perfect match:

Mail order bride websites. These are the websites where you’ll have the best chance of finding a bride. Such platforms have strict policies and don’t accept women interested in anything but marriage.

Sites make them provide documents, verify their accounts and add lots of photos and videos. Though obviously, they are effective, the mail order wife cost, or rather the cost of finding a mail order bride on such platforms will be higher.
Niche international dating sites. These are the websites created for men seeking foreign partners and women from specific regions who’d like to find a foreign boyfriend or husband. They also work well for international singles, and are a bit cheaper but connect you with women interested in different types of relationships, not necessarily marriage.

Such platforms, in turn, fall under two subcategories—sites with credit systems and sites with premium membership plans. In fact, on good mail order bride sites and niche dating sites, members usually need to buy credits and spend them on using different features, and the thing is, the costs are different, too.

For example, you can spend 20 credits on 10 minutes in live chat, watching live shows can be free, but watching a profile video can cost 50 credits. Yes, these are complex systems, and as you’ve already guessed, in this case, the cost of mail order bride services will depend not only on the pricing policy of a specific platform but also on the way a member uses them.

You can spend hundreds of dollars if you communicate a lot, contact random women and send multiple gifts. However, if you make the right decision, the price will be around $100 per month.

It’s also important to consider the period of time you spend on the platform. For users who join mainstream dating sites and search for local matches, it takes around 2-3 months to find a match, but on free dating websites, you just exchange a few messages and then meet in real life, which is not possible when you’re searching for a partner in Asia, Europe, or Latin America.

So, you can expect to spend around a year on finding a partner and then building an emotional connection with her online, which means the total cost of online dating services will range from around $1,000 to $1,500 and higher, depending on the time you spend online.

The cost of trips to a mail order bride country

How much does a mail order wife cost? Is it only $1,500 for online dating services? No, it’s not. The thing is, the mail order brides cost also largely depends on the costs of dates in real life. Some assume that the final cost doesn’t include trips as the very term mail order brides means that you marry a woman without a meeting, but as we’ve already mentioned previously, things don’t work like that anymore. It’s just a myth. What’s reality then, and what happens during real-life dating?

A foreign woman who immigrates to another country to get married must apply for a K-1 visa if it’s the US and prove that her relationship with a foreign spouse is authentic and that they’ve met in real life.
Most men prefer to go to a bride’s country or to a third country if their long-distance girlfriend lives in South Korea, Japan, or another place where the prices are as high or even higher than in the US and other Western countries. The duration of the trip, as well as the frequency of dates, is totally up to a couple, but of course, most men don’t propose to a woman if they have seen her just once in their lives.
Most singles meet at least twice, and in most cases, a man stays for at least two weeks each time. It’s enough to learn a bit more about the country, meet a bride’s family and friends, and just ensure that there is real chemistry between them. The cost of such a trip will depend on the country and the duration.

Still, for most top mail order bride countries, the cost range from $1,000 to $1,700 for two weeks, not including plane tickets (they can seriously affect the price). We recommend finding the actual prices for round-trip tickets and estimating the approximate costs using platforms like BudgetYourTrip.com.

mail order wife cost — Beautiful woman from BravoDate

Visa and immigration expenses

As we’ve noted previously, a man can’t marry a foreign citizen immediately and easily—there are certain procedures for cross-cultural couples, and yes, a foreign fiance will need to apply for a visa.

The vast majority of couples who met on niche online dating sites prefer to get married in a groom’s country, and in most cases, it’s the United States, so foreign brides usually apply for a K-1 visa.

Of course, a bride can pay for it too, but a man usually covers the expenses:

Visa petition — $535
Medical exam—around $200, but the cost ranges from $100 to $500
Processing — $265
Adjustment status — $1,140
Biometrics — $85

So, the total cost of getting a visa and an adjustment status (a bride applies for it after arrival) is around $2,000. Also, if you get married in another country and then a wife applies for a foreign relative visa, and the cost will be nearly the same.

Extra expenditures

Men looking for cheap mail order brides should also consider that the total cost of a mail order bride will also depend on their dating style and the choices they make, not only at the stage of selecting the site but also on the platform and in real life.

For example, most high-quality platforms let users exchange whether virtual or real gifts. If you prefer to send more gifts to the ladies you like before you even start a relationship with one of them, you can spend $1,000+ more on gifts and compliments.

The same goes for dating in real life. A man can visit the country like a tourist and meet his long distance girlfriend. They can go to fancy restaurants only, a man can buy expensive gifts or spend less on such kind of entertainment, and that affects the total price, too.

Special attention should be paid to weddings. They cost around $20,000-$30,000 in the US, and the prices can be higher or lower depending on your plans or expectations. If you plan to celebrate a wedding, adding this cost to the list of expenditures totally makes sense.

Mail order brides pricing for different countries

The location affects the price, so let’s take a look at the approximate costs of finding, dating, and marrying mail order brides from some of the top countries for finding a wife.

Country	Round-trip	Hotel	Entertainment	Meals	Visa + adjustment status	Online dating services	Total*
Ukraine	$800	$500	$200	$200	$2,000	$1,200	$4,900
The Philippines	$1,800	$500	$300	$300	$2,000	$1,200	$6,100
Vietnam	$1,300	$600	$200	$200	$2,000	$1,200	$5,500
Dominican Republic	$300	$1,200	$100	$800	$2,000	$1,200	$5,600
Mexico	$500	$900	$400	$500	$2,000	$1,200	$5,500

*Total if a man goes to a bride’s country just once

Note that these are approximate costs for some of the main countries in the three main regions—Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Also, there are a lot of things that affect the price, and we’ll talk about them in more detail below.

What affects the mail order wife price?

So, let’s sum it up and take a look at the main things that affect the cost of mail order brides:

Location. The mail order bride cost can be much higher or lower even in the same region. For example, getting a bride in the Philippines is much cheaper than finding a future wife in South Korea. However, the difference between the Russian bride cost and the Ukraine wife price won’t be that huge. All in all, you should always consider the location and costs of trips.
Your dating strategy on the site. The prices for using different services will be different, too. For example, gift delivery is usually expensive, there may be different prices for sending a long email or using chat, and making phone or video calls.
Flights. If you want to save money, plan your trips considering seasonal demand and discounts. Tickets can make up to 30% of the total mail order bride price, so that’s important.
Frequency of trips, number of offline dates. The cost of trips is actually the highest, and though the prices in most mail order bride countries aren’t as high, the tickets are usually not so cheap, so you’ll spend around $2,000 on a trip anyway, and a lot will also depend on your traveling style.
Wedding expenses. You can expect to spend $30,000 on a wedding celebration in the US. The costs of a wedding in other countries are usually much lower, but if you decide to marry your wife in her country, she’ll need to apply for a visa as a foreign relative.

These are the main things that affect the total price, and of course, it can be much higher or much lower depending on the choices you make.

Mail bride cost: how to save money?

If you want the mail order brides cost to be twice as low as it could be, just follow a few simple recommendations:

1. Estimate the approximate cost of dating services per month and adapt your strategy. Online dating costs aren’t that high compared to the costs of trips, but you still can spend $1,200 instead, for example, $3,000 if you choose the right site, learn everything about the prices, test different tools to understand which work best for you considering the prices for using them.

2. Contact your best matches only. That’s another simple way to save a lot of money on dating sites. Conversations cost credits, and if you start them with many wrong people, you’ll just waste them. It’s nearly impossible to find the right person at the first attempt, but it’s possible to narrow the search to people who meet all your most important criteria.

3. Choose the right time and the right places for trips. If a bride lives in an expensive country, you can meet in a third country. If you choose the right time with lots of seasonal discounts from airlines, you’ll be able to save thousands of dollars in the long-term perspective.

4. Cut the extra costs on gifts and other unnecessary things. There’s nothing wrong about spending money on a woman you like, but you shouldn’t make hasty decisions. Send gifts only if you are sure that’s the right person, and never send money to a woman you’ve never met in person, no matter how close you think you are.

5. Think carefully about the wedding. A wedding is incredibly expensive, and if you want to celebrate it, you can consider marrying your girlfriend in her country, but note that in this case, she’ll need to apply for a visa not as a foreign fiancee but as a foreign relative.

Generally speaking, all you should do is think twice before making any decision, whether choosing the communication feature you’d like to use right now to contact an attractive woman on the site or choosing an airline to go to your long-distance girlfriend’s country.

Free dating sites or paid platforms?

How much does a wife cost for those who choose free dating sites instead of niche mail order bride platforms or international dating websites? Does choosing a free mainstream app make sense if you’re looking for foreign matches only?

Generally speaking, both free and niche sites have their pros and cons for a man who’d like to find a foreign mail order wife.

Criterion	Mainstream apps & sites	Niche websites
The dating pool	Have more members, the most popular platforms have 10+ millions of users who, however, usually have different relationship goals	Have fewer users, usually up to 1 million, but connect people with similar relationship goals
Motivation of users	Most members are looking for local matches and dates, pretty hard to find a person looking for a relationship with a foreigner	All members join the site because they are seeking a partner overseas, higher chance to find a foreign match and start a relationship overall
Special services	Tools like messaging and basic matching are available	Many special tools, from streams to video chat & international calls to help users build an emotional connection at a distance
Costs	Messaging is free and unlimited, but special features are available to those who buy Premium plans	Many free features, but members pay for special services, particularly messaging

Just consider this information and choose the option that will work best for you.

Conclusion

Matthew Hussey

Dating Expert

So, how much does it cost to buy a wife? In fact, you can’t buy a wife whether on mail order bride sites or elsewhere—the system just doesn’t work like that.

Mail order bride pricing depends on multiple factors, and I’d recommend you focus on three main things—the location, the website where you’re going to find a bride, and your own dating strategy.

A lot will depend on the decisions you make, so don’t make random choices. Consider as many factors as possible, and you’ll be able to find a wife without paying a too-high mail order brides price.

FAQ

What is the average cost of a mail order bride?

Mail order bride pricing depends on multiple factors, including the cost of a paid membership/credits, the cost of trips, and visa expenses. Nonetheless, estimating the average price is possible—currently, it’s around $7,000-$8,000 (wedding not included).

Are mail order bride sites more expensive than mainstream dating sites?

Yes, premium services provided on such niche platforms are usually more expensive than premium features on the mainstream dating websites like tinder. On a mail order bride platform, an average user is likely to spend around $100 a month.

In which countries can I find cheap mail order brides?

The mailorder brides cost is likely to be lower in the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Ukraine, Thailand, Poland, Colombia, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic, so if you’re searching for a cheap mail order bride, you can find her in these countries or any other countries you can visit to meet a long-distance girlfriend without spending a fortune.