Marriage migration rates have never been higher in the United Kingdom. According to statistics, just a few years ago, in 2022, the number of people who entered the country to start families reached 240,000. That’s 72% more than in 2019, so the growing trend for intermarriage is rather obvious.
Of course, most of them are women, and basically, that’s who we call modern mail-order brides. Where do they come from, why do they choose British men, and how much does it cost to meet a mail-order bride in 2024? We’re going to answer these and many more questions in this guide.
5 top-rated mail-order bride websites & international dating sites
Though the history of foreign brides began in real life, now, the vast majority of men find foreign wives online. But we’d like to stress that those who want to succeed in the shortest time possible should use only reputable dating platforms with legit members.
Our experts have chosen a few top sites with real online brides from all over the world. All are legal in the UK and have some good offers for singles.
Who is a mail-order bride today?
The definition of a mail-order bride has been changing throughout the history of this socio-cultural phenomenon, so we’re going to analyze all the main stages of its evolution below.
👉 Foreign brides: The beginning
It all started in the early 17th century in the United States where settlers seemed to have it all except for families. There were just not enough women to start them. That’s why the Virginia Company offered an interesting scheme to both American men and European women.
Women who experienced financial difficulty could migrate to the US to get married, choose a husband (there was no need to marry a random man chosen by the company), and get clothes, land, etc. A man who married such a woman, in turn, paid a company with tobacco, which is why the first mail-order wives are also known as “tobacco wives.”
👉 Evolution of mail-order bride business
As you can see, the idea was rather simple, and the results were beneficial for both women and men. That’s why people kept using this scheme. Women heard about the latest offers from foreign grooms at churches until the international marriage agencies took over the market and started to connect women, mostly from Asia, with men, mostly from the US and the UK.
The approach was slightly changed—women didn’t just migrate to foreign countries to meet single men there and then make a choice. They entered into correspondence with men suggested by agencies and tried to get to know their potential husbands a bit better before taking any serious steps.
Though it was obviously a better approach, it did not always allow for building deep emotional connections. In many cases, it was a lottery, and that was the time when men were very close to choosing a bride from a catalog and marrying her despite barely knowing the person they were going to start a family with.
With the Internet, a lot of things have changed, and the mail-order bride business was no exception. British men and foreign women could communicate in real time, which improved the mail-order bride marriage success rate and took the entire market to a new level.
👉 Modern days
So what are mail-order brides now? These are still single foreign women looking for husbands in other countries. However, they don’t have to use services provided by middlemen now. The era of dating agencies is almost gone, and 90% of singles now prefer to use niche websites designed exclusively for marriage-minded people willing to date internationally.
“A modern mail-order wife is a single foreign woman, usually from Asia, Eastern Europe, or Latin America, who wants to get married and start a family in the near future. She’s not interested in dating someone for years but wants to find a compatible loving partner.“
“She voluntarily joins an online dating community created for similar-minded international singles, builds an emotional connection with one of the male members, meets him offline (in most cases, the man goes to the bride’s country), and migrates to this country to marry him if she realizes he is the one.”
Now you know the actual mail-order bride meaning, but the question about the motivation of foreign women remains open, right? In fact, there are specific socio-economic, cultural, and even historical factors that make foreign girls from particular countries and regions choose men from the UK over local men, and we’re going to talk about them in more detail below.
The moral issue of relations with a mail-order bride
Morality is very important for modern men. Everyone wants to preserve a good reputation and status among friends, relatives, and colleagues. We assure you that real mail-bride services have nothing to do with immorality. The agencies dealing with the issue are usually super serious about the selection of women. They are very concerned about you and their reputation.
If you select a responsible agency, you will never become a victim of a fraudulent scheme. Mail-order brides are not the women looking for only your money. They are searching for real love. Your income and comfortable living conditions are just a bonus for them. Besides, you can find a well-educated, moderate, and beautiful lady who will definitely make your friends delighted and envious.
Why do women become mail-order brides?
Of course, women in different countries have different motivations. Moreover, each girl has her own story and previous experiences that can make her think that she is more likely to find a perfect partner abroad. Still, it’s possible to distinguish some of the most common reasons for becoming mail-order brides, namely:
- Dissatisfaction with some local social factors. Such factors vary greatly from country to country. It may be machismo, the growing number of “herbivore men” (men who consciously abandon the idea of having relationships & families, a new Asian social phenomenon), common and non-stigmatized adultery, etc.
- Desire to start a family. There are a lot of countries where women are marriage- and family-minded. Sometimes, they just get tired of dating and want to meet someone who’d also be ready to settle down. A lot of them are well aware of the fact that there are a lot of such men in the United Kingdom.
- Attraction to British men. There are a lot of places where men from the UK are considered to be attractive. There are some countries where dating them is considered somehow prestigious.
Also, women often become mail-order brides because of bad previous relationship experiences, social problems, inability to find a loving man after divorce, interest in British culture, and so on. But it’s never just about money. It’s another myth about foreign brides.
3 reasons why British men are looking for mail-order brides
What can men in the UK get from foreign women? Why not just look for a spouse in your home country? We interviewed a lot of mail-order brides’ husbands and here’s what they appreciate about their spouses the most:
- Similar views of life and family. Surprisingly, people from two different parts of the world often have more in common than people from the same city. For family-minded men, that’s definitely the case as strong family values are the things that they usually appreciate the most about their foreign wives.
- Femininity. We’re not trying to say that British women lack femininity. That’s rather about a more positive attitude to some traditional gender roles and no stigma for being a bit old-school feminine.
- Optimism, benevolence, friendliness. Another interesting fact is that women in the most popular mail-order bride countries have something in common. They get along with people easily, are rather tolerant, and remain optimistic no matter how many difficulties they face.
Also, most men in the UK note that their wives have great parenting skills and are the most caring women they’ve ever been with.
Are mail-order brides legal in the UK?
The law makes no distinction between mail-order brides and all other foreign citizens who are going to enter the country to marry locals. It doesn’t matter where and how you’ve met your future spouse. A woman will need to apply for a foreign partner visa anyway.
Moreover, the requirements for applicants are now less strict. After the government abandoned the Primary Purpose Rule, which had made it nearly impossible to prove that your relationship with a foreign partner is genuine, spousal immigration increased by over 50%.
Mail-order bride costs explained
We’d like to stress that though every man in the UK can find a bride online and then legally marry her, he can’t buy a wife. In this business, there are no fixed prices or one-size-fits-all solutions. Every man goes his own way, but the sets of services singles will need to use to meet their final goal are more or less the same, so we can still calculate the minimum cost of finding a woman in a particular country.
| A popular mail-order bride country | Cost of online dating services | Cost of round-trip flight + a 3-week stay in a bride’s country | Cost of a visa | Spending on romance (min. cost of gifts and a wedding just for two) | Total min. price |
| Ukraine | £600 | £1,600 | £1,800 | £1,000 | £5,000 |
| The Philippines | £600 | £1,600 | £1,800 | £1,000 | £5,000 |
| Thailand | £600 | £1,700 | £1,800 | £1,000 | £5,100 |
| China | £600 | £1,600 | £1,800 | £1,000 | £5,000 |
| Brazil | £600 | £2,100 | £1,800 | £1,000 | £5,500 |
* If you’re considering finding a Ukrainian wife, note that we provided the costs of going to Poland. That’s one of the countries that border Ukraine, and visiting it is much safer than meeting your Ukrainian girlfriend in her home country and still cheaper than paying for her to come to the UK.
Though it may seem that you can just pay £5,000 and get a wife, in reality, things don’t always work like that. The final price will depend on multiple factors, and we’re going to explain how exactly they affect it below.
💻 Dating site expenditures
If you want to get a mail-order bride in the UK without leaving the country, you can do it online rather easily. However, as we’ve mentioned previously, you need to choose a reputable niche website that connects single men with mail-order brides from a particular region (this may be one of the Latin, Slavic, or Asian dating sites).
On the one hand, such platforms have multiple advantages. You get instant access to profiles of marriage-minded foreign women, can use advanced communication features, and have a safer experience overall. On the other hand, such sites are not free, and you can’t even buy a premium plan at a fixed price. You’ll need to buy credits, spend them to use special services, and control your spending.
Costs for credits range from less than £2 for 1,000 credits to £3 per credit. Ten minutes of messaging may also cost you from 0.5 credits to 2,000 credits. Yes, that seems confusing. However, you’ll avoid surprises if you analyze the pricing policy of the chosen platform before you start spending real money.
The good news is also that on most top sites, including the mail-order bride sites from our ranking, members spend around £100 a month. Often, on a site where the cost of credits is high, the cost of messaging and other special features is much lower than on similar sites and vice versa.
You can focus on this price, but keep in mind that a lot will depend on the number of women you are contacting and the features that are using. Usually, six months are enough to find a girlfriend, so the average total cost of online dating services is around £600.
✈️ The cost of offline dates
You can find mail-order brides in the UK online, but you can’t marry someone without meeting your partner in real life. So yes, traveling is rather mandatory than optional, and in 99% of cases, a man goes to meet his girlfriend in her home country.
In the table above, you can see the cost of just one trip. Sometimes, couples realize that they are ready to live together after such a short time, but it’s not always the case. So, the final cost of trips will depend on their number, frequency, and duration.
A lot will depend on the country, too. It may seem that no matter where you go, you’ll spend £1,600 in three weeks, but that goes only for the most popular mail-order bride country. In reality, prices may be different. For example, you’ll pay around £1,600 if you go to the Philippines as a mid-range traveler, but if your date is waiting for you somewhere in South Korea, you’ll spend around £2,100 on a three-week trip.
So, consider the location and plan your trips wisely and in advance. Also, choose this path only if you know that if you meet the right person, you’ll be able to make a serious decision and get married. Otherwise, years of long-distance dating will cost you a fortune.
📋 Visa expenses
Whether you’re going to marry a woman from the Philippines, Ukraine, or Mexico, the price of a visa will always be the same. For those who apply from outside the UK, it’s £1,800 (for applicants within the country it’s just £1,000). Usually, a man covers such expenses and also proves that he’s able to provide for a foreign citizen as required by the law.
❤️ Cost of gifts and wedding: Mandatory or optional spending?
It may sound like you’ll have to purchase expensive presents if you’re looking for a girl for marriage in the UK. It’s not exactly true. We just recommend considering the cost of romance—you don’t have to spend money to attract someone, but giving gifts is still a part of dating.
We’d recommend sending presents only if you’re already sure you’ve found someone special. Also, consider that if you’re going to order them through a dating site, the price will be higher than at a regular online store. Take £500 as a minimum price for the entire dating period. Considering that it lasts at least a year, it’s not too high.
Weddings may cost a fortune, but we’d like to emphasize that a bride does not necessarily expect a big celebration either. You can spend just £500 on romance on a special day for you two or spend tens of thousands of pounds. It’s completely up to you.
Success stories
“My now wife and I matched two years ago. I just wrote something standard, and, surprisingly, she replied. We discussed regular stuff like hobbies, and our lives in our countries (she’s from Vietnam btw), and then moved on to our tastes in music, art, and movies. It was really a 100% match. I even thought someone was pranking me at first.
She was more than surprised, too. We kept communicating and got closer and closer until I thought, well, it’s time to take things to a new level. We met in Hanoi and I knew I was going to marry her right away. As they say, when you know, you know. She said yes and moved in with me a year later. We’re still as happy as we were when we first met. Love is real, who’d have thought?“
How to get a mail order bride: Women’s Attitude
Mail-order brides are not light-minded girls looking for intrigue for a night. Those ladies are very determined. They know exactly what they want, which is why they become members of such resources.
The aims of women might be slightly different. However, an absolute majority of them are serious about relations and family creation. You can find a woman in accordance with your taste and desires. It is not a problem to find the one looking for a man to marry for the creation of a family. Such a lady will be happy to give birth to a baby or even to have several kids.
There are different situations in life. There are men who divorced or became widowers. There are mail-order brides who are glad to accept your kids and become their mother if required.
You also need to know that foreign brides are usually conservative in what concerns family. They are ready to obey and follow their man. Thus, you will be the head of the family with a faithful and unpretentious wife who will take care of you and become a perfect lover as well.
Famous interracial couples
Many men are concerned about the way they will look together with a woman of another nationality or race. The same question arises when it concerns their mutual kids. The truth is there is nothing to worry about. There are lots of examples of such couples who are happy together and look harmonious.
Their difference makes an alliance even more beautiful. Let’s consider several examples of such couples:
- Matthew McConaughey & Camila Alves. She is a Brazilian model while he is a white man. They are together for over 8 years & are very happy.
- Zoe Saldana & Marco Perego Saldana. The man is Italian while his wife is Dominican and Puerto Rican. Even looking very different, they are a perfect match.
- Heather Headley & Brian Musso. She is a black Trinidadian-American. He is a bright example of a purely white man. Nevertheless, they are happily married since 2003.
- Michael Cane & Shakira Baksh Cane. They are a perfect example of an elderly couple. Even despite their difference (she is Guyanese-British), they have been together for over 40 years. And nothing made them apart.
- Tom Verica & Kira Arne. He is an American with Italian-German roots. She is black, as an African American. It is not a problem for them at all.
There are much more great examples of such matches, which are additional proves that interracial marriages and love really exist and can be even stronger than in common marriages.
Conclusion
A mail-order bride is a wonderful chance to find a woman of your life. Thanks to the technological progress, you can find your other half on the other part of the globe spending minimum time and money. Look for your true love on an advanced level and become a happy man.