Family migration rates to the UK are growing by around 20% yearly. Most grooms and brides come from Asia, and though Vietnam can hardly compete with the Philippines or Thailand, it’s still one of the most popular destinations for British ...
Find a Mail-Order Bride Online — A Guide for UK Men
From 1994 to 2009, the number of foreign spouses coming to the UK increased by over 40,000. In particular, in 2009, there were over 77,000 foreigners granted settlement in the UK. In 2022, the UK admitted 242,000 family migrants.
Most of these migrants are women—those usually called mail-order brides. What distinguishes them from foreign brides of the past? How can a single man in the UK find a bride from another country, and is it worth it? That’s what we’re going to discuss in this guide.
3 Best mail-order bride & dating sites for UK singles
Using a top niche website remains the easiest, cheapest, and most convenient way to meet foreign brides. Our experts have chosen the best legal dating and mail-order bride sites in the UK, each connecting singles with foreign women from a particular region—Asia, Latin America, or Eastern Europe.
Most Popular Choice
SofiaDate
Meet European brides: This platform is your gateway to meeting charming European brides who are not only beautiful but also intelligent, cultured, and ready to build a loving relationship.
Average Girls Age
35
SakuraDate
Meet cute Asian ladies online. Your ideal Asian match is waiting for you.
Average Girls Age
33
How to choose a reputable mail-order bride service
You can’t buy a wife, but you can meet a mail-order bride through a specialized service. Making the right choice is literally half the battle, and here’s how you can pick the best option:
1
Consider reputation, feedback from customers, and the number of success stories
Once you see a website that may have mail-order brides from Asia, Europe, or Latin America, google it. See what people say about it, find success stories, and read in-depth reviews published on different aggregators and review platforms. That will help you understand what kind of experience you are most likely to have.
2
Ensure you’ll be able to build deep emotional connections with mail-order brides
Modern websites should offer much more than just text chat. Real relationships are built using more advanced services, like video chat, international calls, and gift delivery. A decent website must have these special features.
3
Make sure the prices are reasonable
We’d like to warn you that top mail-order brides aren’t cheap. But we’d also like to emphasize that although prices may be higher than on mainstream apps, they must be reasonable, and hidden costs are unacceptable. Take a look at the costs before and not after you make your first purchase on the website.
4
Evaluate the quality of matchmaking and profiles
You can set up an account on nearly every top website for free to see who you can meet here and how the system works. Profiles must be detailed and, ideally, verified, with introductory profile videos. There must also be advanced search filters and matchmaking services that will help you find your best potential partners easily.
We’d recommend choosing among several options. A good website with mail-order brides may have a really good marketing strategy and ads, but you need to choose the most effective platform. Picking the first random website is not making an informed choice. The analysis will be time-consuming, but the results will be worth it.
Mail-order bride: Modern concept
The term “mail-order bride” still has some negative connotations, which can be explained by its historical roots. At the very beginning of the history of this social phenomenon, in the 17th and 18th centuries, women’s migration was sponsored by settlers in the US, including settlers from British colonies.
Though they were paid for emigration itself and could marry anyone in the settlement, further history was different. In the 19th and even 20th centuries, men could literally choose a mail-order bride from a catalog, and women were often motivated solely by financial reasons or relocation.
However, rapidly developing technologies played a huge role in the evolution of the industry. Both men and mail-order brides got the opportunity to start authentic relationships and develop deeper emotional connections before they met in real life for the first time.
Women got more selective and focused on finding a compatible partner, and changing the whole idea of getting a wife from a developing country actually improved the mail-order bride marriage success rate in the US and other countries, including the United Kingdom.
So, what about the modern mail-order bride meaning?
A modern mail-order bride is, first and foremost, a single foreign woman, usually from Asia, Latin America, or Eastern Europe, looking for a husband abroad. Her main goal is to find a compatible partner and start a family in the near future.
Why do women become mail-order brides?
If a mail-order wife isn’t motivated by money or migration as is, why does she want to marry a foreigner? Considering that Asian mail-order brides, as well as Eastern European women and Latin wives, are usually young and attractive, this question is very reasonable, and usually, the reasons are as follows:
- Negative social trends (from high criminal rates to alcohol abuse to machismo).
- A strong desire to get married is often associated with local customs, family values, and intense social pressure to start a family at a certain age.
- Curiosity, open-mindedness, and desire for adventure.
- A desire for modernity that mail-order brides can not always fulfill in more conservative societies.
- Attraction to foreign, in particular, British men.
Usually, it’s not just one reason but a combination of a few different factors.
Why are foreign women attracted to UK men?
Speaking of attraction to men from the United Kingdom, it’s really a primary motivation for many women you can meet on a mail-order bride site. What are mail-order brides’ reasons for the pursuit of UK men? Here are the answers:
- ❤️ History and culture. Mail-order wives all over the world are watching shows like Downton Abbey, Sherlock, and The Crown, which automatically makes all British people more appealing and relatable.
- ❤️ Manners. Mail-order wives definitely don’t associate men from the UK with rudeness or offensive behavior, and that gets a serious advantage.
- ❤️ Sense of humor. Again, the media plays a huge role here.
- ❤️ Well-being. It doesn’t mean that mail-order brides are gold diggers; it’s rather positive associations overall.
Different factors attract different online brides, but for many, the United Kingdom is one of the best places to find that perfect guy they’ve been searching for.
Are mail-order brides legal in the UK?
Yes, mail-order bride marriages are legal in the United Kingdom. Although it might seem sketchy, the scheme is actually completely legitimate. Mail-order brides don’t get financial compensation and aren’t motivated solely by financial reasons or migration. They build authentic relationships with men before they enter the country to get married.
Back in the ’90s, there was a tough marriage migration law, The Primary Purpose Rule, which required marriage immigrants entering the country to prove that their marriage was not just a way to obtain admission to the United Kingdom. However, it was abolished in 1997. Today, people outside the country can freely marry a UK citizen.
Still, every couple in which the bride applies for a fiance visa to the UK will need to prove that their relationship is authentic. So, as long as the connection between a British man and a foreign mail-order bride is genuine, there’s no reason for any legal concerns.
What countries do mail-order brides come from?
| Country to meet mail-order brides | Average age of marriage | English speaking population % | Site to meet mail-order brides from the country |
| The Philippines | 25 | 92% | PhiliTalks |
| Ukraine | 25 | 51% | SingleSlavic |
| Brazil | 30 | 10% | LatiDate |
| China | 24 | 3% | SakuraDate |
| Thailand | 21 | 27% | Naomidate |
| Colombia | 22 | 10% | La Date |
| Russia | 25 | 5% | GoldenBride |
Eastern Europe
Many women from Eastern European countries intermarry. The dramatic rise of intermarriage rates occurred in the ’90s, right after the USSR collapsed. At that time, this was largely explained by two things: serious economic difficulties and a desire for freedom and changes as soon as the borders were open.
The trend is still strong, and Slavic mail-order brides remain popular. Foreign men usually find future wives in:
- Ukraine
- Belarus
- Russia
There are multiple online dating platforms with women from these particular countries, and they often have hundreds of thousands of members. Such popularity is explained by the fact that male members are looking for attractive, intelligent, well-educated, and traditional women in Eastern Europe and often succeed, ending up marrying their European mail-order brides.
🌐 Online
Elena, 31
🌐 Online
Nastassia, 31
✔️ Verified
Anastasia, 26
Tatiana, 33
Olga, 33
Julia, 22
Asia
Asian countries are more diverse. However, there is at least one thing they all have in common—the intermarriage rates are high, and the number of immigrants to the UK is steadily large.
Currently, most Asian mail-order brides come from:
- The Philippines
- Thailand
- China
A lot of British men choose women from these and other Asian countries as they are rightfully considered to be devoted to a relationship, caring and loving spouses, and great mothers. There’s another bonus—most young women in these countries speak English well, which makes it easier for them to get visas.
🌐 Online
Jiang, 41
Hot ️🔥
Lyna, 22
✔️ Verified
Haihua, 26
Xuanni, 22
Qong, 23
Cao ky Khanh, 38
Latin America
International marriage has always been common in Latin America. Foreign men have always been attracted to Latin mail-order brides, too.
Currently, the top destinations for British singles and men from other countries seeking Latin partners are:
- Brazil
- The Dominican Republic
- Mexico
The common qualities and traits men usually seek in local women are benevolence, family-mindedness, loyalty, and the desire to build a relationship based on mutual trust and support.
✔️ Verified
Janeth, 34
Hot ️🔥
Mariana, 20
🌐 Online
Jully, 23
Valentina, 27
Rosa, 52
Andrea, 32
How much do mail-order wives cost?
First of all, we’d like to emphasize that you can’t buy a wife online or even pay a fixed price to get a foreign wife. All mail-order brides in UK are women who met their future husbands online, had long-distance relationships with them first, and then entered the country after getting a fiance visa.
Still, all that requires some investments, too. How much exactly will a man spend on online communication, trips, and other services he’ll need to use to marry a foreign woman? We did all the major estimations, so take a look.
💻 Dating sites costs
Of course, those who are looking for a girl for marriage in the UK can just use a free mainstream dating app. But if you are serious about marrying foreign women and want to meet ladies seeking men from the UK, it will be more effective to use international dating sites or mail-order bride sites.
Such platforms are never free, and, more importantly, if you’re going to use such websites, you’ll hardly be able to buy a premium plan at a fixed price. In most cases, users buy credits, and the prices for credits, along with prices for using certain services, vary.
That’s the main reason why estimation isn’t easy. Still, we can consider the policies of top online dating platforms with mail-order brides and foreign singles.
On such platforms as LatiDate, SakuraDate, and SingleSlavic, costs range from £0.64 to £30 per 10 credits. It may seem that the gap is huge, but if we take a closer look at the policies of the website with the cheapest credits and the most expensive credits, we’ll see that chatting on the cheaper platform will cost you 10 times more credits per 10 minutes.
Generally speaking, you can expect to spend £80-£100 per month.
Hence, if it takes a year for you to find a wife online, you’ll spend around £1,000 in total.
✈️ Trip to the bride’s country
The total sum of money a man is going to spend on travel services depends on:
- Your bride’s location
- The number and duration of your trips
- Your traveling preferences
If you want to see examples, take a look at the table.
| Top mail-order bride country | Round trip ticket (from London) | Hotel (2 weeks) | Meals (2 weeks) | Entertainment (2 weeks) | Local transportation (2 weeks) | Total |
| The Philippines | £800 | £450 | £150 | £150 | £180 | £1,730 |
| Ukraine (going to Ukraine isn’t safe, so the provided costs are for Poland) | £120 | £550 | £170 | £100 | £50 | £990 |
| Brazil | £800 | £1,000 | £220 | £180 | £140 | £2,340 |
So, men who are going to visit their potential mail-order wives twice should double the total prices, while those who are going to do it three times should triple the price, etc. Note this is the approximate cost of mid-range trips, not luxury trips, so consider your preferences, too—they may affect the price greatly.
📋 Application for a visa
Mail-order wives coming from other countries need to get fiance visas first, and the approximate price will be around £1,800. When your bride comes to the UK and you get married, she’ll need a spouse visa that will cost around £1,000.
Note that this is the price for a woman who’s already in the United Kingdom. If you get married in another country and she’s going to move in with you being outside the UK, the cost of a spouse visa will also be £1,800 and not £1,000.
💍 Wedding
Weddings and gifts fall under the category of optional expenditures. You are free to buy or not to buy flowers to send to your foreign girlfriend, you can do it once a month or three times a week, and you can have a big wedding or just have a romantic dinner—it’s totally up to you. Just consider that if romance is important to you, you can expect to spend £30,000 more.
Total price
So, if we assume that a man finds a bride within a year on one of the mail-order bride sites, goes to her country at least twice, and pays for a fiance visa for her, he’ll spend from £5,000 to £10,000 on average depending on the bride’s location.
Success stories of people who found love through mail-order bride services in the UK
SakuraDate
I was 50 when I divorced my second wife and decided it was time for some big changes. I’d never used online dating sites before and hadn’t been on Tinder or even Instagram, so that was challenging at first. At that time, I had no specific preferences and thought—why not Asia? Now I realize how random this important decision was.
I can’t imagine being with someone else except for my Filipina girlfriend. I was looking for a peer—no 20-year-old girls, thank you—and my bride is just eight years younger than me, and she’s amazing. She’s loving, caring, really smart, and she shares my view of family. I get along with her kids perfectly, and mine like her. Now I feel like I’ve found the right person. You’re never too old for it.
LatiDate
She just wants your money, they said. Cultural differences will ruin you, they said. It’s been seven years since my now-wife said yes, and now I guess I really can draw conclusions. She’s from Brazil, and that’s far away from Britain. Still, she’s the one and only person who understands me. She made an optimist out of me; she’s the best mom for my children, I love her family, and she quickly assimilated into a new culture. I mean, differences aren’t something that can ruin you, while the wrong person can.
How do you bring your foreign bride to the UK?
The only way to bring a mail-order bride to UK is to help her apply for a fiance visa. You’ll be able to submit an application while your bride is outside the country, but there are certain requirements you both should be aware of:
- You’ll need to provide a lot of documentation, from passports and medical exams to proof of finances and knowledge of English.
- You’ll need to prove your relationship is authentic.
- You’ll need to collect information about all your previous partners (spouses), too.
- You’ll need to provide information on your life outside the UK—all the countries you lived in or visited.
Note that a mail-order bride won’t be able to get a visa if you’ve never met in real life, you don’t have enough funds to support yourselves, and even if you don’t have suitable accommodation. After the foreign woman gets a visa, she can stay in the UK for six months—that’s the deadline for getting married.
When you become a husband and a wife, your foreign wife will need to apply for a spouse visa and, in another five years, for Indefinite Leave to Remain.
Potential challenges of a long-distance relationship with your bride
The mail-order bride scheme works, but it doesn’t mean it’s perfect. Things do not always go smoothly, and you need to know how to overcome difficulties.
So, here are the potential problems foreign women and British men may face:
- Building emotional connections. It’s not always easy to get emotionally close to someone online. Discussing daily business and even saying warm words isn’t enough. Psychologists say that in this case, partners should text less often and focus on calls and discussing really important things—values, goals, priorities in life, etc.
- Long-distance thing. You won’t be able to marry a woman in just a few months. The secret is to develop realistic expectations, and when you meet the right person, make plans together to go through this phase.
- Cultural barriers. In this case, you need two things—research and patience. Learn enough about her culture and tell her about yours, share, and find compromises.
- Language barrier. In most cases, mail-order brides either speak English pretty well or/and are studying it at the moment, so again, it’s all about being patient.
❗ Now you know the actual definition of mail-order bride, the success rate of mail-order marriages, and ways to choose a good online dating site. Ask yourself whether that’s what you need, and if the answer is yes, take the first step.
