Here, you’ll be able to find not only a real bride from Korea but also a lot of useful info about these ladies—we’ll cover everything, from the myths to the cost.
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Things to know before mail ordering a bride from Korea
- They often are very polite and gentle, respectful and warm-hearted, and when it comes to romantic relationships, they are loyal, sincere, and pretty emotional.
- Meeting Korean brides online is the best option you have: average Koreans work a lot which makes it almost impossible to meet them in night clubs and bars, they are not too approachable and it’s not that 100% of them are fluent English speakers which makes it hard to meet them on the streets.
- That’s why meeting them online is much more convenient: the girls on dating sites are usually focused on a serious relationship with a foreigner (unless mentioned other type of a relationship), they usually speak English (as they prepared for dating a foreigner), and they know what they want. You just need to choose a good dating site—a trusted, legit, and popular one like SakuraDate.
- As for meeting them in Korea, we highly recommend focusing on Seoul and Busan because these are the largest cities in the country where the chances of meeting a single woman are the highest. But they are also the most expensive.
- Typically, men spend around $5,000-$7,000 to get a Korean bride. However, this depends on a lot of factors, from the number of messages you send to the hotel you’re going to live in when you visit Korea.
Korean mail order brides – who are these women?
- An average Korean bride is a woman in her late 30s which is the highest average age when it comes to mail brides.
- More than 75% of them have never been married before, 20% of them are divorced.
- They are not religious. Almost half of Koreans have “no religious affiliation”, and as for the other half, most of them are Christians and Buddhists.
- It’s almost impossible to meet a Korean lady who would have a child from a previous relationship. When it comes to Asian brides in general, it’s usually around 10% of them who have kids, but in Korea, it’s less than 1%. In 2023, for example, there were 149 K-1 visa holders and only 1 K-2 visa holder while the total numbers for Asia are 7,078 K-1 and 959 K-2 visas. This is not surprising at all taking into account the fertility rate in Korea—right now, it’s the lowest rate in the world with only 0.78 children per 1 woman (in Seoul, it’s only 0.55).
- When we say “Korean brides” we mean women from the South (it’s nearly impossible to marry a North Korean mail order bride). Around 80% of these ladies are from Busan and Seoul.
Can you buy Korean women for marriage?
No, you can’t. If you could, this would be called human trafficking, so no, it’s not possible. The process is more like “dating a Korean bride” than “buying a Korean bride”: you meet online, get to know each other, exchange photos and gifts, meet each other in person, you meet her parents, and then, you propose to her.
Is it legal to mail order a Korean bride?
Yes, it’s 100% legal. You can get married in Korea and apply for the CR-1 visa or you can apply for the K-1 visa and get married after that, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that if your papers are complete and correct and your relationship is real, your bride will be able to enter the US and get a green card there.
How to get Korean mail order wife?
- Choose a dating site and create a profile. You can do your own research and test the sites yourself, compare them, analyze the details, and spend your money to test their premium features. Or, you can simply choose any of apps recommended by review platforms. For example, you can try SakuraDate—it’s a simple to use and legit, and we’ve already tested it. Anyway, during the registration, you’ll need to upload a profile picture and write a profile bio: men often skip these steps but if you want to stand out from them, you should spend several minutes and make your profile look nice.
- Get your welcome bonus, search for potential partners, test the features of a site. Some websites, SakuraDate included, offer free credits to new users which means you won’t be limited to free features after the registration. Browse the profiles, use the search tools, add the girls to your favorite list, chat with them—with free welcome credits, all these features are available for you right away.
- Communicate with the ladies. Remember that even if there’s a welcome bonus, you’ll still need to purchase more credits to continue using messaging tools. It’s not only about live chat: mail order bride sites usually have more features so you’ll be able to send photos, videos, and even real gifts to the girls you like.
- Meet them in person. In most cases, men spend 2-3 months online before they have their first date with a foreign woman, but it’s all individual and depends on you. We, however, do not recommend delaying your first real-life date—online dating is cool and fun, but you need to see her with your own eyes and touch her to understand if there’s chemistry between you.
- Propose if that’s your goal! You can marry your girlfriend in Korea and apply for the CR-1 visa or you can apply for the K-1 visa—in this case, you’ll need to wait for the visa to be processed and get married after it.
- If you chose the K-1 visa, you’ll need to adjust status within 90 days after your bride’s arrival to the US. This means changing the status from a visa to a green card and this usually takes 4-6 months. With the CR-1 visa, there’s no need to adjust status.
How much does it cost to mail order a Korean Bride?
First, you’ll have to find a Korean bride online and chat with her. How much will you pay for it?
Well, typically, men spend around 10 minutes per day chatting and send 1 or 2 emails per day. Considering that most MOB websites today have a credit-based system, we can calculate the average monthly price of online communication. Let’s say you’re going to use SakuraDate and let’s say, you’ll spend 300 minutes in a live chat and send 30 emails to the girls. How much does it cost?
| 1 credit | 1 minute of live chat | 1 email | 1 month (300 minutes of chat, 30 emails sent) |
| $0.2 if you buy a $200 credit pack | 2 credits or $0.4 | 20 credits or $4 | $240 |
Now, let’s talk about your trip to South Korea. In our experience, the average trip to a bride’s country takes around 10-14 days, so let’s say you’ll spend 2 weeks there. Here’s how much you can possibly pay for it:
| Flight | Hotels, transport | Dates and gifts | K-1 visa | Total |
| $1,000 | $700–$1,400 for a hotel room, $150 for transport | $500–$1,500 | Around $2,600 | $4,950–$6,650 |
Why Korean women become mail order brides?
Even in 2024 when there are dozens of international dating sites, creating a profile on one of them is not an easy decision. Why do thousands of women decide to make such a decision? Why do they want to leave their country and search for love abroad?
In most cases, it’s about their inability to find a husband in Korea for a reason. There’s a serious marriage crisis in this country, and the ladies in their 30s are especially vulnerable. A lot of them are educated and successful ladies who want to find an educated and successful partner—and the marriage problem is so serious in Korea the Institute for Health and Social Affairs (a state-run research institute) offered the women from this category to “lower their standards” if they want to find a husband. Can you imagine how bad it really is when a successful, intelligent, and beautiful lady in her 30s is said to lower her standards to find a partner in her country?
For some Korean brides, it sounds like an interesting and valuable experience to try: they think foreign men have a different mindset and want to experience their culture. Some of them also believe that Western men are kind, caring, and “real gentlemen”, unlike local men.
Common myths about Korean women for marriage
As always, when it comes to foreign ladies, it’s always about myths and stereotypes. “Latinas are loud”, “Chinese women are controlling”, “Ukrainian women are stay-at-home wives”, have you heard these (or similar) beliefs?
There are stereotypes like that about Korean women, too. Let’s talk about them.
Myth #1: They are very materialistic
Women from Europe and Southeast Asia are often called materialistic meaning they only want your money—which is 100% not true, of course. When it comes to women from South Korea, being “materialistic” is more commonly used to describe their standards: some people say they are only looking for very successful and well-educated American men, not because they’re gold-diggers but because they want a partner who would be as good and financially stable as they are.
Well, that’s true. But the point here is that, firstly, the average income of a Korean female employee is $24,000 so it’s not like they all make 6 figures. Secondly, not all of them put the financial stability of their potential partner first—for most of them, it’s about personal traits and about how a potential husband treats them, not about how much he makes.
Myth #2: You can’t find Korean wife online
Well, this one is totally false. A trustworthy Korean mail order bride platform is the #1 place to meet a local woman because of a large dating pool, lots of real women, and extra features like gift delivery. Online dating is literally the best option for those who’d like to meet a Korean woman—the only problem here is finding a legit website. But with so many expert reviews, it’s not a problem anymore.
Myth #3: South Korean brides are childish and drama queens
That’s probably the most common myth about Korean mail order brides. However, this myth is based solely on Korean dramas where they often have cute, very naïve, and helpless ladies who need a man to save them. But these dramas are made purely for entertainment. Yes, you can find young girls who will be so impressed they might try to imitate such a behavior in real life, but that’s not how real life works in Korea—in their ultra-competitive society, being naïve and childish is definitely a no-go. For the absolute majority of Koreans, such behavior is only acceptable in K-Dramas.
Myth #4: They don’t want to have children
They have an extremely serious problem with fertility in Korea, yes. In Seoul, the fertility rate is 0.55 which is the lowest rate in the world (lower than that in a war-torn Ukraine, for example). So the average Korean wife is a woman who just doesn’t want children, right?
No. The real problem is the Korean society: male-dominated, conservative, and extremely competitive. It’s all about economic issues such as extremely high real estate prices and overwork—the government of South Korea is planning to raise the cap on working hours to 69 (!) per week and that says a lot about how competitive this country is right now. Such a stressful environment leads to a simple outcome: Korean women just can’t afford children. But when a Korean woman gets married to a man from another country, a country with less stressful working schedules and conditions, most of the problems that lead to such a low fertility rate go away. So you don’t need to worry about it—if you want to have children, Korean ladies are a great choice for you. Unless you’re going to live in Korea, of course.
Myth #5: The cultural differences make it impossible to date Korean brides
In fact, South Korean brides are not that different. They speak another language, they are more traditional, they are more marriage-minded, but in general, they all want the same things their Western counterparts want: respect, love, and loyalty.
Going out for dinner is a good first date idea, being romantic will definitely help, and treating them with respect and being a gentleman will work perfectly, too.
You can find a Korean wife, too—in just a few clicks
As you see, the ladies in Korea are not like most Asians—they are not as conservative and their views and values are somewhere between traditional Asian and modern Western values. However, Korean women for marriage are also not as career-minded and driven by success as one might think—they want to have children and they are ready to build a serious relationship, especially when we’re talking about the ladies in their 30s. You can meet thousands of them in just a few clicks: just sign up, create a profile on the site, get free credits, and chat with them right now. Finding love is much easier these days, come and see for yourself!
Written byJohn Millerstone, Author
We decided to create this project because we’re tired of the situation in the industry. 10 years ago, there were like 40% good sites and 60% bad ones. Today, the ratio is more like 10% to 90%, and that’s not how I want it to be. I mean, it kills me that when an American man types “mail order brides” on Google, there is a 90% possibility that he won’t even find a good dating site, let alone find a bride. I want to change that.
Edited byPhilippe Berry, Contributing Editor
I'm going to tell you everything I know, mes amis. We'll spot online dating charlatans, test the dating sites together, and, of course, with me, you'll learn everything about traveling—I have had 33 trips since 2009, and I think traveling is the best part of online dating. I'll tell you how to save money, how to enjoy a trip, and how to have a good date in a foreign country. I know something about that, too!
