Here, you’ll find the answers. We analyzed a lot of data and found relevant and interesting mail order marriage statistics for you—read this, and you’ll know much more about mail order bride marriages!
What is mail order marriage or mail order spouse?
- Mail order brides are foreign women who use international dating/mail order bride websites (like a SofiaDate) to find a husband.
- Typically, mail order brides are in their 30s and 40s, they were never married, and have no children. Most mail order brides speak English at least “well,” according to themselves, and most of them are well-educated (at least a bachelor’s degree).
- It’s 100% legal to marry mail order brides and bring them to the United States—after their arrival, your bride will become a US permanent resident.
- Mail order marriages are marriages between American citizens and foreign mail order brides.
- Such marriages have a lower divorce rate than the overall national rate, and they are generally more successful.
What percentage of mail order brides stay married?
So, what’s the divorce rate for foreign wives? According to the old survey, 80% of marriages lasted for at least 5 years (1989-1994) [1], which means the foreign bride divorce rate is definitely not lower than the overall national divorce rate—in the United States, the rate is 20% (for marriages that last 5 years). [2]
Actually, this means a lot. The thing is, the risk of divorce among mixed marriages is higher than among non-mixed couples [3], and what we see here is that the risk of divorce among mail order bride marriages (which are mixed marriages in the majority of cases) is not higher than the one among non-mixed couples. In short, this means that the success chances are higher for mail order bride mixed couples than for non-mail order bride mixed couples.
But that’s not all.
How many mail order marriages end in divorce?
When it comes to the success rate of mail order marriages, it’s important to understand that it’s extremely difficult to find the numbers—it’s just not the most common topic when it comes to the surveys. However, we found something interesting for you.
Thus, the divorce rate in mail order marriages is lower than the overall divorce rate in the United States. To be precise, it’s as low as 35.5% [4] and the overall divorce rate in the United States might be as high as 40-50% (for first marriages; 60-67% for second marriages) [5].
So, if it’s your first marriage, your chances to succeed are 5-15% higher with mail order brides, and if it’s your second marriage, it’s 25-32%!
How successful are mail order bride sites?
First, mail order bride sites are the most popular way to meet a mail order bride. Thus, more than 21,000 K-1 visas were issued to foreigners in 2022 [6], and more than 55% of K-1 visa applicants met their partners online, according to RapidVisa [7].
This means that more than 11,500 brides (a rough estimate) met their partners on mail order bride sites, which means a lot. The point is, mail order bride sites are not that large—they are called “niche” sites for a reason, and the number of users is typically not larger than 50,000. It’s impossible to estimate the number of dates between those who met on a mail order bride site (without marriage), but taking into account the number of marriages, we can say with confidence that around 1-5% of mail order bride website users find love and get married every single year!
As for other factors such as the response rate, mail order bride sites are well-known for their extremely high performance in this regard. You can check the website reviews—the experts usually pay special attention to the response rate. Typically, it’s around 80%, which means you’ll get at least 8 replies to 10 messages you send to women on these websites!
However, you need to understand that everything above is only relevant when we’re talking about the best mail order bride sites. It’s very important to choose the right platform—a trusted and legit one with a good reputation, a lot of real women, and an ID verification tool. Only in this case, you can be sure you’ll find love there. Otherwise, you’ll lose money and time.
Mail order bride stories where it works out
Frank and Ligaya first met in 2022 on SakuraDate, a dating site for international relationships. Today, they are waiting for the approval of Ligaya’s K-1 visa—they have already waited for 10 months, so they only have a few more months to wait.
“Of course, waiting is torture. It’s so stupid we can’t meet in the US while waiting for the visa,” says Frank. “The good news is that I visited Manila 4 times during 2023, so because of that time-consuming visa processing, we started to meet more often.”
They met in spring 2022 and chatted for 5 months. Then, they decided to meet in the Philippines. Frank says it was “the best vacation” in his life, and it’s not surprising. “We went to restaurants, spent days on a beach, and had so much fun. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed that month”, says Ligaya.
3 months later, Frank proposed to her—and she said yes because, as she says, she had never met such a caring and loyal man before. Let’s wish them the best of luck!
Olga, a 35-year-old doctor from Kyiv, Ukraine, was tired of being single when she first signed up on SofiaDate. “I just couldn’t find the right man in my city,” she says. “I was single for 2 years and decided to change it. And I always loved American culture and spoke English quite well, so why not?” Olga adds.
It was a fateful decision, as it turned out. In 2021, when Olga created a profile on that site, the first man who texted her was James, a 45-year-old engineer from Austin, Texas. James says he was shocked by her beauty and sense of humor, so he decided to meet her just 2 months after they started chatting online.
James went to Kyiv in 2021, and they spent 3 weeks there. It was their second date when he decided that he was going to propose to her someday. In winter 2021, he proposed, and Olga said yes—and 12 months later, she arrived in Texas with a K-1 visa.
Isabella is a 19-year-old student from Bogota, Colombia. She met Lucas, a 28-year-old photographer from Miami, Florida, on a dating site 6 months ago. “I’m like 25% Spanish, and I’ve always felt like Hispanic girls are the best, you know”, says Lucas. That’s why he signed up on LatiDate because he heard from a friend that this website was full of hot Latinas interested in a serious relationship.
His friend was 100% right. “I had 3 dates with Mexican and Brazilian girls before I met Isabella. It just didn’t work out because we had different values and views and so on,” Lucas smiles. “But with Isabella, it’s different. She understands me, I understand her, we have similar goals and plans, and we’re literally on the same page about our relationship.”
Today, they live together in Miami—Isabella entered the country a month ago on a tourist visa and plans to stay here for 2 more months. After that, who knows? We believe that the next time she gets to the US will be on a fiancée visa.
Conclusion
So, here’s a fact: mail order bride divorce rate is lower than the overall national divorce rate in the United States. This means that in general, your chances to have a successful marriage are higher with mail order brides than with local ladies in the US. Of course, this depends on a lot of factors, but the numbers don’t lie—if you’re going to marry a mail order bride, you’ll most likely live your whole life with her!
If you want to know more about how this mail order bride thing works or about the legality of mail order brides, read our guides. Our experts have already explained it all, so you just have to read these mall order bride guides in order to get all your questions about mail order brides answered!