Do Marriages with Mail-Order Brides of Latin America Work?

However, I can’t remember anybody on top of my head that I have met personally who had used the services of an agency to get mail-order brides.

Though I do recommend an affiliate link to a mail-order bride company on another website I own so I do have some minor knowledge about the industry.

Nonetheless, I just mention that detail that I don’t know anyone personally who had a successful or unsuccessful mail-order bride from anywhere (including Latin America).

But this article will include all the latest information I can find about Latina mail-order brides.

Including information like statistics on the likelihood of it working out…

The cost of money you might expect to spend…

And much more.

Including my own opinion at the very end of this article.

So let’s walk into this together and see what reliable information is out there regarding Latina mail-order brides.

Are they worth it?

Where Do They Come From?

Let’s first start this article by looking into which Latin American countries are the most popular for mail-order brides…

Though it has been hard to find numbers on the internet, this source here claims that the “Immigration and Human Rights Law Review” recorded the amount of US fiancé visas provided in the year 2018. The top 3 most popular Latin American countries in order were:

• Mexico with 1,392 fiancé visas provided.
• Colombia with 869 fiancé visas provided.
• Brazil with 723 fiancé visas provided.

Though, if I had to guess, probably not all of those fiancé visas were provided to mail-order brides.

I imagine a certain number of them were provided also to folks who happened to find a girl in one of those countries without having to go through a marriage agency.

But that gives us a place to start when it comes to understanding which are the most popular countries by actual numbers.

Though other articles provide similar statements regarding the more popular Latin countries for finding a wife.

This 2020 article here claims that the 3 most popular Latin countries are: Brazil, Colombia and the Dominican Republic.

Though, to be fair, it doesn’t provide any source as to how it came up with those countries or any specific numbers.

But what do other sources online say?

According to this article here, the most popular Latin countries are (in no particular order it seems): Colombia, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Mexico.

Anyway, other articles seem to point to those specific countries also.

It would be interesting also to know if there are certain cities in these countries that produce the most mail-order brides but I couldn’t find any numbers on that.

But I imagine we can get an idea by looking at which mail-order bride agencies are most popular and in what cities they are located.

So….

What are the more popular mail-order bride agencies that foreigners seem to use to find women in these countries?

Keep in mind I couldn’t find any specific numbers to see which mail-order bride agencies are the biggest by total amount of customers or by which ones have the most profit.

So much of this will also be based on what people seem to be saying online in no particular order.

First, you have A Foreign Affair whose website is here. On their website, they claim to hold more tours “than all of our competitors combined” and seem to be considered one of the older and more reliable marriage agencies.

From what I can see, they seem to do “international dating singles tours” to the Colombian cities of Barranquilla, Cartagena and Medellin.

They also do the similar tours to the Costa Rican city of San Jose and also the Peruvian city of Lima.

Also, as you can see here, they have plenty of dating profiles of Latina women from outside of those specific areas above.

More specifically, they have sections that you can click on for profiles of women from Cuba, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chilean, Venezuelan, Mexican, Dominican, Brazilian, Nicaraguan, Peruvian, Costa Rican and Colombian.

Though they do seem to also have dating profiles of Latinas in other Latin countries not mentioned above, including Argentina and others as well.

It is also not clear from their website to me the extent to which they will help you in meeting any of the Latina women from countries where they don’t have “singles” tours but I imagine there might be some assistance.

But I guess the countries where they organize actual “singles tours” to are the ones where they have the most interest – Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru.

Second, we have Dream Connections here. This is an agency whose founder is Mark Edward Davis. Dream Connections provides different services, including “Romance Tours” in Ukraine, Thailand and Colombia.

In Colombia, they specifically do work in the city of Medellin.

Third, I have seen indications online that the company AmoLatina has ran "Romance Tours" before as you can read here or here.

I can't find any indication though that they currently have any Romance Tours in the future as of this writing in February 2021.

Fourth, you also have dating websites that don’t seem to organize “Romance Tours” but instead simply have dating profiles of Latina women that you can have a conversation with.

Some examples of this would include Mexicancupid.com, Latinamericancupid.com, Amolatina.com, Brazilcupid.com, Colombiancupid.com and Dominicancupid.com.

There’s a few other websites I could have mentioned but they looked pretty sketchy.

Anyway, as I said, those dating websites just mentioned and others don’t necessarily seem to offer tours to these countries to meet women but have profiles of Latinas that you can talk with and maybe set up a meeting yourself if you ever fly into her country alone.

And the profiles of the Latina women can be all over the place in Latin America and not just the countries of Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Brazil.

Here is an article I wrote anyway where I encountered dating scams on some of those dating websites.

Finally, there could also be other mail-order bride companies that offer “Romance Tours” but I couldn’t find anymore that looked reputable.

According to this article here, a lot of these mail-order bride marriage agencies got wiped out for various reasons, including times of financial difficulty like in 2008 but some, like A Foreign Affair, have stuck around.

“And many of those men did not have the money to romance a beautiful younger woman after the 2008 financial disaster.  Most guys decide to pursue a younger foreign woman, because the rest of their life is pretty well in order.  So, the financial meltdown spelled the final doom for most operators, because for almost a year no one was taking tours.”

Anyway, let’s now get into what the process seems to typically look like for these folks trying to get a wife abroad.

The Process

So we will break it down between two groups of people here.

Those who go through the “Romance Tours.”

And those who prefer messaging Latina women on dating websites and possibly meeting them in person through their own planning.

First, let's quickly cover the latter before getting into the former since it is less complicated.

From how it usually works based on what I have seen....

You will sign up for free on any typical dating website to message Latinas online.

Now a lot of these websites that I have seen have it where it is free to sign up but it costs money to send messages and enjoy other benefits of membership to their website.

Before signing up for a membership though, you might get messages from Latinas but will not be able to reply unless she is a paid member to the website or unless you are.

And most of the Latinas choose not to be paid members as most of the guys tend to anyway.

Most of the membership plans will vary around 10 to 30 bucks a month more or less but it depends on what type of plan you get and for the duration of the plan.

Now, as I wrote here, some of the profiles on these websites are fake run by scammers (often from countries like Cuba) meant to get you to send them money. 

But, in my experience, most of the women are real.

You pay for the membership and message whoever you like after checking out the different profiles.

From there, you basically keep talking with her in whatever platform you prefer (such as the dating website itself or asking for her Whatsapp number).

And, if you ever get around to it, you can fly into her city and meet her (and any other woman you have been talking with).

Maybe you two date more seriously and even get married.

Maybe you two just hookup.

Or maybe she is a he and is some scary ass motherfucker like this guy below here.

Though focused on Ukraine and not Latin America, the documentary ends with the statement that 8 out of the 44 men who went on the Romance Tour applied for a fiancé visa.

Which is 18.2% of the men being successful at finding love.

Anyway...

Let's focus now on the cost of going abroad for "wife hunting."

The Cost 

So let's break it down again by both avenues to "wife hunting."

First, if you plan to go down to Latin America without an agency, then you can choose to go on a Latina dating website.

The cost varies by the website but if we look at Latin American Cupid...

Well, according to this website:

"The price of a Gold membership runs from $10/month when you pre-pay for a full year to a single month of access for $29.98. A Platinum membership costs $12.50/month for a full year's worth of access, $23.33/month for a 3-month membership, or $34.99 for a single month."

Of course, this doesn't factor in the cost of your trip.

For airfare, let's say you spend 700 bucks roundtrip. 

For an Airbnb, let's say you spend 900 bucks per month (less per month if you happen to be spending more than a month and longer term down here).

For food, let's say 200 bucks a month.

For drinks on dates, let's say 50 bucks a month at most.

And let's throw in a miscellaneous 100 bucks in there just in case.

Total cost (very rough estimate): $1,950 USD for one month trip.

Though you happen to be staying longer term beyond a month, you can get a much cheaper deal than a 30 dollar a night Airbnb... 

But let's go with $2,000 USD for now.

Second, we have the Romance Tours.

If we look at Dream Connections, from what I could tell online, they have different options.

You could go with the "Romance Tour" option for $4,950 USD.

Or do an "Individual Quest Tour," which is more personalized than a Romance Tour.

If you go for the Gold Level Service, that is $7,950 USD.

The Diamond Level Service is $10,950 USD.

And the Platinum Level Service is $15,950 USD.

Keep in mind that, from what I could understand, none of these costs include the price of the airfare itself so you will have to factor that in alone.

Also, you should keep in mind any miscellaneous costs that might not be covered.

Finally, keep in mind that the costs for Dream Connections could be outdated as no recent information is available online since, according to their website, they are not currently offering any Romance Tours.

I suspect it is likely due to the Covid situation worldwide. 

Then you have A Foreign Affair.

According to this website, a platinum membership to the website costs $29.95 USD a month.

While other membership plans are cheaper, apparently the Gold and Silver plan makes you pay for translation services for phone calls and emails and also for the cost of purchasing an email. 

Now, if you want to do a Romance Tour with A Foreign Affair, then the costs I am seeing on their website here as of February 8, 2021 are: 

• A: $2,395 USD for 7 days in Cartagena or $2,895 USD for 10 days or $3,295 USD for 14 days.
• B: $2,495 USD for 7 days in Peru or $3,195 USD for 10 days or $4,895 USD for 14 days in Peru and Machu Picchu.
• C: $2,395 USD for 7 days in Costa Rica or $2,895 for 10 days in Costa Rica or $3,295 USD for 14 days in Costa Rica.
• D: $2,495 USD for 7 days in Medellin or $2,995 USD for 10 days in Medellin or $3,395 USD for 14 days in Medellin. 
• E: $2,400 USD for 7 days in Barranquilla or $2,900 USD for 10 days in Barranquilla or $3,400 USD for 14 days in Barranquilla.

From what I could tell, it doesn't seem like these prices include airfare.

So you would have to factor in airfare and any miscellaneous costs into your budget. 

Anyway, the prices I have seen elsewhere on the internet from previous marriage agencies seem to be fairly similar more or less.

So it seems that for a typical Romance Tour, you can expect to spend around $2,000 to $5,000 USD more or less (not counting airfare and miscellaneous costs).

However, from my understanding, there are other costs you should keep in mind if you do find the right woman through a marriage agency or through a dating website.

These costs could include:

• 1. Possible flights back to her country to see her from time to time before she has the legal right to live in the US with a fiancé visa.
• When she does have the legal right, a flight to get her into the US and also flights afterwards for many decades for her to visit her family.
• 2. About 2,025 USD to have a US Fiancé Visa according to this source. 
• Any possible costs associated with getting her a US Fiancé Visa such as translation services, medical exams travel to and form a consulate and other costs. 
• Any possible extra costs with having a visa attorney helping you out with the process. 
• If you want your partner to gain citizenship someday, this article says it costed them $725 USD to do the citizenship test. 
• The financial cost of having to "sponsor" your partner and any children they might be bringing with them into your country. More information here. 

Anyway, I'd imagine there are many other costs associated with bringing someone into the US.

What is more interesting to me is the cost of "sponsoring" someone once they are already living in the US.

I wasn't able to find any article detailing how much a typical person pays each month while "sponsoring" their partner and quite possibly any children they bring into the country.

I imagine the cost of "sponsorship" goes down a bit when the partner has the legal right to work in the US and they can bring money to the table in the marriage.

Though until that happens, I suppose the cost of "sponsorship" would be simply the cost of taking care of any typical person on a monthly basis with their living expenses.

And living expenses for any children they have as I said before.

Which, though I can't bring an exact number to that, I would imagine could easily shoot into the thousands or maybe even tens of thousands of dollars if children are involved. 

And keep in mind I have never gone on a "Romance Tour" before or ever tried sponsoring someone into the US.

So much of my idea of how much all of this could cost is really just a guestimate based on everything I am seeing online.

But, when factoring in everything said in this section (cost of flights, dating websites and Romance Tours, costs of sending emails maybe or gifts, US Fiancé Visa costs, sponsorship of her and possibly children, etc)....

The cost definitely seems like it would surpass $10,000 USD easily and quite possibly much more. . 

Here's a more extreme case below here of this one dude in particular who spent almost $10,000 USD on just sending emails to a woman....

But now that we have at least some of the idea in regards to the motivations that drive people into finding love with a foreigner...

Let's cover any available statistics on this subject.

Statistics of Success?

First, let's ask ourselves how many of these men actually find a person to sponsor a fiancé visa on a Romance Tour. 

The numbers for this are fairly difficult to find. 

However, as shown in the video titled "The Women of Odessa" that was brought up much earlier in this article...

About 8 out of the 44 men or 18.2% on that specific Romance Tour were able to find someone to sponsor with a fiancé visa.

Now when it comes to the marriage agencies brought up before...

According to this article here, apparently Dream Connections once claimed that "80% of Dream Connections clients who went on the Quest Tour said they met someone special during the trip and felt the potential for a lasting relationship."

To expand on that 80% number....

This article here claims that it specifically refers to "helping clients begin a new relationship while on their romance tour."

Of course, a relationship doesn't necessarily mean marriage.

I've been in relationships before where I never married the girl.

To which then the question begs how many of those relationships developed into a marriage. 

It isn't clear based on the information available online. 

Next, if you go to their Youtube channel here, it claims in the "About" section that they have had "over 300 married and less than 1% divorced."

Additionally, it also then begs the question how many men have gone on their Romance Tours since 2011 to help us figure out what percentage of the clients actually got married.

I have no idea how many men go on a typical Romance Tour or how many they host per year.

If you go to the "Calendar" section on their website here, it seems like they have at least 11 tours set up from September 2018 to November 2019. 

Though that "Calendar" doesn't show very clearly how many tours they held in Colombia during that time period and also if they held any personalized Gold, Silver or Platinum level tours either. 

So I would assume they held more than 11 tours during that 14 month time period but I can't say for sure. 

Though this article here claims that, due to the issues that Marriage Agencies have had to face in the last few decades, it isn't too uncommon to see as little as 30 clients per tour.

"Now, there were often not a hundred men on a tour, but thirty."

Now keep in mind that sentence is in reference to other marriage agencies and not specifically Dream Connections.

It could be the case that Dream Connections has more or fewer clients than 30 per tour.

But if Dream Connections was founded in 2011 as this source states...

That would mean they have been running tours for close to if not at least a decade (depending on how Covid has impacted their tours in the last year).

And if they are running multiple tours a year in various countries...

You'd have to wonder if they normally pull off 11 tours or more per year and how many men go per tour (weather if that number is more or fewer than 30 men).

All within a 9 to 10 year period (depending on how Covid has impacted their ability to do tours).

And that's assuming that 300 men have been married in that time since 2011 because I couldn't find any independent source verifying that number online either...

At the end of the day, you can plug in the numbers to guess how many men have gone on their tours and ultimately what is your statistical likelihood of getting married by going on one of their tours. 

As we won't likely ever know for sure to a T.

This review by one former client of Dream Connections known as "John B" wrote the following sentence: "Oh, and maybe 1 out of 20 guys is getting married from the tour.. That's a 5% success rate...."

Keep in mind, to be fair, that 5% number obviously is just a "top of the head" number and not actually anything official. 

But I will leave it at that since that is all the information I could find.

Then you have A Foreign Affair.

With this company, it seems we have more specific figures provided by them due to more research done by the news.

Here is a quote from an article by ABC News: 

"There's a couple of guys that have gone on the tour twice, sometimes three times. … Twenty percent of the men, according to John, get married over there on their first meeting. The other 20 percent find a substantial relationship, and they communicate back and forth, which eventually leads to marriage," he said."

Of course, in the case of these statistics and also the 80% number provided by Dream Connections from before...

I'm always skeptical when I see a number that falls exactly on 20% or 80%.

Not 20.5% or 80.4%? 

It does call into question if those numbers are "top of the head" figures based on a rough guestimate from personal experience or if they are actually "on the books numbers" when you actually do the math as to what exact percent got married or not.

And, of course, being these numbers are provided by the companies themselves, there should always be some caution as to if they are legitimate or inflated.

But I can't make any argument to that as I don't have the exact numbers myself.

It could be the case that the 20% figure provided by A Foreign Affair and the 80% figure by Dream Connections are actual verified numbers from the books.

Though there are other numbers out there that we can work with. 

According to the Center for Immigration Studies:

"Based on published material from the agencies, similar numbers apply to women from Russia, Latin America, and other areas; i.e., 10 percent find husbands, of whom 40 to 50 percent are U.S. citizens."

Now, keep in mind, those numbers have a much larger sample size to work with from my understanding but the article is dated in 1997 and the numbers also largely come from the marriage agencies themselves. 

So that 10% number could possibly be inflated but there is no way to know for sure. 

The only other number we have, from my understanding, that is actually verified by an independent third-party source is from the video referenced above in regards to those 44 men who went to Ukraine to find a wife on that one Romance Tour.

The 18.2% who filed for a fiancé visa. 

Weather that number is more representative of how many men on Romance Tours from the agencies mentioned above or from any agency is not clear.

Especially as 44 men is not a large sample size. 

So I will leave it at that as that is all the information I could find on how many people actually get married from a Romance Tour.

Next, we have divorce rates.

For reference, according to this source here by the American Psychological Association, "about 40 to 50 percent of married couples in the United States divorce."

As referenced before, Dream Connections claims on their Youtube here that less than 1% have divorced.

Though that "1%" number isn't too impressive when you consider that they have only been around from 2011 until now (2021) and the average duration of a marriage in the US is 8.2 years. 

So, in theory, the longest lasting marriage they could've had would be 10 years old right now and many more a bit younger. 

Therefore, time will tell how their divorce rate stacks up compared to the national divorce rate. 

And I'm not sure if that 1% number is actually legit since I couldn't find any independent source verifying it. 

Then when we go back to that previous 1997 source from the Center for Immigration Studies...

"Again, based largely on data supplied by the agencies themselves (along with the Commission on Filipinos Overseas report), marriages arranged through the mail-order services would appear to have a lower divorce rate than the nation as a whole, fully 80 percent of these marriages having lasted over the years for which reports are available."

Again, those numbers could possibly be inflated because they are largely provided by the marriage agencies.

Other numbers though are in agreement that marriages through mail-order brides are statistically speaking more successful. 

According to this 2012 research thesis titled "Russian Mail-Order Brides in the U.S.: A Cultural Psychology Perspective" by Shalei Holway:

"Authorities agree that domestic violence in these marriages is expected to be more common than in ‘normal’ marriages (Scholes). Nonetheless, mail-order marriages are less likely to end in divorce than marriages overall in the United States: divorce rates in mail-order marriages for which the courtship period lasted more than 4 months were between 35.8 and 41.3 percent when compared to the overall US divorce rate which is 48 percent (Statistics Solutions, Inc)."

Therefore, if I had to summarize my thoughts on the matter in this section based on all the available data I can find...

First, it doesn't seem like you are statistically speaking likely to find someone to get married through a Marriage Agency on a "Romance Tour."

Second, if you do get married, it looks like your odds of having a successful marriage through a mail-order bride agency are around 7% to 20% higher more or less when compared to getting married to a local woman in the US.

Anyway, let's end this section with some videos I will post below of people talking about their experiences going through a marriage agency.

Because like I said, sponsoring her might be a bit expensive...

Fifth, some of the dudes who prefer foreign women do so in part because of the issue regarding the risk of divorce from my perception having looked into this.

If that is your concern, there are two points to bring up for consideration.

Such as the fact that if you marry a chick and be legally married to her in the US....

Then you are still as exposed to the consequences of divorce as you would be if you married an American chick.

Meaning alimony for example or her having custody of whatever children you two have....

Among other potential issues because you would still be getting divorced in the US if it came down to that.

Furthermore, while you do have a statistically better chance at not getting divorced with a foreign chick...

Those odds depends on the numbers that are out there by independent sources and they don't look that promising.

As I said before, they can range from 7% to 20% from what I have seen.

Unless you believe the more optimistic numbers by marriage agencies but I feel that'd be like believing a fast food chain telling you that their food is as healthy as a salad.

Similarly, I'd like to tell people that my website is the best source out there regarding life in Latin America.

Meanwhile, I get emails all the time from loving fans with email subject lines like "eat a dick bitch" with a message that reads.....

"Your website, Sir, is gay and you must also be gay by association....not that there is anything wrong with that just saying"

We all like to write our own reviews....

Anyway, let's consider the possibility that you have a 7% to 20% better chance at not getting divorced from a foreign woman through a marriage agency...

Keep in mind that we are comparing those numbers to the overall divorce rate of 40% to 50% in this country.

But that is just a broad number for everyone getting divorced.

If we want to play by numbers, then let's look at this article which looks at the ways you can lower your possibility of divorce regardless of if your woman is American or foreign.

I'd wonder especially if you did at least some of the following things with an American chick:

• Only have kids after marriage.
• Pick a chick who is financially compatible with you.
• Pick a chick whose parents never divorced.
• Pick a chick who has a college education.
• Where ideally your chick is not too reactive to stress.
• Who hasn't been divorced before.
• Who you don't marry at a young age. 
• Where ideally you two don't have low income.
• Have similar religious and political beliefs.

And many other things you could do to better your chances with an American chick...

Would your chances then really be that much better then with a foreign chick?

They'd definitely be much better than that 40% to 50% number.

And you'd probably be better off than the dude marrying a mail-order bride who is 20 years younger...

As getting married at a younger age raises your chances of divorce...

Where having that large age gap can make it harder to relate to her...

And where "those with a 10-year gap were found to be 39 percent more likely to divorce, and those with a 20-year gap were 95 more likely."

According to this source here.

Either way, the point I want to make here is that the better odds you have in general with foreign chicks are not necessarily that much higher compared to American women (7% to 20% from what I could find)...

But if you did many of the things above....

You'd have much better chances to begin with and then you might want to ask if it is really worth it to spend those thousands to tens of thousands of dollars traveling through a marriage agency and sponsoring a chick in the US.

But this all ties into the final point to consider....

Which is asking yourself what exactly do you want really with marrying a mail-order bride from Latin America.

Because if you want the traditional wife who won't cheat, well, as I already covered, that is not necessarily going to happen and you might be naïve...

And you aren't lowering your risk of divorce by that much and you can lower that risk with an American chick if you pick one with the qualities above without spending tens of thousands of dollars on a marriage agency and the process of sponsorship. 

Do you want kids? 

If not, are you OK sponsoring and taking care of her kids if she has any (which might be one of her influences on finding a foreign man with more money)...

And if you don't want kids, why the hell marry?

What do you get then in marriage that you wouldn't get in a relationship?

Because you can have companionship with an American chick that you don't need to marry either...

And I'd argue you could probably find more chicks in the US who are down for a relationship without a marriage as more people (men and women) are dropping the idea of marriage as you can read here.

For a variety of reasons, it seems like millennials are less interested in marriage. 

Finally, if what you want is sex with a hot younger Latina...

Which, if we are being honest, really is a motivation for plenty of men looking for the foreign girl.

Because a certain number of them have been told they can get hotter and younger abroad...

But if that's all you want...

A hot piece of ass...

Why marry it then?

You don't marry the hoe, motherfucker!

If that's all you want -- a hoe to fuck.

Then fuck away!

But marriage is much more than fucking a hot piece of ass.

Tinder in places like Mexico City have plenty of chicks down to fuck.

And if you are too old or ugly to get normal chicks to want to fuck you...

Well, the local news down here always looks into odd aspects of life down here that you might be curious about...