Everything you need to know before “ordering” a Russian bride

Love knows no borders and doesn’t require visas, so Russian mail order brides are still as desirable as they ever were despite the war, sanctions, and no-fly zones. Still, online dating is the safest way to meet gorgeous singles from Russia. So don’t hesitate to fill out the form and chat with potential matches immediately!

Everything you need to know before “ordering” a Russian bride

✅ Verified Russian Mail Order Brides Profiles

Oksana23, y.o.
Chelyabinsk, Russia
student
Anna19, y.o.
Moscow, Russia
lash maker
Elena30, y.o.
Moscow, Russia
psychologist
Anastasiya32, y.o.
Krasnodar, Russia
SMM manager
Julia28, y.o.
Miass, Russia
Model
Ekaterina26, y.o.
Barnaul, Russia
manager
Lybov19, y.o.
Stavropol, Russia
Coffee shop owner
Oksana28, y.o.
Belgorod, Russia
Cosmetologist
More profiles

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Can you still meet a Russian wife online? How not to get scammed? Is marrying a Russian even worth it now? Find answers to these questions here!

In the mid-90s, after the collapse of the USSR, Russian mail-order wives were the absolute stars of the dating market. Everyone wanted to marry them, and thousands of men did. Many of those marriages worked, and some didn’t. But the fact is that Russian brides have become legendary.

Now, in 2024, we see how this trend is reborn. Russian girls are trending on TikTok, more and more guys join dating sites to meet their Russian mail-order brides, and more and more men actually marry them. But do such marriages work? What should you really expect from relationships with these women? 

Find the answers here.

What you should know before ordering a Russian bride?

There are a lot of myths about Russian women for marriage and the Russian segment of the mail-order bride business at large. So, we’ll start with basic facts that explain how things really work:

  • A Russian mail-order wife can’t really be ordered. That’s just a myth. You can only meet a Russian woman online, build a genuine relationship with her, and then marry her.
  • Most modern brides from Russia don’t use services provided by land-based dating agencies. They usually join top dating sites as they are often free for ladies and rather effective for both Slavic women and Westerners. 
  • Russian women don’t get financially compensated for their decision to marry foreigners. 
  • Russian mail-order bride scams do exist, but legit dating services are real too. You just need to know how to spot scam activities. It’s not that hard, actually if you know the main red flags and safety rules. 
  • There’s no way to marry a Russian woman, as well as any other foreign woman if you haven’t met your foreign girlfriend in real life. 
  • Just like everyone else, a Russian bride will need to apply for a foreign partner/fiancee visa. For example, in the case of the US, it’s the K-1 visa. Currently, there are no special restrictions for marriage migrants from Russia. 

Basically, you meet a girl, build a relationship with her, meet IRL, and then decide whether you are each other’s perfect match or not, and if yes, you get officially married. It’s not as simple as just ordering a bride, but such a healthy approach makes cross-cultural relationships work.

What is a Russian mail-order bride and what does she do?

Russian girls for marriage are often idealized or by contrast, caricatured and ridiculed. That’s why it’s so important to develop realistic expectations about the person you may meet on a Slavic dating site, her goals, expectations, and motives. Read the definition below—it’s the most accurate description of who a Russian bride is. 

“A modern Russian bride is a single woman whose main goal is to find a decent man abroad and marry him in the near future to start a family, enjoy a healthy family life, have children, etc. Though a woman is intentionally looking for a partner abroad, her motivation isn’t explained only by the desire to migrate to another country. In most cases, it’s rather about negative previous relationship experiences and disappointment in local men. 

A Russian wife isn’t compensated by the agency or her husband. She’s building a genuine relationship with her foreign boyfriend and agrees to marry him only if she feels that is the right thing to do for both of them and that they can be really happy together.”

Basically, that’s what a Russian mail-order bride really does: 

  • Decides to search for love overseas
  • Chooses a niche site and makes some significant effort to represent herself on the platform
  • Communicates with men until she finds a boyfriend and starts a long-distance relationship with him
  • She meets him in real life a few times, and if everything goes right and he proposes, she applies for a marriage visa to his country
  • She migrates, they get married and enjoy their regular family life together

And here’s what real brides definitely don’t do: 

  • Get money or other specific benefits for their decision to intermarry
  • Agree to marry strangers
  • Marry men without meeting them in real life
  • Marry men without building deep emotional connections with them 
  • Agree to be 100% obedient to their husbands just to stay in their countries

If so, what’s the actual motivation of Russian women to intermarry? That’s what we’re going to discuss below. 

Why Russian women become mail-order brides

In most cases, the reasons are as follows: 

  • Local social problems—gender imbalance, war consequences, high domestic violence rates, high alcohol abuse rates, etc. 
  • Inability to find a marriage-minded loyal man in Russia. 
  • Strong desire to get married and start a family explained both by personal motivation and social pressure. 
  • Desire to see the world, expand the borders, learn new things, and raise children in a safer place. 

As you can see, there are a lot of reasons why Russian women want to migrate to get married, and none of them is related to money. 

What it’s like to be married to a Russian bride

Of course, there’s no single-family life scenario for Russian brides and Westerners who marry them. All women are different, all men are different, so you’ll get a different scenario for every couple. Nonetheless, we can still distinguish some peculiarities and the most common characteristics of Russian wives. 

What are they? We asked their husbands and Russian women themselves, and most agreed on the following: 

  1. Russian women are perfect multi-taskers. They really can do all the household chores, perform well enough at work, and take care of kids. But they get tired like everyone else. 
  2. The opinions of others will always matter. A Russian woman is more likely to try to impress others rather than focusing on what’s really necessary. Most learn how to cope with this intention, though. But it’s still a part of the culture. 
  3. They are good moms. Most are loving and caring, but many may also be demanding. A child is supposed to have many interests, good grades, hobbies, and things like that. 

Again, scenarios vary greatly, but now you see what most men actually get when they finally find their Russian spouses.

Jeanine Tegano Collins
A wedding expert and the founder of The Bride Scoop. I'm passionate about helping potential brides and grooms navigate the world of international weddings and cross-cultural relationships. With years of experience in the industry, I've become a trusted authority on all things wedding-related, from planning and budgeting to cultural traditions and etiquette.
Through The Bride Scoop, I provide practical advice, expert insights, and personalized guidance to couples from all over the world. My blog features a wide range of topics, including wedding planning tips, real wedding stories, cultural traditions, and advice for long-distance relationships.
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