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Russian Mail Order Bride Pricing: How Much Does Russian Bride Cost in 2024?

Updated: 22/02/2024

9 min read

How much does it cost to marry a Russian woman? All you need to know is available in this guide. We’re going to cover literally everything, from the first message you’ll send to her to your wedding ceremony.

P.S. Before you start reading, check out top-3 mail order bride websites by our experts.

3 Best Mail Order Bride & Dating Sites with Affordable Price

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Try to calculate the cost of your future wife

How much does a Russian mail order bride cost?

Mail order bride average pricing explained

Online dating – from $100 to $200 per month on most Russian mail order brides websites, but buying gifts and using various premium services may be more expensive.
Travel costs – around $2,000 for a 1-week trip
Dates – $10-$150 per date ($10 for a coffee date, $150 for a dinner in a restaurant)
K-1 visa – $2,025
Wedding – $3,000-$5,000 in most cases (around $150 for a wedding license if you don’t plan a wedding ceremony)

Can you buy a Russian wife?

No, you can’t. What you actually can do is meet her on a Russian online dating site, meet her in person, propose to her, and bring her to the United States. Some people call it “to buy a Russian mail order wife,” but we believe it’s much closer to traditional dating and courtship rather than “buying” a partner.

There are tens of thousands of women on Russian dating sites who’d like to meet a foreign man (typically a Western man), which means there’s no need to go to another country right away. But sooner or later, you’ll have to meet your Russian bride in person—continue reading to find out how much it will cost.

Factors affecting Russian mail order bride cost

Website fees. There are mail order bride sites that only offer a live chat—obviously, these sites are pretty affordable. However, many of these platforms have a lot of advanced premium features like video calls or gift delivery. Obviously, such services are quite expensive.
The country a Russian bride lives in. Countries like Russia and Kazakhstan are not that expensive to visit, especially if you book everything in advance. If a Russian girl you like lives in Israel, the UK, or Switzerland, a trip would be much more expensive than a trip to Russia.
How many times you’re going to visit her. It’s simple: every new trip will cost you $2,000-$3,000. However, if you’re lucky enough to understand you need each other after the first dates, congratulations—you’re going to save a few thousand.
Your travel and lifestyle preferences. A simple example: you can pay $200 or $1,500 for a week in a hotel room. The same is for the gifts you’re going to give to your Russian bride.
Immigration lawyer. It’s 100% legal to bring a Russian bride or wife to the United States (in this guide, there’s more useful information about it), but the process may be quite complicated and time-consuming. The K-1 visa costs around $2,000, but if you’re going to contact a lawyer, that amount can be increased by 50%-100%.
Wedding expenses. Some people prefer fancy wedding ceremonies with 200 guests—it costs up to $80,000 in the United States. The others are happy with a modest party for 10-20 people—such a wedding will cost you $3,000-$5,000.

What Russian mail order bride price includes

The Russian order bride prices can change because of numerous factors, as you see. But when it comes to the basic expenses, it’s simple: you’ll need to pay for online dating sites, for a trip to meet Russian ladies, for a date, for the visa, and for the wedding.

Now, let’s be more detailed about the Russian mail order bride pricing—we’ll cover all these expenses below.

🌐 Online dating expenses

The very first factor to analyze regarding the Russian mail bride cost is the cost of dating websites. There are a lot of dating platforms with single Russian girls, but if you’re going to enjoy your safe and pleasant online dating experience, you should never use free platforms. They are full of bots, fake profiles, and scammers, and that’s surely not what you’re looking for.

As for good online dating sites, they are always paid. Some of them have a premium subscription system like the one Netflix has: you choose a plan that’s right for you and pay for it monthly. Typically, these websites cost up to $100 monthly.

And in the other corner, there are Russian mail order bride websites with a credit system. In fact, the absolute majority of top online dating sites have a credit-based system, so you’ll most likely use a dating site with credits sooner or later. Here’s how it works: you buy the credits, and after that, you start chatting with Russian brides. For each minute, a certain number of credits is deducted from your account. The same goes for other features such as emails (each email costs a certain amount of credits), video calls, voice calls, etc. Once you run out of credits, a certain amount will be purchased automatically: most online dating sites today have the Auto Top Up Credits feature (you can turn it off, though). This system is certainly a better choice for those who’d like to understand what they’re paying for and for those who want to control their spending.

With credit-based Russian mail order bride websites, your expenses depend on the features you’re going to use. Thus, if you’re ready to spend more this month, you can use a video chat service and even send gifts to all those Russian women. But if you want to save money, you can easily limit your use of the dating app and focus on cheaper messaging tools such as live chat.

👉 Here are top-5 mail order bride & dating sites with affordable price in 2024:

Rank	Site	Free Link
#1	SofiaDate
#2	GoChatty
#3	UkrainianCharm
#4	TheLuckyDate
#5	UkraineBride4you

✈️ Travel costs

It’s not recommended to visit Russia for an American citizen. First, it’s dangerous because of the possible explosions—the country is currently waging a war of aggression against Ukraine, and even cities like Moscow are not 100% safe. Second, it’s dangerous for you as a free person—Russia is jailing a lot of private American citizens, and who knows what can trigger them in your case. And third, it’s not convenient at all—you need to get a visa, which costs $185, and you’ll need to wait 7-20 working days to get it, and then, you can only go there with transfers.

Instead, you can meet Russian mail order brides in another country—our pick is Kazakhstan, a country with a huge Russian diaspora that has grown even more after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It’s an affordable country, people there speak English, and it’s safe for American citizens. And, of course, there are millions of potential Russian brides there, so let’s talk about it. Here’s how much you’ll pay for a 1-week trip to Kazakhstan:

Flight tickets – $1,200
Hotel room – $350-$1,000 for 7 nights
Food – $150-$400 for 7 days
Transportation – less than $50
A small gift – $20-$50 for a bouquet, a bottle of perfume, or a teddy bear
Totals – $1,800-$2,700

Most hotel rooms cost $50-$120 per day, but there are other options, of course. You can pay $3,000 for a week in the Ritz-Carlton in Almaty if you’re ready to spend a lot of money, or you can pay around $15 per night if you’re going to stay in a hostel room. In Kazakhstan, there are a lot of options for every budget.

As for the food, you can either do it yourself (if you’re going to rent an apartment) or eat in local restaurants. The first option is obviously more affordable—you’ll only need around $150 for a week. A meal in a popular moderately-priced restaurant in Almaty will cost you around $30-$40.

Typically, it’s also about the season—we usually recommend our readers to visit a country during a low season if they want to save money. This will also work if you’re going to meet your Russian bride somewhere in Egypt or Turkey, but Kazakhstan isn’t the biggest tourist destination, so the prices are not affected by the season here.

A flight from the US to Kazakhstan will cost you $1,200, depending on how much in advance you’re going to book the tickets. If you’re not from the United States, here’s how much the tickets would cost:

A flight from Canada is $1,300
A flight from Australia is $1,800
A flight from the UK is $600

P.S. As we already mentioned, going to Russia in 2024 is certainly not the best idea for an American citizen. However, if you’re completely sure you have to meet a Russian bride in her country, you need to understand how much it costs. Thus, a ticket to Moscow will cost you around ($2,000 for a flight to Istanbul and $300-$400 for a ticket to Moscow), the hotels there would be slightly more expensive (around $500-$1,200 for 7 nights), and the meals may be 10%-20% more expensive, as well.

🎁 Dates & gifts

As we’ve stated before, a meal in a mid-range restaurant would cost you around $30-$40 per person, so you’ll pay around $60-$80 for a date in that restaurant. However, if you’re going to impress that Russian girl, you can take her to a fancy place like VISTA, where a dinner for 2 people will cost around $100-$150. The same goes for Moscow, but the meals are slightly more expensive (up to 10-20%).

As for the gifts, most Russian mail order brides would be happy to get a bouquet ($20-$50), but you can spend much more than that, of course. You can buy her an iPhone or, say, a golden necklace—but don’t do it too soon because a Russian bride may think you’re trying to buy her. However, at a certain stage of a relationship exchanging more expensive gifts like a new smartphone or jewelry is more acceptable.

📄 K-1 visa costs

If you’re going to bring the Russian mail bride to the US, the most common and convenient option is the K-1 fiance(e) visa. The government fee for a K-1 visa is $800, and the fee for the Adjustment of Status form is $1,225 (this form is required for your Russian wife to get a green card).

💒 Wedding cost

This may be the largest part of the total Russian brides cost, especially if you’re going to have a huge wedding party because the average cost of a wedding in Russia is around $15,000 (and $5,000 on a honeymoon), so your bride will probably expect something like this.

However, if you’re going to bring her to the US through a K-1 visa, you’ll need to marry her in the US, and in this case, you can spend much less (the marriage license costs $40-$80) or much more (a fancy party for 200 people would cost $60,000-$80,000 in the US).

We believe that in most cases, it’s around $3,000-$5,000, though. Most people don’t have a fancy wedding party and don’t invite 200+ guests, and the wedding ceremony should not be too expensive. Even if you’re working with an extra tight budget, everything’s possible.

Conclusion

Nelly Perry

Dating Expert

“There’s no such thing as the average “Russia wife price,” you see. Some Russian women would be glad to have a coffee date with you in Starbucks in Almaty, while others would want to go to a fancy restaurant. Some Russian brides would be glad to get a bouquet, while others would like you to bring them a new smartphone as a gift. And, of course, the possible cost of a wedding ceremony matters, too (from $1,000 to $20,000). What we wanted to say here is that you don’t need to be a billionaire to meet a Russian lady and bring her to the US—in some cases, even $2,000 would be enough.”

Our Editorial Team

Written byNelly Perry, Dating Expert

Nelly is our experienced writer who clearly understands how international dating works. She has been using international dating apps for more than 3 years, and she has dating profiles on all the most popular services that exist in 2023. Nelly understands how to analyze information, how to test the websites, and how to find out what an average user of a dating website wants. As a certified writer with a master's degree in Writing and English Literature, Nelly has solid knowledge about delivering useful information to our readers.

Learn more about our Editorial Team