Ok. It took me a few tries and many trips to find the right one. But she accepted to marry me after our first trip together. Therefore, there is some truth to the statement "It takes many visits and a lot of money." However, for me those other visits were to the ones who were not "right for me or I was not right for them" for one reason or another. The one I chose to marry, did not make me wait many trips and a lot of money. Even the ring was not very expensive, but for her it was (and still is) the most important thing I have given her all this time.
What I am trying to say is that in my opinion it works similar to local girls: when they feel that you are the right one, there is no need to wait. After one or two trips both parties should be very much on agreement that they want to be together ... hopefully happy, and hopefully forever (only time can tell).
If a man chooses right (like our friend Baron), she will be very happy to share her life with the man ... as soon as the man proposes a very serious and responsible outcome.
When I was corresponding with the "final" handful of ladies late last year, I carefully thought about the relationship I had with each. I carefully considered what we had talked about and how they reacted to when I said that I thought that we ought to start to talk about a meeting.
One had no reaction, two agreed (but they both had told be that they were looking to find a nice man and to improve their living conditions), one wanted to wait longer until a meeting, and then one took some time and then announced that she was indeed attracted to me and thought we should meet and begin exclusive correspondence.
She was the final one. She had built a nice life for herself and really did not want to leave Russia, still does think this. But we fell in love with each other and now she just wants to be with me. I have given her every opportunity to back out but in the end, we both want to be together. To compromise, I have promised that we will go back many times; we already are planning the return trip next summer.
Many men may not be so adept at correspondence and therefore need to go meet in person; others may be more able. There is no one right way. One must be honest and be themselves; the women will see the good qualities just as hopefully you see theirs.
Baron, I do hope your RW is one that you spend the rest of your life with but you will not know for sure until later in life and you look back...hindsight is always 20/20.
"Many men may not be so adept at correspondence and therefore need to go meet in person; others may be more able."
I disagree about 'needing' to meet in person. I believe in the 80/20 rule. 20% of a relationship can be built on correspondence and 80% is built after you meet, without that feeling of being physically in front of each other is.....how do they say, a million words cannot describe the feeling of meeting in person.
I have my own ways of finding my partner. To me, it is time that will be the true test. I wonder if the high percentage of breakups of couples that went through k-1 process has anything to do with the amount of time spent together before marriage. Recently, it seems many guys on this forum have started the k-1 process after first meeting with girl, some after second meeting all within 6-8 month period.
When I first came to this forum, I remember one time what nasfan told me, don't do something with a FSU girl that you wouldn't do at home. I definately would not marry/get engaged to a girl at home I have know for only a few months. Would you?? I do date younger girls at home, so that is why I have no problem with girls in late 20's early 30's. I am trying to be consistent.
Also, to me 'true love' takes time, it is a process, a long process. I think the word love is thrown around too easily. Love is love when it takes the test of time. Most everyone here was married at one time, if you can remember.....when you got married you were in love and this was 'the' girl and you would spend rest of your life with her.....ahh...I can hear it now...but this is different.....reeeally......
So, I will take this as an acknowledgement that everyone is different and there is no ONE way to do this. Some take their time and some take less time. The proof will come when they are together and are happry and the further proof is they stay together.
I don't know if there is such a high percentage of breakups of couples that used the K-1; if we only rely on what we read, we may only be hearing about the ones that went sour because all of the happy couples are busy being happy and have no reason to complain about it on a forum. Agree?
I haven't seen any real data on K-1 divorce rates...
But there is an "industry" in the U.S. of citizens making sham marriages with aliens for money. [This is not "scamming" -- there is no pretense of romance between the two.] Of course, this is illegal, but plenty of folks know how to "game the system." In my area (northern NJ), the going rate is $10,000 per marriage. It may well increase, because illegal immigration is becoming more difficult.
Of course, most of these marriages promptly end in divorce. So this commercial activity inflates the divorce rate: the divorce rate for marriages that weren't overtly created solely for immigration purposes, will be lower than the raw statistics show.
A couple of years ago I did see some statistics on Marriage/Divorce rate with women from the FSU. I'll see if I can find it again. It was slightly better than the divorce rate in the US, only a few percentage points though. What was significant in the study was after 5 years of marriage the divorce rate with women from the FSU significantly dropped,(30percentile) so that was a good indicator of the seriousness of some of the ladies.
Tomorrow is promised to no one, but there is a significant difference in the attitudes of the real ladies from the FSU and their domestic counterparts here in the states.
don't do something with a FSU girl that you wouldn't do at home. I definately would not marry/get engaged to a girl at home I have know for only a few months. Would you??
It has now dawned on me why my experience (knowing a women for only three months, then meeting her once, becoming engaged, then continuing to build on the relationship during the long visa process) is so different from the statement above.
Yes, when I was dating women in the US, I met them as a friend first and let the relationship go from there. Maybe I was totally naive but I guess I took it as being serious that when these women listed as serious looking for a husband and happy family and were committed to that. So I went into the process with that in mind, that we both were seriously looking for a partner and building a happy family that would last.
So all my correspondence with the real ones was always based on this premise, that the end goal was a happy marriage. And with the real women that I corresponded with, there was never a mention of I Love You or anything like that; we both knew that we couldn't say that so early in the relationship.
Yes, if I have the time, I'll let all know how it goes with me and my future wife and family. We are both very committed to each other and are both working very hard to get together.