About Russian Marriage Agencies
The word “marriage” is used more popularly in Russia than perhaps in US or other Western nations. You will commonly come across terms like dating agencies, dating websites, or introduction services but not marriage. I was quite happy to see that Russia uses the word in exact terms.
Since I wanted to find a wife in Russia, I didn’t want to opt for a service agency which does not work with the intention of marriage. Dating and/or simply getting introduced to a girl was insignificant to my mind as I had reached a point of time where I was planning to get settled and was in search for a compatible life partner.
Though, one will agree that most marriage bureaus do nothing more than just making the interested parties meet. What happens later on depends on the couple as to whether they would remain friends, have a casual fling for a couple of weeks, start dating or will get married by involving their respective relatives and taking their approval.
However, I think that when you meet women from a marital bureau, you can go ahead with the girl knowingly that you are interested in nothing apart from marriage and that if you do not like the girl in terms of being your potential wife, then there is no harm in rejecting her and looking for a next option.
Most of these agencies are owned locally in the CIS. Since I was located in US, I had to use the internet to get the initial introduction done. Most of these marriage agencies are owned by Russian wives married to Western men and have affiliations with some local agency in Russia who provide the women. The women come from Russia and even other USSR countries like Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Uzbekistan.
As soon as the guy sitting in a Western country shows interest in getting hitched to a Russian woman, he visits the marriage bureau that has connection with another local marriage bureau in the CIS nations. With the internet as the medium, the local agency makes the introduction between the prospective Russian bride and the Western man sitting in two distant lands.
When the first round is cleared and both parties have decided to take the matters ahead, the second round comes up when these agencies again have a role to play. By paying a certain fee, these marriage agencies also help in arranging for your marital papers so that the entire process can be executed without any doubts and hindrance.
Other services provided by these agencies are the translation services which make correspondence and communication simple and smooth. In case you want to send a special gift to your woman in Russia, the agency will once again help you in choosing and delivering the gift to her hands.
Some of these service bureaus have been in the business of finding potential wives for years. Once you enroll your names and provide your contact information, you can hasten your search for a Russian wife and land up with a settled life sooner than you could have ever imagined.
I want to point out that even though the term Russian Mail Order Bride is used extensively, it is a complete insult to the vast majority of Russian women who are looking for husbands. Of course they look for security and family, but not for a price. They look for love, real love from the man they would like to marry. So the term itself is completely out of date and an insult to modern women.
Thanks to David in Brighton, UK for his interesting story. (Editor)