Agency takes ALL money

[Goombah]

Hi all -

I was chatting tonight about dating agencies with my Fiancee (now here with me for 38 days, wedding in 28!).  She met a lady coming to America on the flight from Moscow.  They were both the same age, both with daughters, and both coming to America on K-1 Visas.  They got along well as seat-mates...

I was informed tonight that this friend talked about her experience with several dating agencies.  All told her "any money you get will go to the agency - you will get your money when you marry American"! 

Combine that with the known habit of Agencies to write in lieu of the girls, and what a racket they have!

Kevin

[Vaughn]

Kevin,

Elvira and I spoke with Rob and Natasha last night - and I told them I thought you had already married. My mistake! Hope your wedding plans are coming right along!

With their very modest per-letter rates, our agency never made much off the correspondence, especially when we pared back on writing and stepped up the phone calls. Occasional gifts and flowers were another matter. That statement,

"any money you get will go to the agency - you will get your money when you marry American"! 

makes me wonder why so many guys allow the agency to run the relationship: correspondence, phone translations, flat rentals, vacation packages, dinner/train reservations, English lessons. One larger agency in my wife's hometown even offered "psychological services" as they coin the name, for a fee, of course. I'm not knocking free enterprise, but the individual's willingness (and IMO, shortsightedness) to buy into premium packages. What ever happened to paving one's own way?

[catzenmouse]

The agency that I met Elena through wanted me to send any money through  them and they would dole it out for her (to be safe of course and with  only a small administration fee for each transaction...) then they  tried to tell us that we must pay them a $300 flat fee for a "bride  price". From this and things I've heard from others I would not be  surprised by anything I heard about an agency in this business.

Ken


P. S.
Congradulations Kevin! Very glad to hear things are working out well for you!