How these numbers are calculated

Where each line item comes from

Ten line items make up a total. Each one has its own source and its own grade.

• Online communication. Credit prices from 9 platforms: 2 with published price lists, 7 through cross-checked 2026 reviews. We price three usage profiles on every platform's own tariff and take the median monthly bill: $75 for light use, $330 for average, $705 for active. Average use is 450 minutes of chat, 30 minutes of video, 4 letters and one gift a month; the median credit costs $0.40.
• Marriage agency. One published price list (Ukraine Brides Agency) and one agency priced through reviews; monthly totals for light, average and active use, plus $110 for contact details.
• Romance tours. The 2026 tour schedule of A Foreign Affair, the largest US operator: $3,695 for 7 days in the Philippines, Thailand or Colombia, $5,295 for Kyiv, flights and meals not included.
• Trips. Round-trip fares are 12-month averages from KAYAK and momondo for each of the 32 pairs; hotel rates are booking-site averages for budget, mid-range and upscale; daily spending is our estimate per city.
• Visas. Government fees only, form by form: USCIS fee schedule G-1055 and the Department of State fee table for K-1 and CR-1, IRCC for Canada, the UK Home Office for the partner visa, Australian Home Affairs for subclass 309. The medical exam is a range from panel physicians.
• Immigration lawyer. Flat fees from 2026 price lists of immigration firms, $1,500 to $7,000 for a K-1 with adjustment of status.
• Documents. Certified translation at $35 a page and apostilles at $60 each, from 2026 provider price lists, times a typical 6 pages and 3 documents.
• Wedding. Registry fees from national sources for each country; the small and full celebration figures are our estimates and are marked as such. Sin sod in Thailand is a range from Thai sources, $3,000 to $15,100.
• Relocation. Her one-way fare from the same aggregators, $600 for language classes, and about three months of support before she can work, $4,000 as our estimate.
• Prenup. Ranges from 2026 family-law fee guides for the US, Canada, the UK and Australia.

Three grades tell you how firm a number is

Grade A is an official page: a government fee schedule or a platform's own price list. Grade B means two or more independent 2026 sources agree; most platform tariffs and airfares sit here. Grade C is a single source or our estimate, and every C figure is called an estimate in the text or shown as a wider range.

We do not average A with C. When an official page and a review disagree, the official page wins and the review is dropped.

How the calculator adds it up

Each line item is computed three times, for a low, a typical and a high input, and the three sums become the low, typical and high totals. Line items are rounded to the nearest $50, totals to the nearest $100. The typical total is the number to plan around; low and high are realistic outcomes, not extremes.

A few rules sit inside the formula. The number of trips follows the timeline: one trip for 3 or 6 months, two for 12, three for 24, unless you set it yourself. An interpreter is priced for the first two days of each trip by default. A K-1 case puts the wedding in the US; a CR-1 case, and every non-US route, puts it in her country. For Ukraine the default meeting place is Poland; the Kyiv option adds rail from Warsaw and war-risk insurance.

The result you see on a page is the same result the calculator produces for that page's default settings. If the two ever differ, that is a bug in our build, not a rounding choice.

What the totals leave out

Form I-751, $750 two years after the green card. Vaccines missing from her record. A second request for evidence from USCIS. Gifts you bring in person. Income she gives up while waiting for a work permit. Your own time off work. Add these yourself if they apply; we left them out because they vary too much to state honestly as one number.

When the numbers were checked and when they change

Every figure was checked in September 2026. Government fee pages are re-read first at each refresh, then platform prices, then airfares and hotels; the full set is refreshed every quarter and the date at the top of every page moves with it. Texts do not change unless the meaning changed, so a page you cited last quarter still says the same thing with fresher numbers.

One limit worth knowing: airfare averages hide seasonality. A December trip to Warsaw or a Songkran-week trip to Bangkok can run 30% to 50% above the average we use.