Marriage Agency

International marriage agencies that provide spouse search services from other countries are experiencing a real boom . The wide distribution of the Internet makes it possible in the shortest possible time to organize the search and meetings of possible candidates. Internet agencies complement and supplant other forms of finding a foreign spouse through third parties, for example, ads in newspapers .

International agencies create databases that contain the minimum personal data of potential spouses needed to find the best candidate. As a rule, a special questionnaire is filled out for this. Agencies sell contacts through the website or organize meetings of potential spouses, during which they can better know each other. In cases where partners share the language barrier, they are provided with an interpreter.

Under international marriage agencies, organizations may be disguised for a variety of purposes. Sometimes they also act through legal marriage agencies, when their accomplice, organizing the collection of information for the purpose of subsequent blackmail or robbery, acts as a bride or groom. Most often this is prostitution and trafficking in human beings, and involvement in sects is also possible.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus also stressed that "in recent years, marriage agencies have become a source of human trafficking." “There are a lot of cases when a woman goes abroad under the marriage announcement hoping to find a family, and she is used for 2-3 months as a housekeeper, and then she is thrown out onto the street or sent to a brothel.”

- Two individual entrepreneurs , Interfax , have the right to engage in "marriage activities" in Belarus

The activity of marriage agencies, both legal and illegal, has become so noticeable recently that it has been reflected in cinema and academic research.

Significantly different from international and universal in essence, because personally know both sides and customer service is not one-time in nature.

The number of marriage agencies in Moscow in recent years has increased several times. Some are focused on business and successful people. The cost of services is from 2,000 rubles (for this money, your application form is simply entered into the database for several months) to 50,000 rubles (in this case an agreement is concluded for at least six months, with meetings about once a week, individual interviews and consultations are held). http://www.forbes.ru/forbes-woman/lichnoe-vremya/59763-kadrovaya-politika ^[1]

Representations of clients gathered at a marriage agency range from a few words in a questionnaire and dating evenings in a cafe to filming a full-scale portfolio and videos, demonstrations (or broadcasts) of video and radio interviews taken by journalists from clients, and the questionnaire is the most common, but the least reliable search criteria.

Contrary to stereotypes, most of the emerging pairs do not match for any of the key personal requirements for each other: by age or education, by height or relative to children - yet, personal sympathies (more tangible from photo-video materials) are always more important for the appearance of real feelings than those or other fad questionnaires.

Matchmakers know almost everyone and everyone can personally advise something, however, while gaining access to a representative and quite illustrated database of marriage offers, the majority of clients prefer to choose and call on their own. The matchmakers provide moral support and participation, simultaneously trying to adjust the values ​​and desires, trying to lead a person to the adequacy and normal tone not so much with his advice, as with a succession of meetings (clashes) with potential partners.

The databases proposed for search are usually not posted openly on the Internet or are published only partially “for seed”, including with direct personal phones. Moreover, even Internet access to databases and, moreover, closed contact information cannot simply be bought, unlike international dating sites, only by presenting a single passport to the matchmaker, as more and more clients turn to marriage agencies just after dating attempts on dating sites and social networks where all this happens uncontrollably.

If in online dating for serious relationships, the share of offers from married / married, fakes, marriage speculators, gigalos and prostitutes is usually about 90% (according to the estimates of the administrators of VK dating groups in 2016), the databases of local marriage agencies are cleared of such information almost completely, and almost no pampering.

In city reference books for the entire sphere of dating only one single rubric is started up and, no matter how it is called, “Dating Services” or “Marriage Agencies” - all types of organizations including agencies with girls for meetings are printed there.

Magazines of "dating" (for example, in St. Petersburg, motorists previously heard more than 5 items) - these are actually brothels' catalogs - such an obvious substitution of concepts has already affected the interpretation of the word "dating", making it indecent for agencies specializing in serious relationships.

Typical elite dating agencies for high society and VIPs can be attributed to this “universal” category. Their bright feature is a clear division into male and female.

In the male version of the elite dating - usually reduced to a catalog of the modeling agency girls, who are presented as owners of exquisite taste, impeccable manners and interesting companion. Escort, sponsorship, travel companion - everything is welcome, but sex is not stipulated in the contract with the agency, such an agency hints - these girls are not some kind of “prostitute” and everything depends on your gifts and courtesy.

In the female version, elite dating is most often a change in oneself: initiation to the high society through a club beautician, hairdresser, psychologist, massage therapist ... (the list is endless) and then there will be a decent man.

By the performance of a marriage agency you need to understand a very specific number - for example, how many agency clients a family creates per year. If you do not take into account the notorious fraudsters and one-day agencies (covering, apparently, the smaller half of the market for marriage services), even in stable marriage agencies, the efficiency varies greatly. Let us determine the background level: for an average unmarried woman in a big city, the probability of getting married within a year is about 3-5% (correct those who earlier will find accurate statistics).

The performance of some Moscow marriage agencies is 30-40 pairs per month.

The normal performance of a dating agency in St. Petersburg is 4-5 couples per year, which is about 0.3% of the number of clients accepted during the year (Information from the directors of 3 international agencies in St. Petersburg). The official statistics for Minsk is similar, where the activities of marriage agencies are officially registered:

“In Minsk, licenses were obtained by 10 marriage agencies. Two applicants for a license were denied, ”K. Blintsov said. At the same time, he clarified that from 2005 (2007 to 2007 - ed.) 15 marriage with foreigners were concluded with the help of marriage agencies in Minsk , over the past 2 years 40 foreigners came to Belarus for brides through marriage agencies.

Published (Unsolved) . Interfax (11.09.2007). The appeal date was December 19, 2008. Archived March 10, 2012.

• Dating service