Western Husband & Foreign Bride statistics

[CeeTeeEnn]

As a matter of interest and curiosity, I've been wondering if there are any offical or unofficial figures out there that account for the numbers of foreign women marrying Western men, based on the girls' country of origin and also the country collecting the statistics.

I saw and article somewhere that (IIRC) compiled a "top 5" of countries from where women were entering the USA (either as spouses of US citizens marrying abroad or on fiancee visas, I cannot recall which) and I recall Ukraine leading the field, China coming in second, followed by Russia, the Philippines and then Colombia. I also recall seeing some statistics relating to Thailand somewhere, stating that on average something like 10 marriage or fiancee visas are issued weekly to Thai girls entering the UK. However, these figures, if verifable, are only the official take and the real number is undoubtedly higher. The overwhelming majority of Anglo-latin and Anglo-Asian couples i know personally met here in London with the girls entering the UK on student or working visas with no "visible" aspirations of marrying anyone when they first arrived

If anyone knows of any such figures or statistics, i'd be glad if they would post them here or point me in their direction.

I know that this topic is not strictly Latin-related but as it certainly touches on the latin scene, i figured i'd post it here. Moderators, please move it as/if you feel necessary.

[Dan]

As a matter of interest and curiosity, I've been wondering if there are any offical or unofficial figures out there that account for the numbers of foreign women marrying Western men, based on the girls' country of origin and also the country collecting the statistics.

I saw and article somewhere that (IIRC) compiled a "top 5" of countries from where women were entering the USA (either as spouses of US citizens marrying abroad or on fiancee visas, I cannot recall which) and I recall Ukraine leading the field, China coming in second, followed by Russia, the Philippines and then Colombia. I also recall seeing some statistics relating to Thailand somewhere, stating that on average something like 10 marriage or fiancee visas are issued weekly to Thai girls entering the UK. However, these figures, if verifable, are only the official take and the real number is undoubtedly higher. The overwhelming majority of Anglo-latin and Anglo-Asian couples i know personally met here in London with the girls entering the UK on student or working visas with no "visible" aspirations of marrying anyone when they first arrived

If anyone knows of any such figures or statistics, i'd be glad if they would post them here or point me in their direction.

I know that this topic is not strictly Latin-related but as it certainly touches on the latin scene, i figured i'd post it here. Moderators, please move it as/if you feel necessary.

I think you may be confusing some things - BUT - we recently completed a first-of-a-kind wide-scale study of Cross-Cultural Relationships - and you can find the results (some of them) here -- http://www.goodwife.com/survey/xcultural_p01.html.

- Dan

[Bob_S]

Dealing strictly with Asian or Asian-American + Other marriages in the U.S., there is this link:
http://www.asian-nation.org/interracial.shtml

It's rather complicated (at least to my currently fatigued brain), so you gotta read it carefully to be able to data-mine anything meaningful out of it.

The USCIS probably has some statistics buried in its site about different types of visas and where they come from.

[utopiacowboy]

Most people think that the vast majority of marriages between US citizens and foreign nationals are the result of K visas, either the K-1 for fiancees or the K-3 for spouses. In fact K visas are a drop in the bucket of all such marriages. I think buried in the USCIS statistics is the fact that only 10% are K visas, the rest of them are adjustments from some other type of status such as tourist or student visas. In the case of visa waiver countries there isn't even a visa, many of them come under the VWP and get married even though technically that's a  no-no.

[Ray]

First, you won’t find visa statistics on the USCIS site because they don’t issue visas, the State Dept does.

The only Adjustment of Status figures I found for CIS were for 2007 showing that the leading countries of birth for new permanent residents were Mexico (14 percent), China (7 percent), and the Philippines (7 percent). Nothing on how many were fiancées or K-3 spouses.

Official State Dept. statistics show that for FY 08, the most SR-1 & CR-1 spouse visas issued, in order of number issued by area of birth, were from the countries of Mexico, Dominican Republic, Philippines, Vietnam, China, Pakistan, …

Russia and Ukraine were WAY down the list.

By region, the most spouse visas were issued for North America, Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, then Oceania.


For all categories of K-visas, the most came from Philippines, Mexico, Dominican Republic, China, Vietnam, Colombia, Thailand, India, Canada…

By region, the most K-visas were issued in Asia, North America, Europe, South America, Africa, then Oceania.


Ray

[utopiacowboy]

I haven't looked at the statistics in a while but it seems that the use of K visas has increased. In 2008 there were 34,863 K1/K2 (fiancees and children) and 15,694 K3/K4 (spouses and children). This number has increased quite a lot since the early years of this decade. For 2008, there were 235,000 spouses and 78,000 children either entering on immigrant visas or adjusting. At this point in time it looks like about one sixth of the spouses and children come on K visas. The leading countries are Mexico, China, DR, Colombia, India, Philippines, Jamaica  and Vietnam with Mexico's totals dwarfing all of the others.