As a beginning they will always offer you to become a member. You would be required to pay a certain sum of money, and then to sign a contract with the marriage agency. After that you become an exclusive member of the club that enables you to use many services free-of-charge and without any limits. If you do not wish to spend money on registration, you can use paid one-time services. You will be always offered catalogues of foreign men with brief details of each; your profile would be placed in marriage catalogues abroad; if you agree, they would put it online; you would get an opportunity to attend meetings with foreign men in Moscow; a translator, a guide and a lawyer are always at your service. An agency would help you to get a visa, too.
Workers of marriage agencies, unfortunately, cannot guarantee that your quest would finish with a marriage. They also believe in destiny when dealing with such a delicate business. If you are lucky, you will find the prince, but if you are not - you won't. It is them who become witnesses of a young and beautiful girl waiting for success much longer than a plain woman of forty. In fact, it is not a matter of looks at all. Many men are interested in some intelligence apart from a straight nose and arched eyebrows. To tell the truth, the super-clever and business-minded ladies seldom find their destiny in such agencies. Foreign men had enough of these man-haters and among Russian women search first of all for kind wives that put family on the top of their priority list.
A big mistake is to rely on your appeal and charm. You cannot communicate everything using only sign language, therefore knowledge of at least one language is also a necessary condition. All the same, who is most lucky in such business? First of all, the optimists. They patiently wait, trust and hope. In most cases the ladies addressing international agencies do not really wish to sit at a home baking pies, growing flowers and arranging picnics for the husband's colleagues. Many of the women are professionals with good careers that do not want to be in the background. That is why the first question you have to ask yourself is "what am I going to do THERE?"
The greatest interest to Russian women is shown, naturally, by the USA, then Canada, Germany, Yugoslavia and Australia. A while ago Scandinavians were very active in this respect, but now their activity has slowed down considerably. As for mentality, Russians are very similar to the French. The customs go pretty well with those of Americans and Canadians, much worse - with those of Germans and Scandinavians. The latter would not tell you how much money is there on their bank account, and you would pay half the price for anything you buy. If the wife does not work, she would have to report everything she has bought.
The Swiss government endorses the policy of open borders, thus a lot of Russian emigrants live there, and the attitude to them is very tolerant. But before marrying a Swiss citizen, you had better learn what his calmness really means. For us this calmness is similar to indifference. Russian women miss guests coming round for some vodka and small talk. If the Western man does drink, he prefers bars. Even if he wants to have a drink at home, he does it all alone, in front of the TV. There are cases when people from different countries have a good marriage. However, there are often financial reasons behind this.