The first trip changes everything
Most couples who go the distance follow the same arc. Months of live chat and video calls establish whether the values line up, and then one person books a flight. Unlike relationships that form through proximity, an international relationship demands deliberate action at every stage - flights, paperwork, calls across time zones, explaining the relationship to family.
That effort is not a drawback. Relationship research on the investment model holds that commitment deepens as people invest resources they cannot easily recover, and international couples invest heavily from the very beginning. By the time a couple meets at arrivals, both have already proven their intentions in a way a local match rarely has to.