Analytical Essay on the Reality Television Show 90 Day Fiancé

90 Day Fiancé is a reality television show that offers a look into the world of international dating and marriage. The couples on the show are usually a male living in the United States and foreign partner coming from another country. The premise of the show is that foreigners will travel to the U.S. to live with their overseas partners for the first time using a special 90-day fiancé visa, the K-1 visa. The K-1 visa process begins with the American person meeting with the person seeking the visa. They can meet inside or outside the United States and then send a request of I-129F with proof of meeting and relationship. From there they must do the biometrics process, which involves body measurements and calculations. After passing, it is sent to the embassy of the person receiving the visa. The foreigner then files for a visa after completing the biometrics process. Until their visas expire in 90 days, the couples must marry, or the visiting spouse must return home. Throughout those 90 days, the couples must resolve language problems, cultural changes, and doubtful friends and family. Such couples are forced to make a life-changing decision in such a short amount of time: either get married or break up and go home.

Since 2014, TLC's 90 Day Fiancé has brought attention to the K-1 visa experience. The first episode aired on January 12th, 2014, and the show has been a hit ever since, setting record ratings in 2017. Since the series was an instant hit in ratings for TLC, it created five spin-offs: 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?, 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days, 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way, 90 Day Fiancé: What Now? and the newly added The Family Chantel. The popular show comes with many factors that revolve around modern-day relationships, whether it's about how people meet nowadays, if people are actually in love or are using the person, and finally, the dedication and devotion a person is willing to put in towards a relationship.

In the show 90 Day Fiancé, how people meet is a big aspect of the series. There are many ways people meet their significant others nowadays. 39% meet their partner through a friend, 15% meet at work, 12% meet in public places, and 9% meet through online dating. Even though the storylines of the show most of the time are not always real, the couples on the show are. The couples on 90 Day Fiancé were together before the show, rather than a producer putting them together. Anfisa Nava, a participant in the show’s fourth season, said that since the couples knew each other before the show, the 90 days are just extra time for the couples to develop their relationship further. Nava said that when the show starts filming “you already know the person” and “[have] decided you want to marry them” (Gomez). Matt Sharp, the producer of the show, said: “We don't put people together, everyone we feature on the show, they found themselves organically” (Gomez). Although it is said that many people meet their partners through friends or family, it is different for a couple on 90 Day Fiancé. Because many of these couples live on completely different sides of the country most of the time, the way they find each other is over the Internet. There are many ways a person can meet another person over the internet, including social media websites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Another way is dating websites such as International Cupid, AnastasiaDate, EuroDate.com, and many more. There are other instances where the couples met in person first and fell in love. For example, in the first season, the couple Russ and Paola encountered each other in the country Colombia. Russ was on a work job that was located in Colombia, which allowed him to meet his future wife there. Another couple in season one that met in person first was Alan and Kirlyam. Alan is a Mormon and he was on a mission in Kirlyam’s hometown in Brazil when they first met. As for the other two couples in the first season. Louis Gattone Jr. met his significant other through an online dating website. Lastly, Mike Eloshway met his significant other Aziza on a translation website. The variety and diversity of how the couples on the show find each other help show us that in the world today there are many ways a person can find their significant other, whether it is through friends, family, work, online, gathering, or events, it is possible to find the right person for you. As well as the variety and diversity of how the couples on the show find each other help show us that location and other barriers do not have to be a factor in stopping two people who love each other from being with each other. Even though the show is about finding the right partner for you, it is very different from all of the other dating shows. For example, shows like The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Love Island, and many other dating shows revolve around the aspect of singles who have come looking for the right person who is also single. Unlike 90 Day Fiancé where the couples already are in a relationship and are trying to figure out if they are a perfect match for each other. Even though at the end of The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and 90 Day Fiancé the couples are supposed to get married, unlike 90 Day Fiancé, in The Bachelor and The Bachelorette there wouldn't be any consequences if the couples did not get married, while in 90 Day Fiancé, one of the couples would end up getting deported.

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Another big aspect of the show 90 Day Fiancé is whether people are actually in love or are in it for something. Because of the premise of the show and how the only way they can get a visa and stay in the United States is if the couple gets married it makes many of the viewers, friends, and family members skeptical of whether the love that couples feel for each other is actually real or it is fake and the only reason they are doing this is for the visa and the ability to become a citizen of the United States of America. Although relationships on 90 Day Fiancé are very questionable whether they are real or not, most of the couples that have been on the show are still together. Executive producer Matt Sharp stated that “we've only had three divorces out of every 25 couples on 90 Day Fiancé”, explaining that those numbers are actually better than America's current divorce rate (Gomez). A reason that the couples on the show stay together for a long time could be the motivation for getting a green card. That helps couples stay together long enough to walk down the aisle and be married for at least two years. The U.S. government does not just give the foreign partner citizenship straight away. The U.S. citizenship process is long and complex. The K-1 visa only allows the foreign partner to enter the country and allows them to marry their fiancé within three months. It does not give them citizenship, but once the couple is married, they earn their green card that has to be renewed for them to stay, but after around three years, they receive their green card without conditions and are able to stay in the United States for the rest of their life even if they got divorced. A green card does not necessarily equal U.S. citizenship, contrary to what some may believe. The foreign partner generally has to live with their significant other for at least three years before applying for citizenship, they also need to be a green card holder. According to the USCIS website, they have to have been living in a marital union with a U.S. citizen spouse for those three years and up until examination on the application. Using their partner for United States citizenship is one of the ways the foreign partners could scam their significant other and not be in the relationship for love, but in fact are just in it for their own good. Another thing is that fans depict the foreign partners as scammers and gold diggers on Twitter, Reddit forums, and even on the show's own Facebook site. Though that sounds a bit unrealistic, things like that have happened on the show. For example, in the fourth season, one of the most known couples on the show Jorge and Anfisa who have gone viral on YouTube and other social media platforms, went through this experience during their time in the relationship. The warning signs started when Anfisa would not agree to meet Jorge until he takes her on a very pricey vacation around Europe. When Anfisa was scheduled to come to the United States, she ended up asking Jorge for a $10,000 handbag. When Jorge refused to buy her the handbag, Anfisa removed his phone number from her phone and then canceled her flight to America. After the couple made up, Anfisa agreed to travel to the United States to do the show and live with Jorge. After living together for a while, Anfisa agreed upon the fact that she was only interested in Jorge so he could take care of her. She also claimed that she was willing to use Jorge for his money, justifying it by saying Jorge was primarily interested in her looks and wouldn't want to marry her if she was ugly. Another relationship that went through this was Narkyia and Olulowo, which also took place in the fourth season. Friends and family of Narkyia were suspicious about Olulowo and were scared about him being involved in a romantic scam, they believed that Olulowo was in it for money. Narkyia began to have those same doubts which led to the breakup of the couple. This portrays how an aspect of the show 90 Day Fiancé is whether people are actually in love or are in it for their own gain.

Lastly, another aspect of the show 90 Day Fiancé is the dedication and devotion a person is willing to put in towards a relationship. This can be extremely difficult to do because, during the 90 days on the show, couples are going to have to resolve language problems, cultural changes, and doubtful friends and family. This is a great way to show the dedication and devotion the couple is willing to put in towards their future as well as current relationships. One example of that is the couple Russ and Paola in the first season of the show. At the time Russ was living with his parents, and when Paola came to spend her 90 days in the United States, she had to also live with Russ’s parents. The mother of Russ was always very skeptical of Paola and gave off the impression that she didn't like her. This is something that Paola had to put up with because she was dedicated to the relationship. Another thing was that the parents made Paola sleep in a different room than Russ, even though Paola didn't like that she decided to accept the family's culture and sleep in a different room because she was devoted to Russ and wanted their relationship to last. She also had a difficult time connecting with Russ’s friends at the brunch they had because she felt like their culture was different as well, but she decided to brush that away as well. Another example would be the relationship between Alan and Kirlyam. Kirlyam still was trying to acclimate to the culture, as well as learn the language. To help her Alan decided to label the things around the house so she could learn the language. He also was very sincere and cared a lot to help Kirlyam with the culture shock she experienced once leaving Brazil and coming to the United States. That showed his dedication to the relationship. Also since Alan was a Mormon during the nights, he got his close friend to sleep near him and Kirlyam to make sure they do not do anything before marriage. Even though Kirlyam was confused she accepted it because she was devoted to their relationship. The same thing goes for Mike and Aziza, a couple in the first season. In the season, Aziza states that she feels like she came to a completely new world, but she is willing to be patient because she believes that in the future it will be worth it. That shows how she is willing to work through thick and thin for her relationship. The couple Louis and Aya who was a part of the season one premiere also had difficulties in their time together. At the beginning of their relationship, Aya asked Louis to move to the Philippines and come live with her. After learning that Louis has two young sons that he has joint custody of, she was willing to give that up and decided to live in the United States. This shows how much she cared for Louis and that she was willing to give up staying in her home country just because of Louis’s kids. This portrays how an aspect of the show 90 Day Fiancé is the dedication and devotion a person is willing to put in towards a relationship.

Throughout the show’s many years of airing, 90 Day Fiancé offered viewers a unique look into the world of international dating and marriage. By catching its viewers by the hook with the show's premise of having foreigners travel to the U.S. to live with their overseas partners for the first time using a unique 90-day fiancé visa and having to marry within 90 days or take the risk of getting deported back to their country. The popular show came with many factors that revolve around modern-day relationships, whether it's about how people meet nowadays, if people are actually in love or are in it for something, and finally, the dedication and devotion a person is willing to put in towards a relationship.