TLC's 90 Day Fiancé is chock-full of drama. But while it may seem like the couples on
the show are being lured by the call of true love, those romances are actually being heavily
produced by the network. These are the strict rules these stars are forced to follow.
While you might think that appearing on 90 Day Fiancé would make the immigration process
a breeze, the show is hands-off regarding the actual visa process. Executive producer
Matt Sharp told Deadline,
"We're not involved in the immigration process. [We] find couples for the show that are already
in the process."
"This is, this whole thing is just crazy."
All couples must handle the legal side of things themselves, and the process is far
from simple. According to immigration company, Boundless, filing for a K-1 fiancé visa requires
a lot of paperwork as well as fees totaling more than $2,000. It also takes an average
of seven months to be approved, which means that 90 Day Fiancé stars have already put
in a lot of legwork before they ever appear on the show.
"Do you love Mike?"
"I have feelings that will grow to love. If we work on it, it will grow to love."
While you might think that couples are compensated well for their time on the show, in reality,
they get paid next to nothing. To make matters worse, payment can only go to the half of
the couple that has citizenship status in the U.S. The immigrant in the relationship
can't accept money since they're not eligible to work in the States.
As 90 Day Fiancé blogger John Yates told Newsweek, the stars reportedly make $1,000
per episode. The couples aren't doing it for the money, of course, but instead want to
share their journeys with others. And, yeah, some of them also may be after the publicity
boost that comes with appearing on the show. This is reality TV, after all.
"I understand she's looking to benefit herself and her career, but, we are married and we
should be considering each other's thoughts and values."
Even though 90 Day Fiancé is a reality show, not everything you see is exactly improvised.
While the stars don't have to be professional actors, they do have to be okay with scripted
scenes. It's no secret that reality shows are edited for dramatic effect, but on 90
Day Fiancé that means re-shooting scenes if necessary.
One especially uncomfortable moment on the show involved David's best friend, Chris,
asking David's fiancée Annie for massages as payment for giving the couple a place to
stay.
"I like Thai massage, so is that something that you would be cool to volunteer to give
me a massage or something by the pool, or…"
Chris's wife Nikki later revealed on a Facebook fan page that the entire scene was scripted
and that her hubby even had to repeat the line a few times when it quote, "didn't come
off as natural." David also said that he wasn't comfortable with the scene but wanted to play
nice with producers.
It turns out, not just anyone can appear on 90 Day Fiancé. In order to be eligible, all
couples must endure a thorough background check. Paul, who appeared on 90 Day Fiancé:
Before the 90 Days, revealed that the network does background checks on all its stars and
even conducts their own investigations into a person's past.
"I have a lengthy criminal record. I've been in jail, I've been in prison for numerous
things."
"Uhh."
One would-be 90 Day Fiancé star, Holly, told Dr. Phil that her appearance was cancelled
after just four days of filming, when her fiancé's background check reportedly didn't
turn up clean.
"I felt so betrayed. I locked myself in the bathroom."
But it seems producers do let some things slide. As Matt Sharp said on Reality Life
with Kate Casey,
"[We] try to be open-minded…Everyone's got some sort of history."
While it would be easy to assume that the 90 Day Fiancé couples are thrown together
through casting calls, they are, in fact, the real deal. Matt Sharp assured Deadline
that only couples who are in genuine, established relationships are allowed to appear on the
show.
"We were kind of flirting, and then one day, he asked me out."
Couples also have to be in a legit relationship because of the law.
"We need photos with our family."
As noted by Boundless, the couple must be able to prove the authenticity of their relationship
through evidence such as photos, correspondence, and even statements from friends and family
members confirming a true relationship. Couples must have also met in person at least once
in the two years before applying for a K-1 visa.
When couples join the show, they pretty much sign away their rights to controlling how
they are portrayed. This has led to some disgruntled stars, like Larissa, who lashed out on Instagram,
alleging that she was unfairly portrayed as a quote "gold digger" and that much of her
story was "fabricated merely for ratings purposes."
"I just want to money. Money, money, money, money."
Still, if couples don't like how they come off on the show, they're pretty much stuck
with an ironclad network contract. Mark and Nikki attempted to sue TLC in 2017 because
they didn't like how their relationship was spun, but had no luck. Starcasm reported the
case was thrown out, since the couple had signed a contract allowing the dramatic editing.
"You're putting fingerprints on my windows?"
"That's not allowed?"
"That's not allowed. No, that's not allowed. That's one of the rules for my children."
In exchange for a season's worth of fame, the stars of 90 Day Fiancé must hand over
their privacy.
"...everything. I hate everything."
And cameras catch nearly everything as they roll almost constantly throughout the couples'
90-day journeys.
"You went to lawyers. To talk about getting a divorce from me."
"No I didn't."
Famously divisive former star Jesse revealed on Kate Casey's podcast that filming lasted
as long as 12 hours a day. And Season 5's Molly told The Wrap that, eventually, she
didn't even notice the cameras following her around, adding,
"You're really living your life and really going through the motions."
And that's true, for better, or for worse.
"I've had about all I can take with this dumb s--- and this s---. And I'm about to snap."
One of the strangest rules of the show seems to only apply to the women. For years, fans
have noticed that the ladies of 90 Day Fiancé tend to sit in a certain odd position on camera,
and it's no coincidence. In the comments of an Instagram post from 90 Day Fiancé star
Anfisa, a fan asked why she was always shown sitting with her legs elevated during her
confessionals. She revealed,
"Producers make all women on the show sit like this…I hate it."
In Touch Weekly noted that many of the women, particularly the younger, more attractive
ones, did indeed sit in this position during the confessionals, but as for why their knees
have to be in the shot, your guess is as good as ours.
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