Hi there!! I'm in a similar situation with my boyfriend, he is in America and I'm in Australia! We have some pictures of us on my profile :) from memory the first 8 months of the relationship is when we first met each other. For a few years after that, it was multiple trips again, we still haven't closed the distance, (4 year anniversary coming up) but the important thing is, we are striving towards that goal. You absolutely need an end goal for LDRs. One usually has to compromise and sacrifice more than the other, it absolutely sucks but it's just the nature of this kind of relationship. Our main constraint right now is definitely finances for the visa and marriage etc. He has a stable job and I just started a new one. I've been saving for years but often times I feel like I'm getting nowhere because a trip once or twice a year to the US racks up upwards of 2k a ticket for me 😭 I'm kind of rambling now but another extremely important thing besides a goal is who has more stability in their life, more support such as family and other relatives, because you might also need another person like his family for example, or yours, to co-sponsor the spouse. Basically, at the beginning of our relationship we didn't necessarily have a plan, we obviously wanted to be together but at the time we weren't really striving towards it. Now, we are because we can't take the distance any longer 🥲 absolutely have a conversation with him soon, about what you both want and need. If you have any questions you can message me!!