Met someone from a different continent at a business event and we clicked. We did the facebook thing to say "hi", followed by emails and messages, then discovered we got on really well, had similar views and there was mutual attraction.
We arranged to meet up for a week in a different country for a holiday to see how we got on and it went incredibly well. For the next 18 months, we had a LDR, using whatsapp to casually chat and then we'd call each other after I finished work.
We're both lucky enough to have decent jobs that let us work remotely, so we flew over to spend time with each other whenever it was feasible. We'd try to alternate trips every month but sometimes it'd be every couple of months.
After a year, we decided we'd move in together or get married and we had to decide which country to move to. He always wanted to move here so that's what's decided but I'd have been equally happy to move to him as well.
Visa applications were a nightmare to get through, lots of solicitors are terrible at this. However, we ended up doing this ourself and he moved here 2 years ago.
I'm very happy and he tells me he is too, so it seems to have worked for us.
But.... bloody hell, LDR's are hard work. The time difference is a killer because one of you will always have to compromise to find time to talk. In our case, we both spent the best part of a year being sleep deprived until we managed to figure out a new schedule around work and commitments.
Like Bikinginsummer said - watch out for cultural differences. We had several arguments at first where neither of us could understand what was happening.
Even speaking the same language, we found that we used different words or different terms to refer to the same thing. We had a couple of arguments that ended with us realising we both had the same opinions but we used different language to express it.
It's lonely, you will miss them like hell and your lives never intersect with each other, so unless you can meet up, there's no shared experiences.
As relationships go, LDR's are comparatively very fragile. The only connection between you is the one you both feed every day with frequent contact and good communication. If you can't, it won't survive. Calls will slow down, effort will fade and if it goes cold enough - one day, one of you may just not call back. It's unsettling, expensive, scary, exhausting, awkward, inconvenient and draining but it was the single best choice I made.
On the plus side, the constant talking (which was 95% of the relationship when long distance) meant that we got to know each other really well. 2 hour calls turned into 5 hour calls, turned into 8-10 hour calls and we spent every minute possible talking to each other. Moving in together proved far easier than I'd ever expected because, by that point, we'd talked enough to know how the other felt about even the silliest things.
Also, there's no "falling into a relationship" with LD. You can't half-ass anything - everything is work and effort. But, when it works, you conclusively know that the other person wants you, like they know you want them because both of you are consistently making sacrifices to be with them and expending huge amounts of energy to make the relationship work. When someone does that for you, when someone will move countries to be with you, it's an amazing feeling.
But if both of you aren't entirely committed to this and don't see it as your top priority, it's unlikely to work. On the plus side, if you can get through the other side of an LDR and you're still together, you've got a great foundation on which to build an incredible relationship.
Stay strong, keep talking, be open and expressive and show vulnerability when they're opening up too. Best of luck to you 