u/kkk_mrlb

I’m 22F and I met a 29M online through a language-learning app. We’ve been talking for about 9 months and live in different countries. We’re not officially in a relationship, but there has been mutual romantic interest, and we’ve talked about meeting and potentially becoming a couple.
He has invited me to meet him in another country a couple of times. At the time, I wasn’t financially able to travel internationally, and he knew that. I never expected him to pay for me. Later, we discussed potentially meeting during a specific month, but we still haven’t made concrete plans.
At one point, he told me he felt like he was the only one trying to make something happen. I explained that I genuinely wanted to meet him but simply couldn’t afford international travel at that time.
He has told me more than once that he likes me. However, his communication can sometimes be inconsistent: he may take several hours to reply and occasionally not message for a day. I have no concrete reason to believe he is seeing someone else, and I understand that people have different communication styles. Still, the inconsistency sometimes makes me question how invested he actually is.
From an outside perspective, does this sound like a connection that could realistically develop into a relationship if we eventually meet? Or does it seem like one person may be more invested than the other?
I’m mainly looking for an outside perspective on whether this situation seems to have genuine potential, and how much weight I should give the fact that we have been talking for 9 months without meeting yet.

I’m 22F and I met a 29M online through a language-learning app. We’ve been talking for about 9 months and live in different countries. We’re not officially together, but there has been mutual romantic interest, and we’ve talked about meeting and about “us.”
He has invited me to meet him in another country a couple of times. We have very different financial situations, and at the time I simply wasn’t in a position to travel internationally. He knew that, and I never expected him to pay for me. Later, we talked about potentially meeting in a certain month.
At one point, he said he felt like he was the only one trying to make something happen, so I explained that I genuinely wanted to meet him but couldn’t afford it at that time.
He has told me more than once that he likes me. At the same time, he can sometimes take several hours to reply and occasionally doesn’t message for a day. I don’t have any concrete reason to believe he is seeing someone else. His communication can simply be inconsistent at times, and I’m trying to understand how much weight I should give that when looking at the situation as a whole.
We’ve talked about wanting to meet and about “us,” but we haven’t made concrete plans yet.
From an outside perspective, does this sound like a connection that could realistically develop into a relationship? Or does it seem like one person may be more invested than the other? I’m mainly looking for perspective on how this situation might look from the outside.