# International Marriage Legitimacy



## drey93 (Jul 29, 2020)

If I married outside of the US and only did the religious ceremony but did not get the official governmental marriage license in the respective country, does the US consider me married or just engaged? Should I apply for a fiancé visa or a spousal visa and do the court ceremony here?

Thank you!


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## Moulard (Feb 3, 2017)

Does the country you had the ceremony in consider you married? 

If yes, then the USCIS will recognize it, if no, then they won't.

It may also be that the country you had the ceremony in recognizes that you are in a de-facto/common-law marriage.

If the country you are in recognizes common-law marriages, then you may still qualify as a married for immigration purposes.


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## Crawford (Jan 23, 2011)

Where did you get married?

For immigration applications you need official documents proving the marriage, so if you don't have a marriage licence you won't be able to prove this.


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## Crawford (Jan 23, 2011)

Moulard said:


> Does the country you had the ceremony in consider you married?
> 
> If yes, then the USCIS will recognize it, if no, then they won't.
> 
> ...


The USA does not recognize common law marriages though....


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## Moulard (Feb 3, 2017)

Except that it does... 



> 9 FAM 102.8-1 Marital Relationship
> 9 FAM 102.8-1(A) What Qualifies as a Marriage?
> 
> (CT:VISA-367; 05-26-2017)
> ...


<snip>



> *9 FAM 102.8-1(F) Common Law Marriage*
> 
> (CT:VISA-863; 06-17-2019)
> 
> ...


I grant you that the FAM was "retired" in May this year, so this is no longer authoritative, and I also grant you that this approach would be difficult as the burden would be is on the applicant to establish the bona fides of the relationship to a standard acceptable by the field adjudicator.

So it would not be an easy route to take, if there was an alternative is to walk into a registry office.


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## drey93 (Jul 29, 2020)

Thank you all for your feedback!


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## Crawford (Jan 23, 2011)

Moulard said:


> Except that it does...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Interesting.... as the US does not have an unmarried partner visa as the UK does, and you can only apply for a fiance or spouse visa, then having to prove your common law relationship (based on the rules of another country) would certainly prove onerous. Have seen many threads on immigration forums where responders have said being unmarried won't get you a visa and advised marriage.


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