How does the US Government / State know we're married?

[suitcasemonkey 0]

With my wife and I now settling in to our new life, her green card in hand, and several white hairs on my head - I'm being asked an interesting question...

Our marriage certificate is from the Japanese Ward Office, where we were legally married. Other than that document, we have no other legally binding record of our marriage (that I know of). Here's the questions my wife is asking me which I really have no clue how to answer:

-> How does the US Government know we are married?

-> What would happen (god forbid) if we had to get divorced? Can we legally separate in the US or must it be done in Japan?

-> Is there any way to obtain a marriage certificate in the US without having to get married again?

-> What prevents me (not my wife) from getting married again in the US if there is no record of our marriage in any US state?

Too many curve balls for me to try and catch tonight. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Edited May 14, 2006 by suitcasemonkey

[Artegal 1]

The US Government knows you are married--because you must submit copies of your marriage certificate to USCIS and the DoS (Embassy) with your visa applications and interview packets.

Divorce law is run at the State level not at the federal level so you need to check the specific law of the state you will live in for the information regarding if you wanted to at a later date get divorced or legally separated--but if this is a concern you have then maybe you should not have gotten married in the first place--and probably shouldn't have pursued a visa.

You can only obtain a certificate of your marriage from the place where you were married. You got married in Japan therefore you need to get your marriage certificate from Japan.

What prevents you from getting married again? Not sure I understand what you are asking--do you plan to break the law and marry someone else--which is bigamy and is illegal in all 50 states. So to stay out of jail should prevent you from doing that--but if your question is from getting married again to you wife--I don't think it is really necessary--but again state law controls marriages and so you need to check with the state in which you plan to live in the USA for specific laws regarding marriage.

Another way that people will know that you and your wife are married is by documentation--that is my wife had her last name changed to my last name on all her documents: Passport, National ID card from her country, SSN card, and on the Green Card.

Also in my case where I got married in Peru the court house that married us sent a copy of the marriage certificate to my court house here in the USA--my court house here forwarded the certificate to my home address and stated that my state (Georgia) does not keep records of foreign marriage certificates. So you might then ask if the state of Georgia does not know that I am married because they do not keep records then what would keep me from marrying someone else or something like that--its against the law so that would keep me from doing it--and when you get married or divorce you go before a judge or a representative of the court and swear (affirm) that you are legally able to get married or divorced etc. So you would probably be committing perjury if you tried to get married again.

Edited May 14, 2006 by Artegal

[meauxna 15]

With my wife and I now settling in to our new life, her green card in hand, and several white hairs on my head - I'm being asked an interesting question...

Our marriage certificate is from the Japanese Ward Office, where we were legally married. Other than that document, we have no other legally binding record of our marriage (that I know of). Here's the questions my wife is asking me which I really have no clue how to answer:

-> How does the US Government know we are married?

-> What would happen (god forbid) if we had to get divorced? Can we legally separate in the US or must it be done in Japan?

-> Is there any way to obtain a marriage certificate in the US without having to get married again?

-> What prevents me (not my wife) from getting married again in the US if there is no record of our marriage in any US state?

Too many curve balls for me to try and catch tonight. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I know I can't articulate this very well, but I'll make a stab at it.

In many other countries, births, deaths and marriages are kept track of in a national registry system. The US does not have that system; each of our States are like little countries in this respect--the info is recorded at the State level. There is no direct translation to a system like Japan's, but somehow we've managed to keep track of what we need to for our own ways.

-The US gov't knows you are married when you tell them so; on your tax returns or various other places where *you* state it. Otherwise, it's immaterial.

-You may divorce under the laws of your state and its residency requirements. You can legally divorce in the US even if you married elsewhere, as long as you follow your own state's guidelines.

-No, and there is no reason for one.

-The sworn statements that either party would provide in applying for a marriage license. I suppose if you lied on the license application, the ensuing marriage would be void. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we don't rely on Big Brother patrolling us in this regard (in the US), unless you count the NSA listening to and cataloging all your phone calls (yay Qwest!).

HTH