Philippine and US Citizen getting married in UAE

[Blake and Cherry 0]

I don't usually post on forums for help but this question has been driving me crazy for a few weeks and I cant seem to find an answer.

I am a US citizen living in America and my fiancée is a Philippine citizen living and working legally in the UAE. I want to go visit her there but because of UAE's Islamic law you cannot even be in the same room together in private with a women who is not a blood relative or your wife.

So im planning on going to visit her in the UAE soon and we decided to go ahead and get married. We are both Christians.

My question would be is it even possible for us to be married in the UAE at either the US or the Philippine embassies?

And would the government of the UAE recognize the marriage as legitimate so we can avoid any issues with authorities during my stay there.

Any advice, help, or pointing me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!

[payxibka 10,047]

US embassies do not perform marriages

Not a K-1 fiance(e) visa general discussion topic.... moving thread

[belinda63 3,047]

Go to the embassy site as they usually have a link for how to marry in that country. I think the UAE has certain residency requirements but I am not sure, check the site.

[beejay 125]

I don't usually post on forums for help but this question has been driving me crazy for a few weeks and I cant seem to find an answer.

I am a US citizen living in America and my fiancée is a Philippine citizen living and working legally in the UAE. I want to go visit her there but because of UAE's Islamic law you cannot even be in the same room together in private with a women who is not a blood relative or your wife.

So im planning on going to visit her in the UAE soon and we decided to go ahead and get married. We are both Christians.

My question would be is it even possible for us to be married in the UAE at either the US or the Philippine embassies?

And would the government of the UAE recognize the marriage as legitimate so we can avoid any issues with authorities during my stay there.

Any advice, help, or pointing me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!

I use to live in the UAE (I am a US citizen) with my now husband (who is a filipino citizen). The UAE is not Saudi, you are allowed to be a room with someone of the opposite gender who you are not related to. Checking into a hotel together is another matter but unmarried couples have stayed in hotel rooms together.

I haven't lived there in a few years but some things can't be that different. As a previous poster said the US embassy will not perform marriages. Last we checked the Philippine embassy would only perform marriages for Philippine nationals. There are quite a few Catholic churches in Dubai I'm sure your GF is familiar with a few. We specifically looked into St. Mary's in Bur Dubai. I think we both had to be residents of UAE, but I can't remember for sure. Maybe if your GF goes and talks to someone they can update her on the current requirements. They also required enrollment in a 2 month (?) long class that was done on weekends or something. I can't really remember but again this is all stuff your GF can check at her respective church. Maybe she can even explain the situation and they can make some exceptions.

There is the possibility of getting married at the Dubai courts (a civil ceremony) but if your GF doesn't know anybody within in the courts she will probably get the runaround. We were never able to figure exactly how to do a civil ceremony through the courts, we only knew one person who said they had done it but they were much better connected than we were. We eventually ended up doing the K1 visa.

To answer your other question - if your marriage is recognized but the government where it was performed then it is recognized by the U.S. government.

I dont' know if any of this was helpful but ultimately we decided it was easier to apply for the K1 visa and get married in the US even though we were living together in Dubai.

Good luck.

[Stir it up 4]

I was just there visiting my girl, we researched getting married out there, its a difficult costly process. Its not so bad in UAE, but i wouldnt blatantly, be disrespecting their culture. at the same time, neither of you are muslim, so you know, live your life.