Already married to a US citizen in a foreign country - Should marriage be registered in the US?

[Ivaiting 0]

Hi. I was wondering if I have to get our marriage registered in the US. I am already married to a US citizen and am living in the US on CR1. We got officially married in a foreign country. Do I have to register the marriage again in the US? Is the foreign marriage certificate valid in the US?

Thanks in advance.

[Yodrak 7]

Ivaiting,

One doesn't live in the USA 'on CR1' - if you are living in the USA and entered using a CR1 visa then you are living in the USA as a LPR (probably a conditional LPR).

You do not have to register the marriage in the USA, if the foreign marriage certificate was not "valid" then you wouldn't have gotten the visa.

Yodrak

Hi. I was wondering if I have to get our marriage registered in the US. I am already married to a US citizen and am living in the US on CR1. We got officially married in a foreign country. Do I have to register the marriage again in the US? Is the foreign marriage certificate valid in the US?

Thanks in advance.

[pushbrk 12,884]

Hi. I was wondering if I have to get our marriage registered in the US. I am already married to a US citizen and am living in the US on CR1. We got officially married in a foreign country. Do I have to register the marriage again in the US? Is the foreign marriage certificate valid in the US?

Thanks in advance.

Married is married. Once is sufficient. One marriage certificate is sufficient.

[simple_male 1]

Hi. I was wondering if I have to get our marriage registered in the US. I am already married to a US citizen and am living in the US on CR1. We got officially married in a foreign country. Do I have to register the marriage again in the US? Is the foreign marriage certificate valid in the US?

Thanks in advance.

No, you don't need to register the marriage in US. Your foreign marriage certificate is good. And you are living in the US as a LPR (Lawful Permanent Resident), since you entered into the USA with cr-1 visa.

Edited July 6, 2007 by simple_male

[moonhunt 1]

Hi. I was wondering if I have to get our marriage registered in the US. I am already married to a US citizen and am living in the US on CR1. We got officially married in a foreign country. Do I have to register the marriage again in the US? Is the foreign marriage certificate valid in the US?

Thanks in advance.

When I check my county for same issue, they don't allow it because any marriage followed foreign law is considered as legal marriage in U.S.

So if you try to register it again, it is considered as duplicated, and the system doesn't allow it.

You may try to confirm with your local government, but by concept itself, you can not register your marriage if you already registered your marriage in somewhere else even if it is foreign country followed by foreign law.

[pushbrk 12,884]

The term "register" a marriage, can be a bit confusing. That's what it is called in China too, so I'm not knocking it. One must realize that the process of registering a marriage is also "getting married". In the US, we "get married". The process starts with a "license" and ends with signing some papers in front of a person with appropriate authority. It is called "getting married". If you are already married, you don't "get married" again but you can have all the ceremonies you want.

Hi. I was wondering if I have to get our marriage registered in the US. I am already married to a US citizen and am living in the US on CR1. We got officially married in a foreign country. Do I have to register the marriage again in the US? Is the foreign marriage certificate valid in the US?

Thanks in advance.

When I check my county for same issue, they don't allow it because any marriage followed foreign law is considered as legal marriage in U.S.

So if you try to register it again, it is considered as duplicated, and the system doesn't allow it.

You may try to confirm with your local government, but by concept itself, you can not register your marriage if you already registered your marriage in somewhere else even if it is foreign country followed by foreign law.

[LvivLovers 39]

I also wondered about this since I was married to my wife in Ukraine. I wasn't sure if we needed to do something additional in the USA to have our marriage officially recognized here like sign some forms, etc. But it turns out, there is nothing additional needed. If you need to prove your marriage, your foreign marriage certificate is all you need. It's probably a good idea to have this apostilled for use in the USA though as well as translated to English.