If a man from Saudi Arabia is married to his legally permissible 4 wives, how does that work if they come to America, to live or work?
Does the US recognize the multiple wives? If he dies without a will, how do his US assets get moved around.
Can an American move to Saudi Arabia, keep his American citizenship and come back with four wives of his own?
Need answer quick.
AFAIK, the US govt. only recognizes the first wife…the other three are just a couple of women that’s hanging around.
BTW, The Fundamentalist LDS Church advises it’d adherents to take advantage of this: Sister Wives apply for Government Assistence, since the are classified “unmarried”, they and their children are destitute.
It is a practice known as “Bleeding the Beast”:rolleyes:
There is no law in the US against “having” two wives. Bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. As long as he did not do that while under US jurisdiction, it is perfectly legal. If he wanted to become an American citizen, that would probably be an impediment.
If he dies inttestate, the probate court can do whatever they wish, regardless of his nationality or marital status.
No, an American cannot move to Saudi and marry a second wife. First of all, there is no provision in Saudi Arabia for a civil marriage, so under Saudi law, it would not be permissible for a foreigner to marry without the authorization of the Saudi government. Saudi Arabia recognizes the civil rights of non-Muslims residing or visiting in their country, but does not go as far as granting them privileges if Muslim traditions.
Am American friend of mine in Jordan married a British woman there, and there was no way they could do so under Jordanian law. The US Embassy formalized their marriage, in the embassy, which they would not have done if he had been already married to someone else.
You’re assuming that the American in question is a non-Muslim. And there are surely other localities in the world which allow polygamy and which do not require the partners to be Muslims (though they might have other requirements instead).
Something similar happened in Canada - a fellow immigrated from Afghanistan with his immediate family, his wife and his “sister”. Obviously Canada’s vetting process for immigrant pedigrees etc. had some flaws, or the guy was rich enough to make things happen with documentation.
So when he got tired of one wife and thought the daughters were getting too uppity, they got to sleep with the fishes.
But short answer, the wife he liked was presented as his wife, and the other one was “aunt” and “domestic servant on visitor’s visa” (which doesn’t sound right to me). I recall during the trial it was mentioned she was presented as his sister for immigration purposes.
Thanks for the replies. It just occurred to me that I had no idea how this would be handled.
That does not jibe with this information provided by the US Embassy in Jordan:
It also does not jibe with the information provided by the UK government on getting married in Jordan:
Before they started recognizing them, the US government had no problem telling people in foreign same-sex marriages that their spouses were SOL in terms of immigration and such. I would assume that the wives beyond wife #1 would be in the same boat.
The one I referred to took place in 1975.
The US Embassy is no longer in the business of providing services of any kind for any traveling Americans. You can’t even renew your passport any more at US consulates abroad.
I cited that to illustrate that in general, it is very difficult for foreigners to marry abroad, although in some case, some countries consulates will still perform that service.
News to me. I renewed my passport here in Panama last year. In fact, the State Department website says:
Well before the 1970s, the US State Department was not in the business of conducting marriages at its embassies and consulates. The US State Department is not out of the business of providing services to traveling Americans.
You can renew your passport at most US consulates (and even those consulates that aren’t staffed for the usual citizen services hold periodic service visits from the citizen services section of the embassy above them and one of the services provided at such visits is passport renewal). What you can’t do, other than for an immediate emergency, is get a passport immediately; however, the consulate/embassy still does the application and adjudication of same.
And, since I mentioned emergency passports:
Those last two links are to the US Embassy to Jordan site. Oh, nifty fact about me: I was a passport agent and stationed overseas. Another nifty fact: Quite recently, 18 August 2014, I had visa pages added to my US passport at the US Embassy here in Beijing. I’m going to go with having visa pages added to my passport as a service provided to a traveling American.
For some cases, yes. In the case you specifically stated, no as the US embassies and consulates do not do that. Either your friend forgot that the marriage was done at the UK embassy or he simply confused getting the required statement from the embassies with getting married. Or you are mistaken.
By the way, it’s not all that difficult for foreigners to marry abroad. There may be a couple of extra steps, depending on local requirements, compared to what a foreigner is used to back in their country, but it’s not all that hard, obviously, as plenty of foreigners get married while visiting other countries.