[QUOTE=guizot]
But for official reasons, the only thing that matters is that the county and state have some kind of paperwork that says you’re married, regardless of any kind of ceremony you have gone through, and regardless of who presided over any ceremony.
And if some institution wants you to prove your marriage (such as an HMO, to get your spouse health care), they ask for a copy of the “marriage certificate.”
However, I’ve noticed that the IRS, when you fill out the I-90 or whatever that form is for payroll deductions, they say that if you’re “married” to a non-resident alien, it in effect doesn’t count, and you should consider yourself single.
So this makes me wonder: If I go on vacation to Lower Volta, and after getting drunk at some local shindig I “get married” to a local girl just because it seemed like a “fun thing to do,” and I return to California, is anyone going to know? Is anyone going to care (besides the girl from Lower Volta)?
[/QUOTE]
No, no, no. You’re all getting hung up on the paperwork, which is not necessarily required (though it can be very helpful).
In several US states and, I presume, in other international jurisdictions, they have what are known as “common law marriages,” which require no ceremony or paperwork at all. Under the basic common law provisions (may vary by jurisdiction), all a couple needs to do to be married (assuming they are legally able to marry) is agree with each other that they are married, live together as a married couple, and hold themselves out to the public as married. The instant they do all of that, they are legally married, just the same as if they had been through the full ceremony before the bishop at the cathedral with a thousand guests and all the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed.
If under the law of Lower Volta, all you have to do to get married is circle around each other three times and stick out your tongues, if you do do that with you Lower Voltan babe du jour, you’re legally married, and will remain so when you go back to the U.S. If the girl and her family come to the US with the video of the circling and tongue-sticking and a copy of the relevant Lower Volta marriage law, you’re stuck with her until death or divorce does you part.
On the I-9 form, that’s a immigration service citizenship/right to work issue, not a tax form. On tax forms, you just fill out your marital status and there’s no need to provide proof unless the IRS challenges you.
Edited to add: On common law marriage, it doesn’t matter how long you cohabit as a married couple. There is an urban legend that if you live together for seven (or some other number) of years, you’re married, but that’s false.
