Marriage Laws of the United States
Friday, July 31st, 2009In the United States, Marriage laws differ from state to state. A man and a woman, whose marriage was performed in a different state, will have their marriage recognized in the state they go to, provided the laws from where they came from were followed to the letter. United States is through a lawful marriage to a U.S. citizen. As a result, the Immigration service saw many sham or business marriages. To protect the agency and the country from fraudulent applications and marriages, Congress passed Immigration Marriage Fraud Amendments of 1986. In the United States, each state has its own law on the legal age of consent. Those under the legal age may still be eligible for marriage so long as they are given signed parental consent. All but two states require a couple be age 18 in order to marry without parental consent. Nebraska sets the age at 19 and Mississippi at 21 at the time of this writing (May 2003). A few states will waive this requirement if there is a pregnancy involved, but the couple may still have to have court approval.