Weddingbee boards

Nybride09 - I am an American citizen, and my man is a Turkish citizen. We will be filing a marriage certificate and having a legally-binding wedding in both countries. He does not think this is necessary and believes that we should only get married in the country where we will live (Turkey) BUT, being the pragmatic attorney that I am, I have horrible dreams of divorces and child custody issues and citizenship matters and travel issues if we do not have a legally binding marriage in both countries.

To answer your question, no, marriages are not internationally recognized. You must make sure that if you are having a wedding the States and want it recognized in your other country (or having a destination wedding for example by a native officiant to that location) that all correct procedures are followed and all correct applications are made or it will only be binding in the particular country where it was conducted (provided that the proper procedures were followed for that country.) You will need to get specific instructions from the Embassy/Consulate for how to make a single wedding in the States conform to the requirements of the other country. Personally, we are choosing to forgo the headache of making sure everything is binding in both countries by having a civil ceremony in each. This works out well also for many of our family and friends who cannot or will not travel overseas for one wedding or the other.

All this being said, IF you have little to no contact with the other country and never plan on living or working there and/or if you are not going to give your children that citizenship, too, I do not know why you might want to be married in both. For us, I can imagine a world where I would want to return to the US, so that’s why I am insisting on being legal in both.