Multiple Wives?

July 16, 2012 6:44 PM

How does US law handle foreign nationals (e.g. Saudis) who have legally married multiple wives? Could someone be prosecuted for bigamy? Could multiple wives get a green card? Would a foreign national be expected to divorce all but one wife should he become resident in the US?
posted by musofire to law & government (2 answers total)

Only the first-married wife would be recognized as the legal wife under US law (for tax, inheritance, and immigration purposes--see here). There would be no requirement to get a US divorce from the other wives; those marriages simply wouldn't be recognized under US law.
posted by Sidhedevil at 6:47 PM on July 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

This is not a complete answer to your question, but:

Under federal immigration law (8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(10)(A)) "Any immigrant who is coming to the United States to practice polygamy is inadmissible."

Under another federal law-- the Defense of Marriage Act, which is currently being challenged as unconstitutional-- whenever the word "marriage" appears in federal law, it "means only a legal union between one man and one woman." I recall that there is some theoretical dispute about how this provision applies to polygamy because polygamous marriages can be viewed as a single legal union with many participants, or as many two-person legal unions (man with first wife, man with second wife, etc.).

At the same time, U.S. law sometimes, sorta, recognizes the effect of a polygamous marriage. For example, a California case called Estate of Dalip Singh Bir held that a polygamous man's estate could be split between his two Indian wives. There is also a series of decisions from the Board of Immigration Appeals finding the children of polygamous marriages (even if not the first wife) to be "legitimate." (I found them in footnote 221 of this article and I won't try to drag them all up here, but you can go look if you're really interested in digging into this.)
posted by willbaude at 7:06 PM on July 16, 2012 [3 favorites]