Legal question help ! - Foreigners married in Vegas divorce

Do it anyplace except Vegas. Problem solved! No hassles. Can't imagine why she would even want to go back to Vegas (not knocking Vegas).

 

That is a really interesting question. Generally speaking there is reciprocity for the countries that signed onto the Hague convention of 1978 recognizing marriage. If your sister filed the appropriate paperwork in France after she got married in the US, her marriage should have been recognized by France. If that is true, then her French divorce would be recognized by the USA.

Where it gets messy is if she did not file the paperwork with France. In that case, France does not see her as married but the USA does. This happens a lot with destination weddings where the parties are non-citizens. They must file the appropriate paperwork with their home country (some even require a civil ceremony by a judge) to make it legal.

Hopefully your sister's marriage was recognized by France. If it was not, then she would need to have her USA marriage annulled or file for divorce. Las Vegas makes it pretty easy to get a divorce if that is required.

I'm not a lawyer but I have had several friends that did not do the paperwork when they returned from their "perfect destination wedding" only to discover years later when they wanted to get divorced.....they were never "legally" married. In one case, the "husband" kept postponing a local ceremony until his company finished their IPO so that she would not be "entitled" to any portion of the $5m capital gain.

 

My read of the law is that if she was properly divorced in France....that marriage is over. Marriage and Citizenship go hand in hand....meaning that your status in your home country generally dictates your status to other countries.

Vegas doesn't care how many times you have been married. Most of the US marriage applications require you to "affirm" the information contained in the application is accurate. This is the link to the Clark County website for a marriage pre-application that covers Las Vegas: https://clerk.clarkcountynv.gov/AcclaimClerkPreApp/

You will notice that the section for previous marriages just requires her to fill out the appropriate information. I would think that her passport and French divorce papers would address any documentation requirements. She can fill out the pre-application on-line which should highlight any other issues. I would contact the Clark County Clerk's office directly if any other issues arise.

I wish her all the best in her new marriage.

 

I got married in Vegas then moved here some years later. Lived here for over 10 years now with no regrets. It's great place to get married, Elvis treated us well and we have been married for 18 years. My youngest daughter came out here and got married at the Bellagio 4 years ago, really nice place to get married, no Elvis for that one. Extremely classy wedding. Like I say Vegas is a great place to get married, you can have any kind of wedding you want.

 

The French divorce counts. I would bring the divorce papers just to show the clerk if asked.

Bigamy or polygamy is rarely if ever prosecuted, and is usually only an issue to annul proceedings here involving people who have married in other countries split up and remarry here in the US.