Karma

A question: Can a Muslim man from Pakistan who is married to a Muslim woman from Pakistan (both are living in Pakistan) marry a single woman living in U.S.? According to his religion he can have up to 4 wives. Would this be a legal marriage in Pakistan and United States if all filing was done properly? Any help would be appreciated!

Folinskyinla

Hi:

An excellent question. You don't say where the second marriage would occur.

You could NOT marry the second wife in the US -- it is simply not allowed in any state of the United States. In fact, there have been prosecutions for bigamy in Utah against people who believe that the "true" Later Day Saints religion allows for plural marriage.

Now lets say the marriage takes place in Pakistan and Pakistan follows Islamic law in these matters. The marriage would then be quite legal under Pakistani law and would be recognized there.

Now, would the United States recognize this marriage which quite legal in the place where celebrated? After all, the general principles of "Conflicts of Law" on marriages would indicate it would. For purposes of immigration, the answer is "NO."

The issue came up some years back regarding a Jordanian plural marriage under Islamic law in a case called Matter of Darwish.

I was consulted recently by another attorney regarding a similar situation involving Muslim marriage in East Jerusalem [choice of WHOSE law was easy -- Israeli, Jordanian and Ottoman Turkish law were all in agreement -- look to Shaira, so we neatly sidestepped the political issues invovled]. The complication was that Muslim husband married wife #1 under Muslim law, then married wife #2 under Muslim law, and THEN divorced Wife #1 under Muslim law. To further complicate things, husband was now resident in Texas. Husband was unwilling to travel to Intifada II but wanted to get his wife out.

It was a question without clear answers, so the lawyer in Texas filed BOTH an I-129F fiance and an I-130 and told INS to decide, one or the other. Both petitons still pending at TSC. Unfortunately, its dangerous to make INS think.