New question about marriage between Canadian and American

[faiths]

My daughter is a dual citizen. She was born in the US. Her father (my husband) is an American and a I am Canadian. We live in Kansas.

She has lived in Canada for the past year as a dual citizen. She has a US birth certificate, a certificate of Canadian citizenship, and two passports (US and Canada).

She has had no trouble, since she has had two passports, crossing the border. The US does not request her Canadian passport (her car continues to have KS license tags). She enters Canada by showing her Canadian passport, but Canada often requests her US passport, because of her car. She has also had no trouble with them since she has had two passports, although Canadian Immigration kept her for two hours when she crossed the border, with only an American passport, to do her prospective student visit. She is currently a sophomore (2nd year) university student.

Her fiance is a Canadian citizen. They plan to marry in her home community, in Kansas.

Are there things we need to know regarding making the marriage legal? We have been told that, due to his citizenship, that might not be able to happen in the US. They are considering having their church wedding here, and then marrying legally in Canada, following their return home. However, life would be simpler if they could do both here, at the same time.

I've done some searching on the web. Have found nothing helpful on US Immigration sites. May begin to look on Canadian ones.

Does anyone have information? Also, a good link?

~ Faith

 

[ImmigAttyLana]

There is nothing preventing a Canadian citizen from getting married within the US to a US citizen. You need to find out the specific document requirements for the specific county in Kansas where they plan to get married.

However, the marriage part is just the first part. For the Canadian spouse to be able to legally reside and work in the US after the marriage, your daughter would need to petition him for permanent residence on the basis of the marriage.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions or how I can be of further assistance to you in this matter.

 

[faiths]

Yeah; that's what I thought. Wasn't sure why they were concerned. I thought I'd mentioned in my post (but, neglected to) that they plan to reside in Canada following the marriage. He is a Canadian citizen; she is a dual (American/Canadian citizen). So, I don't expect any immigration problems.

Have contacted our county Court Services, and they see no problem with issuing a marriage license. We talked about what when the marriage license needs to be picked up, filed, etc. and what ID will be required. Driver's license (since daughter's Canadian fiance will not have a SSN) is adequate.

That doesn't change anything, does it, if they get married in the US, but, plan to live in Canada?

Thanks,
~ Faith

 

[cbg]

I am a dual citizen. I was born in Canada to an American mother and Canadian father. My parents were married in the US but they lived in Canada for the first thirteen years of their marriage.

Granted, that was almost 50 years ago, and there have been some changes in the law, but I can't imagine they've changed that drastically.