If we were to get a civil union in Portland, would I then be able to stay as a legal spouse?

Submitted By: Fabulous Rob on April 1, 2011 No Comment

Q

My husband is from Portland and I am from the UK. We have a civil union in the UK but since I couldn’t get residency in the US we eventually moved to New Zealand to live together. We are ready to return home to Portland. If we were to get a civil union in Portland, would I then be able to stay as a legal spouse?

A

Let’s start with whether you may register once you get to Oregon. Once your husband is again a resident of Oregon, you will be permitted to enter into an Oregon Registered Domestic Partnership and you should regardless of the civil union in New Zealand. Your NZ civil union may or may not be recognized in Oregon. Because it is not a “marriage,” Measure 36, which prohibits recognition of marriages validly performed for same sex couples, does not apply. But, there is no Oregon law or other guidance regarding recognition of other jurisdictions’ civil unions or registrations. We have had judges in Oregon agree to dissolve registrations and civil unions from other jurisdictions, which requires a certain level of recognition of the registrations and civil unions. Because, however, it is not clear that your civil union would be recognized for all purposes, and because there is no impediment to having the Oregon registration concurrent with your NZ civil union, I recommend you register.

The bigger question is whether registering in Oregon will assist you in immigrating to the United States as a spouse of a US citizen. The answer, right now, unfortunately, is no. The impediment is the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. You may have heard that President Obama will no longer use the Attorney General’s office to argue that DOMA is constitutional. However, as I noted in my last post, the law remains in effect. Your husband is not recognized as your “husband” for federal purposes in the United States, regardless of due to the civil union in NZ or registration in Oregon. That means you may not immigrate to the US and become a US citizen as a result of being the spouse of a US citizen. I’m sorry. The good news is, I don’t expect DOMA to remain the law much longer, although every day is another day of blatant unjust discrimination that hurts happy couples such as you and your husband.

Beth Allen of Beth Allen Law specializes in families and business owners in Oregon and Southwest Washington who want fairness and focused results. We represent traditional and untraditional families, including GLBT families.