Georgia recognizes marriages performed in other states. The statute that says so also contains a trap and, since 2019, a safe harbor.
The General Rule
OCGA 19-3-43(a) provides that “[a]ll marriages solemnized in another state by parties intending at the time to reside in this state shall have the same legal consequences and effect as if solemnized in this state.”
That was enough to resolve Perry v. Perry, 173 Ga. App. 247 (1985). A Georgia woman married a South Carolina man there, under a license issued by a South Carolina probate court. After his death, his adult children attacked her year’s support award because the license had not issued in her county of residence, as Georgia’s licensing statute would require. The Court of Appeals rejected that: “This state recognizes the validity of marriages contracted outside the state of Georgia. OCGA ยง 19-3-43.”
You Cannot Cross a State Line to Escape Georgia Law
The same subsection adds that “[p]arties residing in this state may not evade any of the laws of this state as to marriage, including, but not limited to, the age limitations provided for in Code Section 19-3-2, by going into another state for the solemnization of the marriage ceremony.”
The reference to age limits was added by the 2019 legislation that rewrote Georgia’s marriage-age rules.
The 2019 Safe Harbor
The same Act added subsection (b), which matters to families who move to Georgia already married: “[T]he age limitations provided for in Code Section 19-3-2 shall not apply to a lawful marriage solemnized in another state or country prior to either party residing in this state.”
So the anti-evasion rule reaches people who were already Georgia residents. It does not reach a marriage that was lawful where and when it happened, before anyone lived here.
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!