Can I get married in two weeks as a U.S. citizen living in Yemen?

I would suggest contacting the US Consulate in Yemen and ask them what would need to be done to get married there. Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials!!!

Thank you!

The embassy is no help to Americans over here at this time. I tried to email them asking what to do and got an automatic response back that said they don’t handle that? They aren’t even letting Americans into the embassy. It is very dangerous for Americans to be here still and the embassy warns Americans to leave. I don’t know what they are doing in there? lol

I would suggest you contact the representative of your district in the United States then. Our Congressional Representative helped us out in a somewhat similar situation.

As far as the US authorities are concerned, all you have to do is satisfy the local laws for marriage. If Yemen approves your marriage, then you’re married in the eyes of the US.

At most, you may want to get the embassy to authenticate the marriage documents after the fact (for a fee), but even that isn’t actually required.

@thorninmud That is exactly what I am finding out. However, I am having trouble finding what the laws are for marriage in Yemen. When I google it, I find all these articles on child marriages and how it needs to be changed here. This has really given me a headache today! I will try and ask some of the Yemeni people that work in this area.

^Ditto what thorn said. I have a relative who got married in Paris. Both he and his wife are Americans, but they were married by French authorities. They returned to the US as husband and wife.

I think a marriage certificate is a marriage certificate. It would be up to the Yemeni government or maybe the local Cleric to decide if you can get married. I would start at a Mosk.

America will acknowledge and accept your marriage in Yemen. Think about it, when a couple emigrates to the United States they don’t have to marry again. I would think any adult married Yemen citizen would know what a person needs to do to get married legally. Don’t you know any local people? You could also go to clergy of your faith to get information if you do identify with a religion. Another route is maybe a courthouse or government building of some sort? Whatever government institution that might govern civil marriage. The only tricky thing would be if Yemen has different rules for people who are not citizens, but I doubt it. Another possibility is taking a ship into international waters and have the captain marry you. A cruise sounds nice for a destination wedding.

I found what appears to be a complete description of Yemen’s marriage procedures, but it’s a pay-to-access article in a legal journal. If you’re willing to pay the $30, here’s the link.

After reading about @thorninmud s answer, I guess it depends on bride to be’s circumstances. She literally needs to be ‘given away’ by some male relative, it seems, regardless of her age, so I hope they are on hand to help. Else, you will need some sort of judge to step in act as a defacto guardian. (Ah… treating women as the men’s chattel, so refreshing, this day and age *read sarcasm)

Check to make sure that who ever officiates knows what religion you practice, if any at all. They may take offence and decide to take the money and not marry you, so clear that up straight off.

Take very good care of any marriage registration certificate and marriage licence and see if you can get an official translated copy if it isn’t in English. (we can’t find ours and had to order a new one recently from Scotland for £15)

We looked at many countries to get married, but settled on Scotland for a number of reasons.

@cazzie Interesting, and at the same time makes me sick.

@cazzie . I forgot about the male relative thing. When my nephew tried to get married in Dubai they had the same problem. I’m not quite sure how they got around it. As it turns out maybe they should have listened to the dad. The marriage didn’t last and the divorce was ugly (for my poor niece in law anyway) because she didn’t have any say or any rights. There is some sort of rule there that she has to get married again within a certain amount of time. I don’t know all the details but I think it has something to do with not having a male guardian after you divorce.

Ya U can, try to contact m3 via kjalwazeer@yahoo.com

You are both US citizens and the State Dept says due to terrorism do not travel to Yemen and you plan on going anyway.?! Are you nuts?!

@Mircat This question is from 2012 so whatever they decided to do has been done or not done.