A marriage of convenience is a marriage contracted for reasons other than that of love and commitment. Instead, such a marriage is entered into for personal gain, or some other sort of strategic purpose, such as a

political marriage A marriage of state is a diplomatic marriage or union between two members of different nation-states or internally, between two power blocs, usually in authoritarian societies and is a practice which dates back into ancient times, as far back as ear ...

. There are some cases in which those married do not intend to live together as a couple, and typically got married only for one of them to gain the right to reside in a country, meaning a marriage of benefit. In many cultures, it is usual for parents to decide their adult children's marriages; this is called an arranged marriage. A marriage of convenience that is neither a

sham marriage A sham marriage or fake marriage is a marriage of convenience entered into without intending to create a real marital relationship. This is usually for the purpose of gaining an advantage from the marriage. Definitions of sham marriage vary b ...

entered into for fraudulent purposes nor a

forced marriage Forced marriage is a marriage in which one or more of the parties is married without their consent or against their will. A marriage can also become a forced marriage even if both parties enter with full consent if one or both are later force ...

, is not against the law.

Legal loophole

Oxford sham marriage - Groom is led away in handcuffs

Marriages of convenience are often contracted to exploit legal

loophole A loophole is an ambiguity or inadequacy in a system, such as a law or security, which can be used to circumvent or otherwise avoid the purpose, implied or explicitly stated, of the system. Originally, the word meant an arrowslit, a narrow ver ...

s of various sorts. A couple may wed for one of them to gain

citizenship Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

right of abode The right of abode is an individual's freedom from immigration control in a particular country. A person who has the right of abode in a country does not need permission from the government to enter the country and can live and work there withou ...

, for example, as many countries around the world will grant such rights to anyone married to a resident citizen. In the United States, this practice is known as a green card marriage. In Australia, there have been marriages of convenience to bring attention to the government's

Youth Allowance Social security, in Australia, refers to a system of social welfare payments provided by Australian Government to eligible Australian citizens, permanent residents, and limited international visitors. These payments are almost always administer ...

laws. On 31 March 2010 two students were publicly and legally married on the University of Adelaide's lawn so that they could both receive full Youth Allowance. In the United States during the era of the Vietnam War, some couples were wed during the man's time of exposure to the military draft; the couple agreed to no contact, followed by an annulment at the end of the (typically one year) marriage. Advertisements were commonly placed in student newspapers to this effect. Because they exploit legal loopholes, sham marriages of convenience often have legal consequences. For example, U.S. Immigration ( USCIS) can punish this with a US$250,000 fine and five-year prison sentence.Fraudulent marriage is any marriage that has been entered into with the sole purpose of circumventing the law. According to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), Act 255 U.S.C 1325 the consequences of entering into a marriage in order to evade the law include incarceration for up to five years, a fine of up to $250,000, or both.

Homosexuality

Another common reason for marriages of convenience is to hide one partner's homosexuality in places where being

openly gay Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

is punishable or potentially detrimental. A sham marriage of this type, sometimes called a

lavender marriage A lavender marriage is a male–female mixed-orientation marriage, undertaken as a marriage of convenience to conceal the socially stigmatised sexual orientation of one or both partners. The term dates from the early 20th century and is used al ...

, is usually performed to keep the appearance of heterosexuality to prevent negative consequences of

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

discrimination. Such marriages may have one heterosexual and one gay partner, or two gay partners: a lesbian and a gay man married to each other. In the case where a gay man marries a woman, the woman is sometimes said to be his "

beard A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, usually pubescent or adult males are able to grow beards. Throughout the course of history, societal at ...

", while in the case where a lesbian marries a man, the man is sometimes said to be her "

merkin __NOTOC__ A merkin is a pubic wig. Merkins were worn by sex workers after shaving their mons pubis, and are now used as decorative items, erotic devices, or in films, by both men and women. History and etymology The '' Oxford Companion to the ...

Metaphorical usage

The phrase "marriage of convenience" has also been generalized to mean any partnership between groups or individuals for their mutual (and sometimes illegitimate) benefit, or between groups or individuals otherwise unsuited to working together. An example would be a "

national unity government A national unity government, government of national unity (GNU), or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties (or all major parties) in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other nat ...

", as existed in Israel during much of the 1980s or in the United Kingdom during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. More specifically,

cohabitation Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not married, usually couples, live together. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become increas ...

refers to a political situation which can occur in countries with a semi-presidential system (especially France), where the president and the prime minister belong to opposed political camps.

Political marriage

Marriages of convenience, often termed marriages of state, have always been commonplace in royal, aristocratic, and otherwise powerful families, to make alliances between two powerful houses. Examples include the marriages of

Agnes of Courtenay Agnes of Courtenay ( – ) was a Frankish noblewoman from the Crusader states. Agnes's parents, Joscelin II of Edessa and Beatrice of Saone, lost the County of Edessa in 1150. As the widow of Reynald of Marash, Agnes married Count Amalric of ...

, her daughter Sibylla,

Jeanne d'Albret Jeanne d'Albret ( Basque: ''Joana Albretekoa''; Occitan: ''Joana de Labrit''; 16 November 1528 – 9 June 1572), also known as Jeanne III, was Queen of Navarre from 1555 to 1572. Jeanne was the daughter of Henry II of Navarre and Margar ...

, and Catherine of Aragon.

References

External links

{{Types of marriages, state=autocollapse Family law Types of marriage