A common law marriage is a legally recognized marriage that forms without a marriage license or wedding ceremony when a couple meets their state’s requirements. Only a handful of states still allow new ones to form, and the requirements go well beyond simply living together for a long time. Couples who qualify have the same legal status as couples who married at the courthouse, including rights to inheritance, Social Security survivor benefits, joint tax filing, and the ability to make medical decisions for each other.
The popular belief that seven years of living together automatically creates a marriage is wrong in every state. No state sets a minimum number of years, and no state turns cohabitation into marriage on its own.
The Four Requirements
Every state that recognizes common law marriage requires the couple to meet several conditions at the same time.
Legal capacity. Both partners must be at least 18, mentally competent, and not already married to someone else. These are the same baseline rules as a licensed marriage.
A present agreement to be married. The couple must genuinely intend to be spouses from a specific point forward. A vague plan to marry someday does not count. The agreement can be spoken rather than written, but it has to be a present-tense commitment, not a future one.
Cohabitation. The couple must live together. Length varies and no state sets a floor, but partners keeping separate residences will struggle to prove the marriage.
Holding out as married. The couple must publicly represent themselves as spouses. This is where claims most often succeed or fail. Courts want concrete evidence, not statements that “everyone knew.” Strong evidence includes joint federal tax returns, a shared last name, listing each other as spouses on insurance and benefit forms, signing a joint mortgage or lease, naming each other as spouse on birth certificates, and introducing each other as husband or wife in social and professional settings. A couple who checks every box is in a strong position; a couple who lived together for decades but filed separate tax returns and kept finances apart will face skepticism.
Where You Can Still Form One
Most states do not permit new common law marriages. The ones that currently do are Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, and the District of Columbia. New Hampshire recognizes a common law relationship only for inheritance purposes after one partner dies, not during the couple’s lifetime.
States That Still Honor Older Marriages
Several states abolished common law marriage but continue to recognize unions formed before a cutoff date. Pennsylvania recognizes marriages formed before January 1, 2005; Georgia before January 1, 1997; Idaho before January 1, 1996; Ohio before October 10, 1991; and South Carolina before July 24, 2019. Alabama ended recognition for new marriages in 2017. If your relationship began after your state’s cutoff, you do not have a common law marriage there regardless of how long you have been together.
Utah Requires a Court Order
Utah is the outlier. A couple cannot simply claim to be common law married; they must petition a court to recognize the relationship as a marriage. The court looks at legal age and capacity, cohabitation, mutual assumption of marital duties, and whether the couple held themselves out as married with a general reputation in the community as husband and wife.1Utah Legislature. Utah Code 30-1-4.5 – Validity of Marriage Not Solemnized If granted, the decree recognizes the marriage retroactively to the date the requirements were first met. There is a hard deadline: the petition must be filed while the relationship is ongoing or within one year after it ends.2Utah Courts. Judicial Recognition of a Relationship as a Marriage Miss that window and the court can no longer help you.
Texas Offers a Signed Declaration
Texas, which calls this an “informal marriage,” gives couples two options. They can sign a Declaration of Informal Marriage with the county clerk, which creates immediate written proof. Or they can rely on the standard requirements: agreeing to be married, living together in Texas as spouses, and representing the marriage to others. Both are equally valid, but the declaration makes proving the marriage far easier if a dispute arises later.
Recognition When You Move
A common law marriage validly formed in one state generally must be honored by every other state under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, even in states that no longer allow new ones to form.3Cornell Law Institute. Common Law Marriage A couple who established a common law marriage in Colorado and then moved to California remains legally married. The practical issue is proof, since the new state’s agencies may not be familiar with the original state’s rules, so keep documentation of everything that supported the marriage.
What a Common Law Marriage Gets You
Once established, the marriage carries every right and obligation that a licensed marriage does. There is no second tier. Exercising those rights, though, usually requires proving the marriage exists.
Taxes
The IRS determines filing status based on whether you are married on the last day of the tax year.4Internal Revenue Service. Filing Status If your state considers you common law married, you are married for federal tax purposes. You must file as Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately. You cannot file as single. Filing jointly often lowers the overall bill and opens up credits unavailable to single filers, though couples with similar high incomes can hit a marriage penalty.
Inheritance
If one spouse dies without a will, state intestacy laws decide how property passes. A surviving common law spouse has the same inheritance rights as any other surviving spouse. Depending on the state and whether the deceased had children or other close relatives, the share typically runs from one-third of the estate up to the entire balance. An unmarried partner would receive nothing under intestacy, no matter how long the relationship.
Social Security
The Social Security Administration recognizes common law marriages for survivor benefits, spousal benefits, and lump-sum death payments when the marriage is valid under the law of the state where the couple lived.5Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 404.726 – Evidence of Common-Law Marriage Proving the marriage to SSA takes specific forms and corroborating evidence, including a Statement of Marital Relationship from each living spouse and statements from blood relatives.6Social Security Administration. Social Security Handbook 1717 – Evidence of Common-Law Marriage SSA also looks for mortgage receipts, insurance policies, medical records, and bank records.7Social Security Administration. Development of Common-Law (Non-Ceremonial) Marriages The financial stakes are large; survivor benefits can run into thousands of dollars a month, and unmarried cohabitants receive nothing.
Healthcare Decisions
A common law spouse has legal standing to make medical decisions for an incapacitated partner. Proving the marriage during a hospital crisis is hard without documents, so couples should also sign healthcare powers of attorney. Having both the marital claim and a written directive removes any ambiguity in an emergency.
Immigration
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recognizes common law marriages for family-based visa petitions when the marriage is valid where it was established.8U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 6 – Spouses The petitioner must meet a preponderance of the evidence standard, backed by affidavits plus documents showing a marital partnership: joint tax returns, mortgages, utility bills, or leases. A thin file can mean denial even for a genuine marriage.
Veterans and Federal Employee Benefits
The Department of Veterans Affairs recognizes common law marriages for survivor pensions, dependency and indemnity compensation, and other spousal benefits, using VA Form 21-4170 and supporting documents like leases, joint bank statements, tax returns, and insurance forms.9Veterans Benefits Administration. VA Form 21-4170 – Statement of Marital Relationship Common law spouses of federal employees are also eligible for coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits program on the same terms as any other spouse.10U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Family Member Eligibility Fact Sheet – Spouse and Common Law Spouse Private employer health plans are a different story; no federal law requires them to cover common law spouses, and coverage depends on the plan.
Same-Sex Couples
After the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, same-sex couples in states that recognize common law marriage can establish one on the same terms as opposite-sex couples. Older state statutes referring to “husband and wife” are unenforceable to the extent they would exclude same-sex couples. The requirements are the same: capacity, present agreement, cohabitation, and holding out.
How a Common Law Marriage Ends
It doesn’t end on its own. Not by moving out, not by dropping a shared last name, not by telling friends the relationship is over. A common law marriage is a real marriage and can only be dissolved by a formal divorce in family court. The process addresses the same issues as any divorce: dividing marital property and debts, custody and child support if children are involved, and potentially alimony.
Skipping divorce creates real problems. The marriage remains legally active until a court ends it, which means remarrying could constitute bigamy. It also complicates estate planning, tax filing, and benefit eligibility. There is no “common law divorce” that bypasses the court.
A Note on Domestic Partnerships
A domestic partnership is not the same thing. It is a state-created status that requires formal registration, carries more limited benefits than marriage, and is not recognized by the federal government for Social Security, joint federal tax filing, or immigration sponsorship. A common law marriage requires no registration but has to meet behavioral criteria, and once established it carries full federal recognition and travels across state lines. Only about a dozen states offer domestic partnership registration, and the rights vary widely.
If Your State Doesn’t Allow Common Law Marriage
In roughly 40 states, no amount of cohabitation or shared finances will create a legal marriage. Long-term partners there have no inheritance rights by default, no claim to Social Security survivor benefits, and no automatic standing to make medical decisions for each other. The exposure is serious when a partner dies without a will or when a long relationship ends and shared property has to be divided.
Some courts apply equitable doctrines to divide property after a long cohabiting relationship ends, but outcomes vary and are far less predictable than divorce. Couples in non-recognizing states who want legal protection should consider a cohabitation agreement addressing property and financial responsibilities, healthcare powers of attorney, wills or trusts naming the partner as beneficiary, and beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance. None of these replaces marriage, but together they close the biggest gaps.