What States Do Not Require a Marriage License?

Only nine states and the District of Columbia let you become legally married without a marriage license, and they do it through common law marriage: Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, and the District of Columbia. New Hampshire recognizes a license-free marriage only after one partner dies, and only for inheritance. Every other state requires a license for a new marriage, though several still honor older common law marriages formed before a cutoff date.

The Nine States and D.C. Where You Can Marry Without a License

Each jurisdiction sets its own standards, but the general shape is the same: you and your partner agree you are married right now, you live together, and you present yourselves to the world as spouses.

  • Colorado: Both partners must be at least 18, agree to be married, and be publicly reputed as a married couple.
  • Iowa: Requires intent and agreement to be married, continuous cohabitation, and public declarations that you are married.
  • Kansas: Requires legal capacity, a present mutual agreement to be married, and holding yourselves out as spouses.
  • Montana: Recognized through case law, with no specific statutory requirements beyond the general elements.
  • Oklahoma: State statute calls for a marriage license, but Oklahoma courts have consistently upheld common law marriages through case law.
  • Rhode Island: Recognized through case law rather than statute.
  • Texas: Calls it “informal marriage.” You can either live as married without a license or file a Declaration of Informal Marriage with the county clerk, which creates an official record of the marriage.
  • Utah: Uses a court-petition system. You file a petition asking a court to recognize the relationship as a marriage, and the petition must be filed during the relationship or within one year after it ends.1Utah Courts. Judicial Recognition of a Relationship as a Marriage
  • District of Columbia: Requires an express, present intent to be married and cohabitation.

New Hampshire’s Narrow Exception

New Hampshire does not recognize common law marriage during a couple’s lifetime. It will treat a cohabiting couple as legally married for inheritance purposes if they lived together and were generally known as married for at least three years before one partner’s death.2New Hampshire General Court. New Hampshire Revised Statutes Section 457-39 – Cohabitation, etc. A living couple in New Hampshire cannot use this rule to file joint tax returns or claim spousal benefits.

What It Takes to Be Married Without a License

No state treats cohabitation alone as a marriage. Courts in the recognizing states look for three things together.3LII / Legal Information Institute. Common Law Marriage

A Present Agreement to Be Married

Both partners must intend to be married right now, not someday. A proposal or a plan to marry in the future doesn’t count. The evidence courts find persuasive is behavioral: joint tax returns filed as spouses, insurance policies naming each other as spouse, employment and medical forms listing the other as next of kin, and wills referring to the other as a spouse.

Living Together

You have to actually share a home. No state sets a minimum number of years, and cohabitation on its own creates nothing. A couple who shares an apartment for ten years but never agrees to be married and never tells anyone they are has no common law marriage.

Holding Yourselves Out as Spouses

You must consistently present yourselves as married to family, friends, neighbors, and the broader community. Introducing each other as husband or wife, using the same last name, and being generally known as a married couple all count. The representation has to be uniform. Telling an employer you’re married for insurance purposes while telling friends you’re just dating undermines the whole claim.

Legal Capacity

Both partners must be of legal age, mentally competent, not closely related, and not already married to someone else. A person still legally married to a prior spouse cannot form a common law marriage with a new partner until the first marriage is dissolved.

States Where It’s Too Late to Start One

A number of states abolished common law marriage but still honor unions formed before a specific cutoff. If you’re hoping to form a new license-free marriage in any of these, you can’t; if you believe you already did before the cutoff, it still counts.

The burden of proving an older marriage falls on you, and old informal arrangements get harder to document as years pass.

Proving the Marriage Later

No license means no certificate, so proving a common law marriage comes down to building a paper trail. The evidence that carries weight includes:

  • Sworn affidavits from you, your partner, and people who know you as a couple, describing when you agreed to be spouses and how the community sees your relationship.
  • Joint bank accounts, joint tax returns, shared mortgages or leases, and loans or credit accounts in both names.
  • Government documents such as a driver’s license showing a surname change to match a spouse, or birth certificates listing both partners as parents.
  • Insurance policies naming the partner as spouse or beneficiary, and employer records listing the partner as immediate family.
  • Deeds showing jointly held property.

Texas offers the cleanest option. Filing a Declaration of Informal Marriage with the county clerk creates an official record and spares you from having to reconstruct the marriage through circumstantial evidence later. Utah’s court-petition process serves a similar function.

Recognition If You Move or File Federal Paperwork

A valid common law marriage formed in a recognizing state is generally honored when a couple moves to a state that doesn’t allow new ones.7Legal Information Institute (LII) / Cornell Law School. Common Law Marriage In practice, a couple who establishes a common law marriage in Colorado and moves to New York should still be treated as married there. Life is easier when you carry documentation out of the recognizing state: a Texas declaration, a Utah court order, or notarized affidavits give you something to show when a new-state agency asks for a certificate you don’t have.

Federal agencies also recognize common law marriages, each with its own verification process:

  • The IRS treats you as married for the full tax year if your common law marriage is valid in the state where you now live or in the state where it was formed, and you can file jointly or separately.8Internal Revenue Service. Publication 17 (2025), Your Federal Income Tax
  • The Social Security Administration recognizes a common law marriage for spousal and survivor benefits when it was valid under the law of the state where the couple lived, and typically asks for signed statements from both spouses plus statements from two blood relatives.9Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 404-0726 – Evidence of Common-Law Marriage
  • USCIS recognizes a common law marriage for visa and green card petitions if it was valid where it was formed, and applies the law of that state rather than the state where the couple currently lives.10U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Policy Manual Volume 6 Part B Chapter 6 – Spouses

Ending a License-Free Marriage

A valid common law marriage carries the same legal weight as one formed by license and ceremony. The same rights to property division, spousal support, and inheritance apply. The same also holds in reverse: you cannot end a common law marriage by moving apart or agreeing you’re no longer together. Dissolving it takes a formal divorce, with a court dividing property, deciding support, and resolving custody the same way it would for any other marriage. Couples who drift apart after years of living as common law spouses sometimes discover they need a judge’s signature to be legally single again.