An American man and Argentinian woman have tied the knot in a virtual ceremony, becoming the first couple ever to get legally married via video while in different countries.
As first reported by the Daily Mail, Scott Marmon, 32, of New York and Augustina Montefiori, 28, of Argentina had planned to get married in March, 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic put their plans on hold.
The couple, who met in Denver in 2017, were unable to reunite since they weren’t yet married. So they made the decision to say “I do” using the video conferencing platform Zoom.
They were granted a marriage license in Utah, the first U.S. state to recognize a virtual ceremony. Utah recently started allowing couples to apply for and sign their marriage licenses electronically. The only catch — the wedding officiant needs to be physically present in Utah when performing the ceremony.
What does this mean for me?
While the prospect of legal virtual weddings is exciting for bi-national couples, it is not a guarantee that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will recognize such unions as valid. Proxy marriages where one or both parties are not present during the ceremony are not recognized by USCIS unless the couple can show the marriage has been consummated, that is, they have had physical, “marital relations” since the ceremony.
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