What is a fictitious marriage and its signs

The concept of “fictitious marriage”

To understand what a fictitious marriage is, it is necessary to start from the definition of a classic marriage. Unlike the latter, a union of convenience does not aim to form a family with the subsequent building of marital relationships and the birth of joint children, but to obtain some benefit, benefits from the state, and so on.

As for what kind of marriage is considered fictitious from the point of view of legislation, the key factor is given in Chapter 5 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation and completely coincides with what we have already said: “a marriage that is registered without the intention of starting a family.” Such unions are void. And, therefore, if a selfish motive for the marriage is revealed, all rights and obligations of the parties received after registration at the registry office will be canceled.

Reasons for creating a fictitious marriage

The reasons for the basis of a fictitious union are many. Among them are:

The need to obtain citizenship.
The need to get a certain job.
Receiving government benefits and subsidies.
Fraud.
Improving the financial situation.
Possibility of resolving apartment or household problems.
The need to obtain a residence permit.
Simplifying the process of adopting a child.
The need to hide sexual orientation.
The need to change your last name.
The need to obtain a certain pedigree.
Possibility of evading military service.
The need to obtain permission for long-term visits with people serving sentences in a correctional facility.
Other reasons.

Fictitious and actual marriages - is there anything in common?

Many people are interested in whether the concept of actual marriage (also known as civil marriage) is, by some criteria, close to marriage, which has a selfish component at its core?

Perhaps the only similar point is the mutual consent of the parties to the union. Only with actual marriage do people live together in order to be close to their loved one, have a family, and run a household together. And in a fictitious marriage, they take this step solely for the sake of some material or legal benefit, which each party may have their own.

Otherwise, fictitious and actual marriages are extremely similar. And even if from the outside the romantic feelings between partners and their family relationships may seem real, in fact, with a fictitious union, in most cases everything remains exclusively within the framework of a certain transaction.

Read more about civil marriage and cohabitation in our article.

Laws regulating the legal basis of marriage unions

All the nuances relating to marriage and divorce, as well as the rights and obligations of spouses, are spelled out in detail in sections II and III of the Family Code of the Russian Federation. They indicate the requirements for the age of future partners and the circumstances that impede the conclusion of a marriage. In addition, the RF IC provides grounds for declaring a marriage invalid and provides explanations on the principles for resolving property disputes arising between husband and wife.

The Family Code also did not ignore issues related to the marriage contract, namely the nuances of its signing, amendment, termination and invalidation.

Read more in our article on prenuptial agreements.

Fictitious marriages and Russian legislation

On the territory of the Russian Federation, by virtue of Article 170 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and Article 27 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, a fictitious marriage can be declared invalid. By a court decision, when a marriage is declared invalid, the consequences of a void transaction may be applied to it - the entry of the marriage in the civil status acts is annulled. The burden of declaring a marriage invalid lies with the court; only in court proceedings can this issue be resolved. Either one of the spouses, who was unaware of the other’s desire to create a fictitious marriage and honestly intended to start a family, or a representative of law enforcement agencies who was able to obtain evidence that specific citizens entered into a marriage solely for economic or other benefits can file a claim with the court to declare the marriage invalid. . It is worth noting that along with the recognition of marriage as invalid, all transactions that are affected by marital status are also considered invalid. That is, if, for example, a marriage was concluded to obtain citizenship, after its annulment one of the spouses is also automatically deprived of citizenship. In particular, if at the time of marriage a marriage contract was drawn up between the spouses, then after the marriage is declared invalid, the terms of the contract also lose force. In addition, when annulling a marriage, you may encounter serious problems in the form of paying taxes and other legal obligations. It is also worth noting that a marriage may be declared invalid by the court, in accordance with Russian legislation, if it is established:

deception, coercion, threats;
incapacity of one or both spouses;
close relationship between spouses;
whether one of the spouses is in a state of marriage at the time of registration of the second marriage;
not reaching marriageable age or lack of consent to marriage from competent authorities;
concealment by one of the spouses of a sexually transmitted disease or HIV infection.

What does a fictitious marriage entail?

There is no serious administrative or, especially, criminal liability for a fictitious marriage in Russia. Relevant bills have been submitted to parliament more than once, but none of them have been adopted or approved.

If a marriage of convenience has not caused harm to another person and/or society, then the punishment in the Russian Federation will consist only of the annulment of such a marriage with the subsequent loss by the parties of the privileges and rights received after registration in the registry office.

If the purpose of the transaction was to obtain resident status, divorce will entail the automatic loss of citizenship or residence permit with possible subsequent deportation of the foreigner.

The decision to deprive the residence permit will be made following a trial, according to which the marriage will be declared invalid due to fictitiousness. After this, within three days the foreigner will be given a court decision ordering him to leave the country within the next 15 days.

The consequences of a fictitious union may be more serious and harsh if the marriage was the first step towards a crime. For example, if a foreigner entered into a marriage with a citizen of the country in order to more quickly and easily obtain a residence permit and engage in fraudulent, anti-government or terrorist activities on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Moreover, in some cases, law enforcement agencies may suspect that the fictitious partner knew about the illegal activities of the spouse and condoned them. Therefore, it is very important to understand why such a marriage is dangerous.

Why is a fictitious marriage dangerous?

A stamp in your passport gives you some rights. An unscrupulous spouse can use them for his own benefit, and the other party will suffer. The deceiver may claim:

1. Receiving an inheritance

The spouse is the heir. This means that he can lay claim to part of the property to which he has nothing to do.

How can you prove the reality of marriage?

It happens that initially business relationships between fictitious spouses develop into real romantic feelings and people begin to build a full-fledged family. At the same time, a third party who suspects the spouses of a fictitious relationship may file a lawsuit in order to annul their marriage. In this situation, the question will arise of how to prove that the marriage is not fictitious.

By law, a union in which:

there are no circumstances directly or indirectly proving its fictitiousness. For example, newlyweds bought an apartment not with a preferential loan from the state, but on a general basis;
the spouses actually lead a family life, observing the rights and obligations obtained as a result of registration in the registry office;
the couple has children together. This is a fundamentally important condition, since a union in which the spouses conceived a child is not recognized as fictitious, even if he was never born.

In addition, a fictitious marriage cannot be declared invalid if it entails a violation of the rights of the minor spouse.

Responsibility

There is no direct liability for a fictitious marriage, other than civil liability. However, the Criminal Code provides sanctions for illegal migration, as well as fraud. In this case, the punishment for a fictitious marriage in Russia can be up to imprisonment for up to 7 years.

In addition to direct sanctions for this kind of union, violators will also feel its consequences of a different nature:

retention and return in full of the mortgage loan;
cancellation of benefits and subsidies;
deprivation of citizenship;
review of cases related to adoption, etc.

Not only people who were in such a relationship can be punished, but also those who knew about its fictitiousness and still contributed to the conclusion of such an alliance.

Judicial practice on recognition of fictitious marriages

The court must have compelling reasons to recognize the marriage as fictitious. Based on the legislative definition of the authenticity of a marriage, the court usually takes into account the following circumstances:

Duration of marriage. The longer the union lasts, the less grounds there are to invalidate it. Fraudulent marriages usually end after a few weeks or months. If the relationship lasts more than a year, then the court will have reason to doubt the justice of the charges.
The presence or absence of a marital relationship. Here, the testimony of relatives, friends, neighbors can be taken into account, who will confirm that the couple does not live together, does not run a joint household, does not have a common budget, and so on.

In Russia, the judicial practice of recognizing a marriage as fictitious is very extensive. An example is the following situation.

Example

Citizen L.K. appealed to the court. with a statement of claim to recognize the fictitious marriage of his brother, S.K., who agreed with his friend to register the relationship in the registry office in order to quickly receive his father’s inheritance. The deceased stated in his will that the one of his two sons who would marry first would receive part of the property.

As evidence, the plaintiff cited written statements from neighbors and family relatives. According to relatives, they had never heard that the young man had a fiancee. And the marriage itself, in their opinion, was unexpectedly quick: the marriage took place a couple of months after the death of their father. No guests were invited to the celebration; they limited themselves to registration at the registry office. Neighbors of the newlyweds said that they had never seen the couple together and did not even know S.K.’s wife. The girl herself has never posted on social networks not only information about her wedding, but also joint photos with her groom and husband. In addition, the plaintiff provided evidence that the couple does not have a common budget and does not run a joint household. During the marriage, no child was conceived, and divorce followed three months after the marriage.

Having studied all the materials of the case in detail, the court decided to satisfy the claim of citizen L.K. and recognized the marriage of S.K. fictitious, which made it possible to obtain grounds for depriving him of his inheritance.

When can a fictitious marriage be recognized as valid?

If, before filing a lawsuit, certain events occurred between the partners who entered into a mutually beneficial agreement, then the union can become absolutely legal, meeting the requirements of family law. The identified circumstances include:

Cohabitation and housekeeping.
Shopping together.
The reason why fictitious relationships were registered is no longer valid.
The presence of minor children born to the spouses during their relationship.

Important! If the changes occurred after the filing of the claim, the court may not accept them as an argument for legalizing the union.

In addition, often a marriage is registered with the purpose of deceiving one of the spouses. This is done in order to take possession of someone else's property. It is worth remembering that scammers sometimes fish out the partner’s property acquired by him before marriage. This often happens in the case of exchanging real estate or selling it and buying a new one.