10 Answers

You,ll never be considered legally married until you,re " legally married ".

Check out common law rights in Canada.  You are not ever considered legally married, however, you do have many rights after a number of years of living together.  Also, different provinces may have different laws.

My state does not recognize common law marriages.  Let me give you something to think about...."It should be very difficult to get married and easy to get divorced"  That is a quote from a friend of mine  who went through 2 wonderful weddings and 2 brutal expensive divorces.  I now fully agree!  Think hard with your head not just your heart before you marry.  Marriage, like life, has it's extreme highs and extreme lows...It is a lot of work and you can not be the only one working on it- I know...I struggled and worked on mine for a long time but my spouse did not...and thought nothing of informing me that he wanted a divorce while I was in the hospital.  So think and discuss everything honestly before marriage- not just will you have kids but how will you raise them, economically, spiritually, morally, punishment wise etc....and the list goes on.

All you have to do basically is called yourselves married.........

I'm not sure COMMON LAW marriages are recognized any longer, check with your State ofc. or attorney.

I believe in FL and many states it's 7 years.?..

In Australia if you live together for 6 months your partner is entitled to half your goodies, even those you had when you moved in together, but you are not legaly married.

Think twice before you "shack up"

I totaly agree with Doolittle. Thousand spent on a wedding with months of planning and not one hour spent planning the marriage.

I even heard of one case in the US where the mother and daughter were making wedding plans and the girl was not even engaged.

I never cease to wonder at the excitement surrounding a wedding when the couple have been living together. Why? what changes, bugger all.

This is how palimony got started!

I live in Michigan, USA. I have lived with my partner since 1989 and I believe I have no rights as far as legally goes!

Quebec I think does not recognice common law marriage. All other Provinces in Canada mandate 3 yrs of co-habitation, before beeing recognized as commom law marriage.