Consequences of a fictitious marriage in Russia

Home / Family law / Marriage registration / Invalidity of marriage

Back

Published: 04/13/2017

Reading time: 3 min

3

8663

The basic principles of registration of marriage relations are the mutual voluntary consent of a man and a woman to start a family.

If marriage pursues other goals not aimed at forming a family union, such a marriage is fictitious.

In the presented material you can find out the reasons for concluding a fictitious marriage, as well as the legal consequences of a fictitious marriage, its pros and cons.

• What is a fictitious marriage and its consequences
• Purposes of entering into an alliance
• Consequences
• Conclusion

Dear readers! To solve your problem, call hotline 8 or ask a question on the website. It's free.

Ask a Question

Why do you need a fictitious marriage?

Make it easier to obtain citizenship

Foreigners can obtain Russian citizenship under a simplified procedure. Article 14. Admission to citizenship of the Russian Federation under a simplified procedure. To do this, you need to be married to a Russian for at least three years. But other migration issues are also resolved by a stamp in the passport. For example, temporary residence permits are given according to special quotas. It allows a foreigner to stay and work in Russia without obtaining migration patents. Spouses of Russian citizens can receive a document outside the quotas.

The stamp in the passport itself does not change anything. You'll have to run around to get the paperwork done. But it significantly shortens the route of this running.

Claim benefits and discounts

Some programs are designed for families only. For example, Sberbank gives a 0.5% mortgage discount for young families if the loan is taken by a single parent under 35 years old or a married young couple, even childless, in which at least one spouse is not yet 35 years old.

Get your dream job

Sometimes marital status matters: 22% Employers have become less likely to pay attention to the marital status of applicants, but gender preferences remain; employers hire married men with children. Married women are chosen in every fifth company.

Hide orientation

This point is not related to laws, but is no less important. A fictitious marriage helps to hide homosexual orientation. In Russia it is a serious obstacle in many areas. For example, you may not get a job. A young Omsk resident was not hired due to suspicions of homosexuality, simply because of his grooming and feminine manners. The presence of a stamp in a passport removes suspicion from a person.

Spend money

The formal reason for a fictitious marriage can be any of the above. But at the same time, one of the spouses is looking for additional benefits. For example, a man proposes a fictitious marriage for the sake of a good, but fictitious position just when a woman is buying an apartment. The lady doesn’t see the catch and agrees for a small reward. But if the deal goes through after the wedding, the husband will claim half of the property.

In some cases, the marriage is fictitious only for one of the spouses - the one who benefits from it. The second one at this time believes that everything is for real, believes in reciprocal feelings.

Fictitious marriage: the problem of combating crime

Bibliographic description:

Sosnova, E. A. Fictitious marriage: the problem of countering crime / E. A. Sosnova. — Text: direct // New Legal Bulletin. — 2021. — No. 5 (7). — P. 21-24. — URL: https://moluch.ru/th/9/archive/106/3648/ (access date: 04/10/2021).


In explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language, the term “fictitiousness” is explained as “something unreal, fictitious, not corresponding to what it is taken or presented as” [8]. This concept implies unlawful actions of a subject aimed at acquiring certain social amenities and guarantees based on legal facts that do not correspond to reality.

It should be recognized that in family relationships this negative phenomenon is becoming increasingly widespread, and new situations are being added to previously known situations. Thus, after the inclusion of the possibility of obtaining maternity capital, facts of registration of fictitious births began to come to light; fictitious establishment of paternity is quite common in order to facilitate the migration regime. Courts are increasingly faced with the problem of the lack of protection methods in the law that must be applied in such cases. In addition, in recent years, an increase in the number of fictitious unions has been discussed in the scientific literature and in the media. Indeed, in fact, currently there is an increase in the number of illegal marriages [5]. Thus, according to the judgment of Moscow registry office employees, every third marriage union concluded is considered fictitious [12].

A fictitious marriage union as a marriage without the intention of forming a family is considered one of the offenses entailing the recognition of the union as invalid (its termination from the moment of conclusion) in accordance with Art. 27 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation [1].

A number of scientific studies by specialists in the field of family law are devoted to the study of fictitiousness in family relationships. First of all, it should be noted the work of N. N. Tarusina, who formulated a definition that is widely used in publications on this issue: “a similar action or relationship is considered fictitious, which in appearance corresponds to the formal conditions of this legal structure, which is applied, but does not meet its purpose and content" [10, p. 84].

Currently, there are a large number of advertisements on the Internet about the possibility of concluding such alliances for a specific monetary reward. Specialized companies also post advertisements online. The cost of concluding a fictitious union is 1-2 thousand dollars, while the incentive for “spouses” who dare to enter into a fictitious union is no more than 500-600 dollars, the rest is taken by intermediaries [9].

Currently, migrants often resort to fictitious marriage, who in this way “acquire” an easier option for obtaining citizenship and with it the rights, the opportunity to get a job, and purchase health insurance. There is a migration of HIV-infected people, whose treatment abroad is very expensive; it is more economical for such people in the Russian Federation to sign a fictitious marriage and then, as citizens, receive treatment, which in our country is financed from the budget. It is noted that homosexuals resort to fictitious marriage in order to make a career, girls - in order to improve their own social status. It is understood that fictitious alliances are concluded with the aim of obtaining a position, before elections to legislative bodies at various levels. Those sentenced to imprisonment resort to fictitious marriage, since the law gives persons in a union the right to long visits with residence outside the correctional institution. Fictitious unions are found in the TV business; they are created and dissolved for the sake of a loud scandal.

Thus, the conclusion of a fictitious marriage, as a rule, is dictated by suspicious goals not related to the formation of a family, which determines its short-term nature. Often, this kind of marriage union, in essence, becomes the object of commodity-money relations, which, taking into account its true purpose, is considered immoral.

In the Russian Federation, the need for criminal and administrative prosecution of fictitious marriages is being discussed extremely extensively and reasonably. Efforts were made to introduce restrictions on the formation of fictitious unions and criminalization of marriage fraud. In particular, in 2011, the authors of the bill proposed issuing a work permit to a foreign spouse no earlier than one year after the conclusion of the union. If he received a residence permit after marriage, then this document was automatically canceled in the event of divorce within a year after its issuance [13].

In 2012, an attempt was made to expand the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with Article 159.1 “Marriage fraud”, which provides for a maximum penalty of imprisonment of up to 7 years with a fine of up to 1 million rubles. or in the amount of wages or other earnings of the convicted person for a period of up to 3 years (in terms of determining responsibility for a foreign citizen obtaining a temporary residence permit in the Russian Federation by entering into a fictitious marriage) [3]. But neither the Government of the Russian Federation nor the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation supported this initiative of deputies to hold spouses accountable for the lack of intention to form a family.

Thus, the main reason for the prevalence of fictitious legal facts must be recognized as the role of family conditions in the dynamics of legal relations that are different in nature - housing, constitutional, social security, inheritance and others. Among the motives for fictitiousness indicated in studies, the following have been noted: the desire to acquire registration, the ability to choose a place of work, the acquisition of a residence permit and many others [4, p. thirty].

It should be noted that for employees of the registry office, the fictitiousness of the union is very often obvious: fluctuations in the sincerity of feelings, a very significant difference in the age of the newlyweds, the asocial lifestyle of the Russian groom (bride), the stay of the newlyweds in different regions and states. However, even in such cases, they have no right to refuse state registration, which, in accordance with the family legislation of the Russian Federation, is carried out subject to the conditions of marriage [2]. Basically, a person (persons) needs to enter into a fictitious marriage immediately, due to the existing need to urgently resolve any issue (for example, registration at the place of residence or stay). In this situation, in terms of reducing the number of fictitious unions, an effective remedy may be the right of registry offices to increase the period after which state registration of a marriage is carried out, if when submitting an application for state registration of a union, the intention of the persons to enter into a marriage without the purpose of forming a family is obvious (fictitious marriage union) .

As was said before, the law contains only provisions on the fictitiousness of marriage; the consequences of other fictitious legal facts and methods for eliminating them are not taken into account by the RF IC. Based on the resourcefulness of people and changing realities, it follows to clarify the likely measures and circumstances that must be taken into account when analyzing cases involving fictitious family facts and conditions. Moreover, the difference in these facts and conditions will require a differentiated approach to ways of protecting the rights and legitimate interests of people. As correctly established by N.N. Tarusina and O.I. Sochneva, the problem of family legislation lies in “the lack of a direct systemic response to these negative manifestations of the “creativity” of citizens” [11, p. 47].

Among the measures that are applied in the event of the disclosure of fictitious facts and relations, the most studied in the literature is the annulment of the legal relationship in the event of the union being declared invalid. In accordance with paragraph 4 of Art. 29 of the RF IC, this measure cannot be applied if the marriage union between the spouses is dissolved. And if in private disputes regarding the recognition of divorced marriages as fictitious, the courts do not allow this possibility, referring to the above-mentioned norm, then in disputes related to the presence of public interest (simplifying the procedure for obtaining citizenship), the approach is the opposite. The courts recognize the marriage as fictitious after its dissolution, canceling the civil status record of the divorce at the request of prosecutors.

The second option for solving the problem is to think about introducing the term “abuse of family rights” into family legislation, which, in the case of a gross violation of public interests, would allow the court to recognize the absence of grounds for obtaining the desired social benefit (for example, a residence permit, citizenship). Taking into account the fact that this option is considered universal for other situations of fictitiousness, it can be considered preferable.

The third measure used in the case of fictitious adoption, guardianship (trusteeship), or establishment of paternity is termination of the legal relationship.

The fourth measure used in cases of annulment of a divorce deed or cancellation of a corresponding court decision is the restoration of the legal relationship (legal status).

The experience of many foreign countries (for example, Germany), in which such an opportunity appears to the spouse after three years, seems to be very effective in preventing cases of entering into fictitious marriages in order to obtain citizenship in a simplified manner.

The literature rightly notes that the incentive for lawful behavior is not so much legal as other social prohibitions [6, p. 43, 44]. In this regard, an important role in preventing marriages in violation of the conditions established by law belongs to other social norms, in particular, norms of morality and morality. It should be noted that recently in our country a lot has been done in this direction: family values ​​are increasingly being cultivated, various events are being carried out aimed not only at strengthening morality and morality, but also at increasing the level of legal culture of bearers of civil rights and responsibilities [7, With. 434].

Literature:

1. “Family Code of the Russian Federation” dated December 29, 1995 N 223-FZ (as amended on December 29, 2017) // Collection of Legislation of the Russian Federation dated January 1, 1996 N 1 Art. 16

1. Federal Law “On Acts of Civil Status” dated November 15, 1997 N 143-FZ (latest edition) // Collection of Legislation of the Russian Federation dated November 24, 1997 N 47 Art. 5340
2. Draft Federal Law N 419191–6 “On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation” (introduced on December 27, 2013 by the Legislative Assembly of the Kaluga Region) (not valid)
3. Avkhadeev I.V. Decree. op.; Belyakova A. M. Issues of Soviet family law in judicial practice. - M.: Knowledge, 1989. - P. 30–32;
4. Bitkina S. Citizenship in the marriage basket // Ros. gas. 2008. N 4634.

6. Bratko A. G. Prohibitions in Soviet law. Saratov, 1979. - 62 p.

7. Volkov A.V. Abuse of civil rights: problems of theory and practice: monograph. M.: Wolters Kluwer, 2009. - 464 p.

1. Efremova T. F. Modern dictionary of the Russian language three in one: spelling, word-formation, morphemic: about 20,000 words, about 1,200 word-formation units. - M.: ACT, 2010. - 699 p.

9. Korchmarek N. The market of fictitious marriages is developing in Russia // Demoscope. 2008. 15–28 September. N 345346. URL: https://www.demoscope.ru (date of access: 03/15/2018).

10. Tarusina N. N. About fictitious family legal states // Jurisprudence. - 1983. - No. 2. - P. 84–87.

11. Tarusina N. N., Sochneva O. I. Decree. Op. — P. 47–50.

1. Filimonova I.V. Fictitious marriage as a type of fictitious family legal status: problems of legislative regulation. URL: https://web.snauka.ru (date of access: 03/15/2018).
2. Shekel T. Test of feelings. URL: https://www.rg.ru (date of access: 03/15/2018).

Key terms
(automatically generated)
: fictitious marriage, Russian Federation, marriage, marriage union, imprisonment, divorce, family law, method of protection, fictitious marriage union, family formation.

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:

Receiving an inheritance

The spouse is the heir of the first Civil Code of the Russian Federation Article 1142. Heirs of the first priority. This means that he can lay claim to part of the property to which he has nothing to do. If something happens to you, your family may be left with nothing.

Property division

According to the law of the RF IC, Article 38. Division of common property of spouses, if there is no marriage contract, property acquired during marriage is divided in half. So when the fictitious union is dissolved, the more successful spouse risks becoming poorer.

Alimony

Law of the RF IC Article 90 obliges to support a needy ex-spouse if he:

• Pre-retirement. For women this is from 55 years old, for men - from 60.
• Retired within five years of the divorce if the union was long-lasting. The court will decide whether you were together enough for child support.
• Became disabled during the marriage or within a year after its dissolution.

It is possible that you will have to provide for a complete stranger.

What is the liability for a fictitious marriage?

Law enforcement agencies may intervene in the matter. Although they are more interested in fictitious marriages with foreigners, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Komi Republic reminds citizens of their responsibility for entering into fictitious marriages with foreign citizens. The court revokes the residence permit and citizenship of the foreign spouse. In some cases, the violator may be expelled from the country. And in case of fraud, a criminal case will be opened.

If both spouses are Russian citizens, there is a high probability that they will never come to the attention of the police.

Marriage for citizenship

It is especially worth paying attention to fictitious marriage to obtain citizenship. According to Russian law, citizenship is not immediately granted after marriage. But this provides an opportunity to immediately receive registration and all types of pension and insurance payments. It will be enough to wait one year and you can begin to obtain simplified citizenship.

The above only means that appropriate amendments should be adopted to regulatory legal acts that will regulate the procedure for marriage between Russian citizens and foreigners. Otherwise, uncontrolled marriages will lead to a large number of migrants.

In addition to the revocation of citizenship, all real estate that he can acquire during the “marriage” will be sold, and the initiator of such a transaction will be expelled to Russian territory.

How to recognize a marriage as fictitious

If the fictitious spouse is adequate and does not lay claim to your property, it is enough to simply get a divorce. Otherwise you will have to go to court.

A spouse who did not know the RF IC Article 28 on the fictitiousness of a marriage can file a claim to declare a marriage invalid. But you will need comprehensive evidence that the family did not exist. For example, a separate budget alone is not a sufficient basis. Also tell us about the benefits that the spouse received from the fictitious stamp in the passport.

You can declare the marriage invalid for another formal reason, if there is one. In this case, you will also be able to save the property of the RF IC Article 30. Consequences of declaring a marriage invalid from division. There are several reasons:

• You gave your consent to the marriage in the registry office involuntarily - due to coercion, deception, or a state in which you could not adequately assess the situation.
• You have not reached the age of marriage of the RF IC Article 13. The age of marriage is 18 years.
• At the time of marriage, your spouse was already in another marriage.
• Your spouse is your close relative.
• The spouse was declared incompetent by the court due to a mental disorder.
• The husband hid the presence of a sexually transmitted disease or HIV infection.