I got married in Japan so was curious about the differences. The two differences seem to be needing to schedule an appointment and needing proof of income. Doesn’t seem really much worse than most countries (tho I can get Denmark being easier)
I do place some blame on embassies not issuing documents in local languages. I’m not asking for proof I’m not married for fun! Extremely unhelpful, tho a good job generator for translators.
In the end tho, lots of these convos are based off of people coming from the Wild West of common law, which leads to the US government saying stuff like “well we don’t know if you’re married but you can sign an affidavit in front of us”. The American Empire, barely capable of a proper census!
Things can and should be improved, but I do think it’s good to be cognizant of the fact that many countries off of differing axioms (especially when it comes to things like the need/interdiction of knowing where your residents live)
The common law jurisdictions are simply more honest. If German requirements force people to marry in Denmark, and registering a foreign marriage in Germany takes 4 years to process (the actual waiting time in Berlin), then Germany doesn’t know if someone is married either. They are just more willing to pretend that they do.
> which leads to the US government saying stuff like “well we don’t know if you’re married but you can sign an affidavit in front of us”. The American Empire, barely capable of a proper census!
How would a census help? That's just you declaring your marital status in front of them, without having to sign anything; it has even less probative value than what you're presenting as a stopgap measure that wouldn't be necessary if the census worked better.
They can't function without it, so the list does exist. The IRS keeps records of residents and their marital state (a required piece of information on the form).
But those records aren't really fit for the purpose of certifying that someone is not currently married, because (a) they do not include people who don't need to file taxes; and (b) they are only updated once a year.
For pretty much every other administrative purpose, it doesn't matter whether you're married or not, so I don't really see why you'd want the tax records updated more often.
I do place some blame on embassies not issuing documents in local languages. I’m not asking for proof I’m not married for fun! Extremely unhelpful, tho a good job generator for translators.
In the end tho, lots of these convos are based off of people coming from the Wild West of common law, which leads to the US government saying stuff like “well we don’t know if you’re married but you can sign an affidavit in front of us”. The American Empire, barely capable of a proper census!
Things can and should be improved, but I do think it’s good to be cognizant of the fact that many countries off of differing axioms (especially when it comes to things like the need/interdiction of knowing where your residents live)