My Legal Partnership Day

"Will it hurt my case if we have a quick legal ceremony now and a big wedding later?" 

This is a question my immigration clients ask all the time.

What they don't expect is that I had to fly to Cyprus for my own "legal partnership day."

When I was living in Israel with my now-husband, we faced a challenge that would later become valuable knowledge in my immigration law practice.

We needed to start his US immigration process before moving to America for my law school. 

But there was a problem.

Israel has a quirk in its legal system that surprises many: 

There is no civil marriage.

All marriages must be performed by religious authorities:

- Jewish? You must marry through the rabbinate

- Muslim? Through Islamic authorities

- Christian? Through the church

That means couples such as:

- Interfaith couples

- LGBTQ couples

- Couples wanting a simple civil ceremony

…face major challenges if they want to marry within Israel (the country does recognize these marriages, but there is no mechanism to perform them inside the country).

Even though we're both Jewish, we didn't want to go through the ultra-Orthodox rabbinate. 

We just wanted simple paperwork to start the immigration process, saving our larger ceremony with family and friends with a rabbi of our choosing for later.

The solution? A quick visit to Cyprus.

I discovered there's an entire "marriage tourism" industry in Cyprus serving Israelis in our exact situation. 

We hired an agent who arranged everything - we flew in, went directly from the airport to city hall, signed papers, waited a couple of days for processing, and flew back.

It was the least romantic marriage possible - pure bureaucratic necessity.

Today, we celebrate two anniversaries: our "legal partnership day" (what we jokingly call our Cyprus paperwork date) and our second wedding day with family and friends in Israel. 😂

This experience has become surprisingly valuable in my immigration practice. 

When clients nervously ask if they can go to city hall to get married now when they have a larger wedding party planned in the future, I share my Cyprus story.

The relief on their faces is immediate. 

I understand their situation not just as their attorney, but as someone who's lived it.

Some of my most valuable expertise doesn't come from law school or continuing education - it comes from navigating these complex systems myself first.

Every case feels personal to me.