Yes, you can marry your cousin in New York. First-cousin marriages are legal in the state because New York’s Domestic Relations Law Section 5 lists the family relationships that make a marriage void, and first cousins are not on that list. No special paperwork, no genetic counseling requirement, and no extra age rule applies. The license process is the same one every other couple follows.
Why First-Cousin Marriage Is Legal in New York
New York’s marriage law works by prohibition. If a relationship is not specifically banned, it is allowed. Section 5 of the Domestic Relations Law declares only three categories of marriage “incestuous and void”:
- An ancestor and a descendant, such as a parent and child or grandparent and grandchild
- Siblings, whether full or half blood
- An uncle or aunt and a niece or nephew, regardless of whether the relationship is through legitimate or illegitimate birth
First cousins do not appear anywhere in that list.1New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 5 – Incestuous and Void Marriages New York is one of roughly 20 states that place no restrictions on first-cousin marriage. Second cousins, third cousins, and more distant relatives are also free to marry.
Getting the Marriage License
The license process for first cousins is identical to every other couple’s. Both people must appear together at a city or town clerk’s office, present valid identification that also serves as proof of age, and pay the license fee.2Department of Health. Information on Getting Married in New York State
Outside New York City, the standard fee is $40 and includes a Certificate of Marriage Registration.2Department of Health. Information on Getting Married in New York State In New York City, the fee is $35, payable by credit card or money order.3City Clerk: Marriage License. Fees NYC lets couples begin the application online, but both parties still need to appear together at the appointment.
After the license is issued, you must wait 24 hours before the ceremony. A judge or justice of the New York Supreme Court can waive that waiting period if circumstances require it.4City Clerk: Marriage License. Marriage License
Occasionally a couple worries that a clerk will push back. In practice it rarely happens, but keeping the text of Section 5 on your phone doesn’t hurt. The statute is short and the absence of “first cousins” from the prohibited list speaks for itself.
What Happens If You Move to Another State
A marriage valid where it was performed is generally valid everywhere else, and the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution reinforces that principle. Marriage recognition has a long-standing exception, though: states can refuse to honor an out-of-state marriage that violates their own strong public policy, and courts have applied that exception to cousin marriages for over a century.5Constitution Center. Interpretation: Article IV, Section 1: Full Faith and Credit Clause
Roughly half of U.S. states ban first-cousin marriage in some form. Some allow it only above a certain age or after genetic counseling. A handful go further and explicitly refuse to recognize cousin marriages performed elsewhere. A state that treats such marriages as void may decline to honor yours for purposes like inheritance, state tax filing, or adoption proceedings. If you plan to relocate after marrying, check the destination state’s law before you go.
Federal Taxes, Immigration, and Social Security
Federal agencies generally look to whether the marriage was valid where it was performed, not where you currently live. That rule protects most of the federal benefits of marriage, but not all of them.
Federal Tax Filing
The IRS recognizes marriages based on the law of the state where the marriage was entered into, regardless of the couple’s current domicile. If you married in New York, you can file a joint federal return even if you later move to a state that bans cousin marriage.6Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Rul. 2013-17
Immigration
For visa and green card purposes, the State Department applies the same place-of-celebration rule. First-cousin marriages get extra scrutiny at the consular level, and an officer who has doubts can request an advisory opinion. If U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has already approved a petition knowing the couple is related, the consular officer should accept that determination.7Department of State. Family-Based Relationships
Social Security Survivor Benefits
Social Security uses a different rule. When deciding whether a surviving spouse qualifies for survivor benefits, the Social Security Administration looks to the law of the state where the deceased worker was living at death. If that state considers first-cousin marriages void, the surviving spouse may not qualify, even if the marriage was legal in New York. SSA treats the inability to marry due to a blood relationship as a substantive defect that a good-faith belief in the marriage’s validity cannot cure.8Social Security Administration. SSR 63-20 – Relationship – Validity of Marriage Between First Cousins
The short version: if you and your first-cousin spouse relocate to a state that bans cousin marriage, your federal tax filing is safe and an approved immigration petition should hold, but Social Security survivor benefits could be at risk.
Genetic Risk and Family Planning
Children of first-cousin parents face roughly a 1.7 to 2.8 percent higher risk of birth defects compared to the general population baseline, driven mainly by autosomal recessive disorders where both parents carry the same rare gene variant.9PMC (PubMed Central). Consanguineous Marriage and Its Association With Genetic Disorders in Saudi Arabia: A Review For context, the baseline risk of birth defects for any couple is around 3 to 4 percent, so a first-cousin couple’s total risk lands somewhere in the range of roughly 5 to 7 percent.
New York does not require genetic counseling before marriage. Couples planning children have practical options anyway. Preconception carrier screening, including whole exome sequencing, can identify shared variants that could affect offspring, and if a problem shows up, couples can pursue prenatal diagnosis or preimplantation genetic testing during IVF.10Frontiers in Genetics. A Protocol for Preconceptional Screening of Consanguineous Couples Using Whole Exome Sequencing A genetic counselor can review family medical history, recommend the right screening, and put the statistical risks into perspective for your situation.
When to Talk to a Family Law Attorney
Most first-cousin couples in New York will complete the license process without needing legal help. An attorney becomes useful when the marriage intersects with other jurisdictions. If you plan to move to a state that bans cousin marriage, a lawyer can research whether that state has invoked the public policy exception and walk you through the practical consequences for property rights, inheritance, and medical decision-making authority. Couples in immigration proceedings should also consider counsel, since the extra scrutiny given to consanguineous marriages can slow a case or require documentation beyond what a typical spousal petition needs.