A bigamist is someone who marries a second person while still legally married to a living spouse whom they have not divorced. The definition of a bigamist turns on one moment: going through a second marriage ceremony while the first marriage is still legally in force. Every U.S. state criminalizes the act, the second marriage is void from the start, and the consequences can reach into property, immigration status, and professional licensing.
The Three Conditions
Three things must be true at the same time for someone to qualify as a bigamist. There must be a prior marriage that was legally valid. That marriage must still be active, meaning no court has finalized a divorce or annulment. And the original spouse must be alive when the person goes through a second marriage ceremony.
The second ceremony itself is what triggers criminal liability. The person doesn’t need to live with the second spouse, share finances, or hold the relationship out publicly. Participating in the ceremony while still married is enough. The Model Penal Code reaches a married person who “contracts or purports to contract another marriage,” and the word “purports” makes clear that even a ceremonially defective second marriage counts.1Internet Archive. Model Penal Code – Section 230.1 Bigamy and Polygamy
Getting a divorce from the first spouse later does not undo any of this. The criminal act already happened, and the second marriage stays void.
Bigamy Is Not the Same as Polygamy
The two words get used interchangeably, but they describe different situations. Bigamy involves marrying one additional person while concealing or disregarding an existing marriage. Polygamy is the practice of maintaining multiple spouses at once, often as a claimed religious or cultural right. The U.S. State Department draws the same line: bigamy is a criminal act resulting from having more than one spouse without a prior divorce, while polygamy is the custom or practice of plural marriage.2U.S. Department of State. 9 FAM 302.12 Ineligibility Based on Other Activities
The grading reflects that difference. The Model Penal Code classifies bigamy as a misdemeanor. Polygamy, which involves marrying or cohabiting with more than one spouse “in purported exercise of the right of plural marriage,” is a third-degree felony.1Internet Archive. Model Penal Code – Section 230.1 Bigamy and Polygamy States don’t all follow the Model Penal Code’s grading, but the distinction between a single act of deception and a lifestyle of plural marriage runs through both frameworks.
Criminal Penalties
Penalties vary dramatically across the country. Roughly half the states treat bigamy as a felony; the rest classify it as a misdemeanor. The Model Penal Code designates it a misdemeanor, but many state legislatures have chosen harsher classifications.1Internet Archive. Model Penal Code – Section 230.1 Bigamy and Polygamy
On the lighter end, some states impose fines as low as $500 or sentence offenders to community service. On the heavier end, felony convictions can bring prison terms of five to ten years and fines reaching $10,000 or more. A few jurisdictions go further, with one state authorizing fines up to $150,000 and others allowing sentences of up to nine or ten years. The severity often turns on whether the bigamist deceived the second spouse, whether a minor was involved, and whether the person has prior convictions.
A conviction also leaves a permanent criminal record that can affect employment, professional licensing, and housing. In at least one state, a bigamy conviction can trigger revocation of medical licenses and disqualification from holding public office.
The person who knowingly marries a bigamist can face charges too. Under the Model Penal Code, someone who “contracts or purports to contract marriage with another knowing that the other is thereby committing bigamy” is also guilty.1Internet Archive. Model Penal Code – Section 230.1 Bigamy and Polygamy A second spouse who had no idea is not criminally liable.
Defenses
Not every second marriage results in a conviction. The Model Penal Code recognizes four situations where a married person who enters another marriage has a valid defense:
- The person genuinely believed their first spouse had died before the second ceremony.
- The person and the prior spouse had lived apart for five consecutive years and the person had no information that the spouse was still alive.
- The person relied on a court divorce or annulment decree and did not know the decree was invalid, even if it was later overturned on a technicality.
- The person otherwise had a reasonable, legitimate basis for believing they were free to remarry.
All four come from Section 230.1 of the Model Penal Code.1Internet Archive. Model Penal Code – Section 230.1 Bigamy and Polygamy Individual states adopt, modify, or reject these defenses, so what’s available depends on local law. The common thread is that criminal bigamy generally requires some level of knowledge or fault. A person who honestly and reasonably believed they were free to marry stands on very different ground than someone who deliberately hid an existing marriage.
Many states also have “Enoch Arden” provisions letting a person petition a court to dissolve a marriage when a spouse has been absent for a set number of years, often five or more. Once the court grants the dissolution, the remaining spouse is legally free to remarry, and the new marriage stays valid even if the missing spouse later turns up.
The Second Marriage Is Void From the Start
A bigamous second marriage is void ab initio. Courts treat it as though it never existed. Unlike a voidable marriage, which stays in effect until a court invalidates it, a void marriage has no legal standing from the moment of the ceremony.
No spousal rights, property claims, or inheritance rights flow from it. Someone who married a person who turned out to already be married has no automatic claim to that person’s property, retirement benefits, or estate.
And this status cannot be fixed after the fact. If the bigamist later divorces their first spouse, the second marriage does not spring to life. The couple would need to hold an entirely new, legally proper ceremony after the first marriage has been formally dissolved. Until then, they are not married in any legal sense, no matter how long they have lived together or what they have told others.
Protections for an Innocent Second Spouse
The putative spouse doctrine exists for someone who married a bigamist without knowing about the existing marriage. About a dozen states, including California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, and Texas, recognize it. If a court finds that the second spouse entered the marriage in good faith and genuinely believed it was valid, that person is declared a “putative spouse” and receives some of the property rights they would have had in a legitimate marriage.
Good faith is the key. The innocent spouse must have been unaware of the impediment. Once that person learns the truth, the putative marriage ends and the protections stop accruing from that point forward. Property acquired during the period of good-faith belief is treated as though it were marital property and divided accordingly.
A putative spouse in a recognizing state may share property rights alongside the legal first spouse, which can create complicated three-way disputes over assets the bigamist accumulated during the overlapping relationships. The doctrine does not make the void marriage valid. It just prevents an innocent person from losing everything because their spouse committed fraud. In states that do not recognize the doctrine, the deceived spouse’s main recourse may be a civil fraud lawsuit against the bigamist.
Children Born During a Bigamous Marriage
Children are not penalized for their parents’ legal problems. Most states treat children born to parents who went through a marriage ceremony as legitimate, even if that marriage later turns out to be void. The child has the same rights to custody, child support, and inheritance as any other child, and the marital presumption of paternity holds even after the marriage is declared void.
Immigration Consequences
A bigamy conviction can be treated as a crime involving moral turpitude under federal immigration law, which can make a person inadmissible to the United States or ineligible for a visa.2U.S. Department of State. 9 FAM 302.12 Ineligibility Based on Other Activities For naturalization applicants, a conviction during the statutory good moral character period can derail the entire citizenship process.
The exposure goes beyond criminal convictions. A spousal visa petition based on a bigamous marriage is invalid because the underlying marriage does not exist. Discovering that a prior marriage was never properly dissolved is one of the more common ways bigamy surfaces in the immigration context, and if fraud is found, the petitioner can face bars on future petitions as well as denial of the current one.