Yes, bigamy is a crime in all 50 states, and in most of them it is a felony. Marrying someone while you are still legally married to another person can bring prison time ranging from about one year to ten years, fines that in some states reach six figures, and a second marriage that is void from the moment it happened. For non-citizens, a conviction can also mean deportation or denial of citizenship.
What Counts as Bigamy
The offense is simple to define. You have a legally valid first marriage that has not ended by death, divorce, or annulment, and you enter a second marriage while that first one is still in effect. The crime is complete the moment the second ceremony takes place, or in states that recognize common-law marriage, the moment the couple holds themselves out as married. It does not matter where the second marriage happened or what form it took.
Most states require prosecutors to prove the person knew they were still married. A handful treat bigamy as a strict-liability offense, meaning intent is irrelevant.
Bigamy and Polygamy Are Not the Same
The two terms get used interchangeably, but the law separates them. Bigamy usually involves deception, where one spouse does not know the other marriage exists. Polygamy involves multiple spouses who all know about one another. Both are illegal, and federal law gives polygamous marriages no recognition under the Respect for Marriage Act.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 1 USC 7 – Marriage Bigamy charges tend to emphasize the fraud element.
Criminal Penalties
Most states classify bigamy as a felony. A smaller number treat it as a misdemeanor, and a few adjust the classification depending on whether fraud or other aggravating factors are present.
In felony states, prison terms typically run one to five years, and some states authorize up to ten. Misdemeanor states cap jail time in days or months rather than years. Judges tend to weigh circumstances heavily at sentencing. Someone who thought a prior divorce was final will usually face a very different outcome than someone who married a second person to drain their bank account.
Fines run just as wide. Many felony statutes authorize fines between $1,000 and $10,000, with some jurisdictions setting the cap much higher. Fines come on top of prison time, not in place of it.
A conviction also leaves a permanent criminal record that can block employment, professional licensing, and housing. Those collateral consequences last long after any sentence is served.
What Happens to the Second Marriage
A bigamous marriage is void. Not voidable, not something a court chooses to annul — void from the moment it occurred, as if it never existed. The second spouse has no default marital rights to property, inheritance, or support, and cannot file for an ordinary divorce because there is no valid marriage to dissolve.
Protection for the Innocent Spouse
Many states soften that result through the putative spouse doctrine. A person who married in good faith, honestly believing the marriage was valid, is treated as a spouse for purposes of property division and sometimes support, even though the marriage was void. The doctrine exists to keep the bigamist from profiting at the innocent partner’s expense.
Not every state recognizes it, and the specifics vary where it does. In some states a putative spouse shares property rights alongside the legal first spouse. In others the court divides assets based on equitable factors. The protection only extends to a second spouse who did not know about the prior marriage. Someone who entered the second marriage with full knowledge gets nothing.
Inheritance and Survivor Benefits
When a bigamist dies, surviving spouses face a legal mess. The legal first spouse generally has the stronger claim to inheritance and to benefits like life insurance payouts or Social Security survivor benefits. A putative second spouse may have claims through the doctrine, but those claims are contested and depend on the jurisdiction. Federal benefit programs usually recognize only one surviving spouse, and sorting out which one qualifies can take litigation. Resolving a suspected bigamous marriage while everyone is still alive is far cheaper than untangling it in probate court.
Children of a Bigamous Marriage
Children are not punished for a parent’s bigamy. Every state has moved away from treating “illegitimacy” as a legal category, and children born during a void marriage keep the same rights to child support, custody, and inheritance from both parents as any other child. The validity of the parents’ marriage does not affect the parent-child relationship or the obligations that come with it.
Immigration Consequences
For non-citizens, the immigration fallout can hit harder than the criminal sentence. Two provisions of federal law apply directly.
A non-citizen convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude is inadmissible to the United States, which can mean visa denial, refusal of entry, or deportation. Bigamy is widely treated as a crime involving moral turpitude.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens A narrow exception exists for a single offense where the maximum possible sentence was one year or less and the actual sentence was six months or less, but since most states make bigamy a felony carrying more than a year, the exception rarely helps.
A separate provision makes any immigrant coming to the United States to practice polygamy inadmissible, with or without a criminal conviction.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens It targets the practice itself.
Citizenship is also at risk. Naturalization requires good moral character, and intentionally committing bigamy counts against an applicant whether or not there was a conviction. An applicant who deliberately entered a bigamous marriage generally needs to wait at least five years after the situation ended before applying. Someone who committed bigamy unintentionally and took steps to dissolve the invalid marriage may face a shorter wait or none at all.
Defenses That Actually Work
Several defenses can defeat a bigamy charge. The right one depends on what actually happened.
The First Marriage Was Already Over
Proof that the first marriage ended before the second one began defeats the charge entirely. A finalized divorce decree or annulment order does the job. Trouble comes when someone thought their divorce was final but a procedural defect left it incomplete. That situation does not kill the charge outright, but it sets up the good-faith defense below.
The First Marriage Was Void
If the first marriage was never legally valid in the first place — through fraud, duress, or failure to meet basic requirements like minimum age or mental capacity — there is nothing for the second marriage to violate. Showing the first marriage was void from inception is a complete defense.
Good-Faith Belief the First Marriage Had Ended
Many states let a defendant show they genuinely and reasonably believed the first marriage was over. An attorney who told them the divorce was final, or paperwork that appeared to confirm the dissolution, can support the defense. Courts look at whether the belief was reasonable and what the defendant did to verify it. A vague assumption is not enough.
Absent Spouse Presumed Dead
At common law and under many state statutes, someone whose spouse has been absent and unheard from for a long enough period can remarry without criminal exposure. The common-law threshold is seven years. State statutes vary, with five years being the most common. If the absent spouse was last known to be in a life-threatening situation, some states shorten the period. The defendant has to show they genuinely did not know whether the absent spouse was alive during that time.
One defense that does not work: religious practice. The Supreme Court held in Reynolds v. United States that religious belief does not excuse compliance with bigamy laws, and that ruling still stands.3Justia Law. Reynolds v United States, 98 US 145 (1878)
How Often Bigamy Actually Gets Prosecuted
p>Rarely. The vast majority of bigamous situations never produce criminal charges. Most come to light during divorce proceedings or benefit disputes, not criminal investigations, and prosecutors generally have higher priorities than untangling someone’s marital history.
The cases that do get charged almost always involve aggravating facts — someone who married a second spouse to commit fraud, access assets, or obtain immigration benefits. A person who did not realize their divorce was never finalized is far less likely to face prosecution than someone who deliberately hid an existing marriage. That said, the civil consequences do not wait for a prosecutor. A void marriage, disrupted property rights, and potential immigration fallout arrive whether or not charges are ever filed.