Scrambling. Rushing. Accelerating plans.
Those and like descriptors are prominently cited multiple times in a recent national news article focused upon what some commentators note seems to be a growing phenomenon.
And that is this: an increasing number of couples expediting their marriage plans in the wake of the new presidential administration’s ascendancy to power.
The reason why more couples are now showing up at city halls across the country to apply for marriage licenses sooner rather than later — in one major eastern city, a recent measuring period noted a 20-percent jump in applications from the same timeframe a year earlier — seems clear enough from reference to comments those couples are making: They say they harbor concerns with immigration rules and policies going forward that might imperil their unions.
Such concerns are of course most germane for couples featuring a U.S. citizen and a foreign national, respectively. Recent administration moves regarding attempts to halt immigration, coupled with stepped-up measures to investigate certain individuals domestically, are motivating increasingly more couples to speed up their marriage timetables.
And, along with that, commentators on the subject add that more requests for information regarding prenuptial agreement are being made.
Although such an agreement was anticipated by many would-be marrying couples, anyway, a sudden need for speed is being perceived at the same time as urgency is being felt to formally tie the knot.
That might not be a big deal in many cases, but it certainly bears noting that marital contracts are hardly legal conveyances that should be executed in haste. A premarital agreement — which is governed by state law — customarily has many and detailed requirements, with courts being loathe to enforce contracts that they view as being onerous, one sided and/or quickly pushed through upon the insistence of one of the parties.
It will be interesting to see whether anecdotal and empirical evidence continues to support the claim that international couples are now hurrying to the altar or to their local city hall to ink marriage licenses because of the recent presidential transition.
