In short: of the 97 countries we track, marriage is open to same-sex couples in 35, 20 of them in Europe. Another 7 register a partnership, and 6 will not marry a couple at home but recognise a marriage made abroad, which often settles the residence question. In 13 countries the relationship itself is a criminal offence. This is the position on the date of our check in the header: in several countries the law is moving right now, and their cards say so separately.
No such country in this list. Check the spelling.
Marriage is open under the general marriage law, so the ordinary spouse rules follow: residence, inheritance, hospital access. Within each group, countries are in alphabetical order.
A registered partnership or civil union gives part of the rights of a married couple. What exactly it covers differs by country: see the residence line.
For a move this often decides the matter: the couple marries abroad first, and here that marriage gives the spouse the right to stay. How far recognition goes differs by country.
The law does not see such a couple: a spouse does not count as family and there is no residence through marriage. There is no nationwide offence for the relationship itself here, but local bans and public morality articles exist: see the Note line.
We state the article and the penalty as written in law. How often it is enforced depends on the country and the year, so each card carries a separate line on that.
As of our check on 22 October 2026, marriage is open to same-sex couples in 35 of the 97 countries we track, 20 of them in Europe. They include Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Argentina, Germany, France. The full list with the conditions for each country is above on this page.
Sometimes yes. 6 countries will not marry a couple at home but recognise a marriage made abroad, at least for some rights. Most often that recognition is exactly what a spouse needs for residence. The scope varies: some countries recognise the marriage in full, others only as a ground to stay.
It depends on your passport. On 25 November 2025 the Court of Justice of the EU ruled in case C-713/23 that member states must recognise a same-sex marriage concluded in another EU country with its full legal effects, not only for the right to live there. The ruling covers EU citizens who have used their free movement rights. A marriage concluded outside the EU is not covered, and neither is a couple where both spouses are third-country nationals. For a couple of an EU citizen and a foreigner there is also the 2018 Coman ruling on residence for the spouse, which Romania has still not implemented.
This is the question that matters when you move, and the answer does not always match the marriage line. Where marriage is open, a spouse follows the ordinary family reunification route and passes the same income and housing checks as any couple. Where only a foreign marriage is recognised, residence is often granted while other rights are not. In the no recognition group a spouse is not treated as family, and each of you has to move on a work permit or another ground of your own.
A partnership gives part of the rights of marriage, and each country decides which part. Three things matter for a move: whether it gives the partner a right to stay, whether other countries recognise it, and whether it converts into marriage if the law changes. A partnership registered in one country often means nothing in another, while marriage travels better.
There are 13 such countries on our list: Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan. We state the article and the penalty as written in law, and a separate line says whether it is enforced in practice. For a move this is a safety question rather than a comfort one, so check those countries separately and read your own foreign ministry's travel advice.
The rules move faster than people expect: Thailand opened marriage in January 2025, Latvia introduced partnership in July 2024, and since August 2026 Poland enters marriages from EU countries in its register. Everything here is the position on the date of our check in the page header, not a promise about the future. In three countries the law is moving right now: in Ghana a stricter bill has passed parliament and is unsigned, in Hungary the Constitutional Court demanded recognition of marriages from abroad and parliament passed no law, and in Poland the registration rule is being challenged before the Constitutional Tribunal. Their cards say so separately. Before you decide, check recent news and the authority's own website: we recheck this list every three months, and sooner if we see a law passed or a court ruling.
We checked three things across all 97 countries in our ranking: whether a same-sex couple can marry in the country, whether a marriage made abroad is recognised, and whether the country grants residence to a spouse or partner. Sources: laws and government websites, the ILGA World database, Human Dignity Trust, court rulings. We describe the law, not how people behave in the street: a country can sit in the first group and still feel unwelcoming, and the other way round. This is not legal advice: before you file, check the current rules on the immigration service website, because they change. The date of our check is in the page header. We put a country in the criminal offence group when the article applies nationwide. Regional bans and public morality articles are described in that country's Note line.
The list is built from the index cards of the 97 countries in our ranking and the country pages, where every fact has a source. Checked 22/10/2026.
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