im currently engaged, and we are getting ready to move to st. maarten, but I was wondering if it would be more beneficial for us to be married before going, or it doesnt matter, still being engaged is just fine. Let me know. thanks

Beneficial how?

Financially?

Emothionally?

Morally?

Legally?

Depends on what you are measuring.

If you marry and your spouse to be works state side with a USA tax liability then you may get to deduct some of the expense of your education when you file joint taxes.

If the covenant of marriage is huge to you then you'll be taking your life partner/ family/ support system with you. With all the joys and struggles maneuvering through marriage and med school holds. Otherwise by taking your fiance, you are taking a "maybe", a relationship that might faulter easier and/ or potential require a different sort of management to sustain while you are distracted with the obligations of medical school study.

Although, legally, she won't be able to get residency papers in St. Maarten unless you two are married. Although, many students don't get their residency papers until after several semesters.

Depends on your value system. If you don't get married, then you don't have worry about alimony if you divorce after medical school/residency. Unfortunately, in many states the judges give a value to education endured by a spouse and award graded alimony payments based on that value.

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[X] Internal Medicine, Surgery, Psych, Ob/Gyn, Family Practice
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There are lots of married people that come down together, lots of people who are engaged (and many in my class who just got married over the last break), as well as some who come down together and are just dating. You should be fine either way. You might just have more time for a proper wedding and honeymoon if you get married before you come here. I wouldn't want to have to rush the honeymoon, and definitely wouldn't want to have it in SXM.

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AUC 5th Semester!!

Yeah I don't understand your question. Are you trying to use this as leverage to get your SO to marry you earlier?

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AUA 4th-ish (?) Semester

Ok well im not trying to get married any earlier, or have any leverage to have him marry me sooner. We've been together long enough I dont have any worries about things, seeing as we have been through the whole undergraduate studies together and whatever. We were going to do it after medical schooling, but what I am trying to say is I was not sure if St. Maarten or AUC does things differently when someone has a spouse or just having a significant other. Another words whether residency if we even need it, schooling, health and medical reasons, or me being his next to kin and vice versa with me. So I was seeing if someone knew if it would be more better for someone who is engaged to be married before moving some where far from family, home, and friends then to just go out as an engaged couple. Does this make better sense??

I think that these are all decisions that you will have to make. It is different for every person. If you come from a very conservative christian background, like my wife and I do, then it may be easier for your family to be supportive of your decision if you are married first.

Being away from home is going to be hard (at times), regardless of your marital status.

AUC doesn't care if you are living with someone that you are not married to. There are unmarried couples living together at the school. In fact, there are unmarried couples in the spouse's organization.

Legally, unless you have a marriage certificate, a non student cannot get a residency permit for sint maarten

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~Slaol

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WCU Biology '07
AUC May '08


"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."
~Edmund Burke

Get Involved: PM me if interested
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http://www.ivdn-africa.org/medical_programs.asp

Slaol- thanks for letting me know. I figured it would be based on a decision we would make. But you did help me a little bit by letting me know some things. I was just seeing what would be better, b/c ultimately we would like to wait until we get back to the US to get married, but we werent sure how things would work god forbid anything happening and so forth. I just want to make sure that I will be able to do things for him or with him as if we were married and same with him with me. I dont plan to get residency there b/c I dont plan to live there only going for school so I dont think we need to even worry about that then right?

You, as a student, will have to apply for a residency permit to live on the island. If you don't have this permit, you can't legally stay more than three months without leaving (even if you come right back).

The school really doesn't care about your marital status. Your SO will be able to use the facilities of the school with no problem. As long as your significant other doesn't enter the school wielding a chainsaw or a Kalashnikov, they will not even ask them for an id (most of the time).

I would contact the spouse's organization (see the sticky thread in this forum) and ask them what to do in the case of unmarried couples. They are a great resource and will be able to answer all your questions .

__________________
~Slaol

--------------------------------------------------------------
WCU Biology '07
AUC May '08


"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."
~Edmund Burke

Get Involved: PM me if interested
http://www.dagodalahera.org/
http://www.ivdn-africa.org/medical_programs.asp