Bigamy in California is the crime of marrying or entering a registered domestic partnership with someone while you are still legally married or partnered to another living person. It is prosecuted under Penal Code 281, the second marriage is void from the moment it occurs, and a conviction can mean up to a year in county jail, state prison time, or a fine of up to $10,000.1California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 2812California Legislative Information. California Penal Code Section 283
What Counts as Bigamy
Penal Code 281 applies when a person who has a living spouse or registered domestic partner marries or enters a domestic partnership with someone else. The prior relationship must have been legally ended, through divorce, annulment, or a court judgment declaring it void, before a new one can begin. Traditional marriage and registered domestic partnership are treated the same under the statute.1California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 281
Prosecutors do not need a marriage certificate to prove the earlier marriage. The statute allows either marriage to be established through any admissible evidence, including testimony, photographs, or financial records. When the second marriage took place outside California, proof of that marriage along with evidence that the couple later lived together in California is enough to support the charge.1California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 281
Criminal Penalties
Bigamy is a “wobbler” in California, meaning prosecutors can charge it as either a misdemeanor or a felony. Penal Code 283 sets the punishment as a fine of up to $10,000, up to one year in county jail, or time in state prison.2California Legislative Information. California Penal Code Section 283
Which way a case goes usually depends on the facts. Prosecutors look at whether the defendant knew the first marriage was still active, whether fraud was involved, and whether the second spouse was deceived. Cases built on deliberate deception, financial exploitation, or repeat conduct tend to draw felony charges. Cases that look more like procedural confusion over a divorce are more likely to be charged as misdemeanors, if they are charged at all.
Penalties for the Knowing Second Spouse
California also punishes the unmarried party when they go into the marriage with their eyes open. Penal Code 284 covers anyone who knowingly and willfully marries or enters a domestic partnership with someone they know is already married. The punishment is a fine of at least $5,000 or state prison time.3California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 284 The word “knowingly” controls. Someone who genuinely did not know their partner was still married is not reached by this statute.
When a Second Marriage Is Not Bigamy
Penal Code 282 identifies two situations where a person cannot be convicted of bigamy even though a prior spouse is still alive:
- The former spouse has been absent for five consecutive years and the person did not know during that time that the spouse was alive.4California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 282
- A court has already declared the former marriage void, annulled it, or granted a divorce.4California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 282
Family Code 2201 parallels this on the civil side. A new marriage is treated as valid, rather than automatically void, when the former spouse has been absent for five consecutive years without being known to be alive, or when the former spouse is generally believed to be dead at the time of the new marriage. In those situations the new marriage stands unless and until a court declares it void.5California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 2201 Both the criminal and civil exceptions apply to registered domestic partnerships as well as marriages.
Defenses at Trial
Outside the statutory exceptions, the most common defense is a genuine, reasonable belief that the first marriage had already ended. Divorce procedures are slow and easy to misread. A person may think a divorce was finalized when the final judgment was never actually entered, or may have been given inaccurate information by a lawyer or court clerk. Showing the belief was honest and that a reasonable person in the same position would have reached the same conclusion can defeat the charge.
A related defense applies when the defendant reasonably believed the former spouse was dead, even if fewer than five years had passed. The strength of either defense depends on concrete evidence: communications from officials, documented attempts to locate the former spouse, news of a disaster. Vague assertions are not enough.
What Happens to the Second Marriage and Any Shared Property
Under Family Code 2201, a bigamous marriage is void from the start. It has no legal effect and never did.5California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 2201 Without more, that leaves the second spouse without the community property rights, spousal support, and other protections that come with a valid marriage, even if both people contributed to the household for years.
Family Code 2251 softens this result for a spouse who did not know. If a court declares a marriage void and finds that one or both parties believed in good faith that the marriage was valid, it must declare the good-faith party a “putative spouse.” Property acquired during the void marriage can then be divided as “quasi-marital property,” using the same rules that apply to community property in a regular divorce. The court can also reserve jurisdiction to handle property division later.6California Legislative Information. California Family Code Section 2251
Good faith is the gatekeeper. A spouse who knew or should have known their partner was already married does not get putative spouse protection.
Immigration Consequences
A bigamous marriage can create problems that reach well past the state criminal case. Federal law makes it a crime to knowingly enter a marriage for the purpose of evading immigration laws, punishable by up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1325 – Improper Entry by Alien A bigamous marriage used to obtain immigration benefits fits within that statute.
Even without a fraud prosecution, a visa or green card application built on a bigamous marriage can be denied, an existing visa can be revoked, and the applicant can be placed in removal proceedings. USCIS treats marriage fraud as a serious ground of inadmissibility, which can mean a permanent bar on future U.S. visas. A marriage-based immigration petition that turns out to rest on a void marriage will come apart regardless of what the parties originally intended.