How to Get a Domestic Partnership in PA: Philadelphia and Pittsburgh

To get a domestic partnership in Pennsylvania, you have to live in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. The state itself does not recognize domestic partnerships or civil unions, so there is no state agency to file with and no statewide certificate.¹ Philadelphia runs a “Life Partnership” registry under Section 9-1123 of its Fair Practices Ordinance, and Pittsburgh maintains a separate “Domestic Partnership” registry under its municipal code.² Registration only carries legal weight inside the city that issued it, and even there it does not come close to what marriage provides.

If you live anywhere else in Pennsylvania, no municipal option exists for you. A Philadelphia Life Partnership means nothing in Allentown or Erie.

Philadelphia Life Partnership: Who Qualifies

Philadelphia’s program is the more detailed of the two. Both partners must meet every one of the following:³

Be at least 18 years old and mentally competent.
Share at least one residence.
Not be currently married to anyone else.
Not be registered in another life partnership.
Not be related by blood in a way that would prohibit marriage under Pennsylvania law.
Agree to share the common necessities of life and be responsible for each other’s welfare.²

The 90-Day Financial Interdependence Rule

This is the step that trips people up. You cannot just show up and register. Philadelphia requires proof that you and your partner have been financially interdependent for at least 90 days before you file. You must submit at least two documents from the following list, and each has to show dates covering the full 90 days:³

Common ownership of real property or a lease in both names
Common ownership of a motor vehicle
Driver’s licenses or state-issued IDs listing the same address
Joint bank accounts or credit accounts
Designation as a beneficiary for life insurance or retirement benefits
Appointment as the other partner’s agent under a power of attorney or healthcare power of attorney

Couples who have lived together for years but kept accounts separate often need to set up qualifying paperwork and then wait out the three months before applying. Plan ahead.

How to File

Registration runs through Philadelphia’s Marriage License Department at City Hall, which sits under the Register of Wills.² Download the Life Partnership registration packet from the city’s website and complete the Verification Statement Checklist in blue or black ink. Email the completed checklist and your two supporting documents to lifepartnership@phila.gov. Mail-in submissions are no longer accepted.⁴ If pre-approved, you will receive instructions to schedule an in-person appointment to finalize the registration.

The filing fee is $40. A ceremonial certificate is an additional $10.⁴ The Orphans’ Court accepts Visa, MasterCard, and money orders. No personal checks, no cash.

Pittsburgh’s Domestic Partnership Registry

Pittsburgh maintains its own registry under city code, handled through the city clerk’s office. The core eligibility rules track Philadelphia’s: both partners must be at least 18, mentally competent, unmarried, and not already registered in another partnership. The Pittsburgh process is less extensively documented than Philadelphia’s, so confirm current fees and processing times with the city clerk directly.

What Registration Actually Gets You

Inside city limits, registered partners can access certain benefits tied to city-sponsored programs. In Philadelphia, that includes eligibility for the health plans offered to some city government employees’ partners.¹ Hospital visitation and similar recognitions within city facilities may also apply.

What you do not get is anything at the state or federal level. Registration will not change your tax filing status, will not give you inheritance rights under Pennsylvania law, will not qualify you for Social Security spousal benefits, and will not make you automatic next of kin for medical decisions. Those are large gaps, and closing them requires separate legal work.

Benefits You Might Assume You Get, But Don’t

FMLA Leave

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act defines “spouse” using state marriage law. The Department of Labor has said directly that people in domestic partnerships are not spouses under the FMLA.⁵ You cannot take federally protected unpaid leave to care for a seriously ill domestic partner.

COBRA

Federal COBRA continuation coverage extends only to covered employees, spouses, former spouses, and dependent children. Domestic partners are not qualified beneficiaries.⁶ If your partner’s employer voluntarily gave you coverage and that employment ends, federal law gives you no right to continue it.

Taxable Health Premiums

Some employers do offer health coverage to domestic partners. When they do, the IRS treats the employer’s share of your premium as taxable income to your partner, because federal tax law does not recognize the partnership as a marriage.⁷ Married spouses are exempt. The added tax often surprises couples on their first return after enrolling.

Social Security

Social Security spousal and survivor benefits generally require marriage. The Social Security Administration has said that some people in non-marital legal relationships may qualify under limited circumstances and recommends contacting the agency directly to check.⁸ For most domestic partners, these benefits are unavailable in practice.

Pennsylvania’s 15% Inheritance Tax

This one has real financial teeth. Pennsylvania imposes an inheritance tax, and the rate depends on the heir’s relationship to the person who died. A surviving spouse pays 0%. Children and grandchildren pay 4.5%. Siblings pay 12%. Everyone else, including a registered domestic partner, pays 15%.⁹

If your partner leaves you a $400,000 home, you owe $60,000 in Pennsylvania inheritance tax. A married spouse inheriting the same home pays nothing. The 15% rate applies to every asset that passes to you: retirement accounts, bank accounts, personal property, real estate, and life insurance proceeds payable to your partner’s estate. A well-drafted will controls who inherits, but it does not change the tax rate.

Documents That Close the Gaps

Because registration provides so little, most unmarried couples in Pennsylvania assemble a set of private legal documents. These work statewide, whether or not your city runs a registry.

Powers of Attorney and Healthcare Directives

A durable power of attorney lets your partner handle financial matters if you become incapacitated. A separate healthcare power of attorney lets your partner make medical decisions. Without both, hospitals and financial institutions default to your closest blood relatives, who may not know your wishes or may disagree with them. You need both documents; one does not cover the other’s territory.

Wills

Pennsylvania’s intestacy rules distribute a decedent’s property among spouses, children, parents, and siblings. Domestic partners are not on that list. If your partner dies without a will, you have no legal claim to any of their property, no matter how long you lived together. A will is not optional here. Given the 15% inheritance tax, a fuller estate plan using trusts or other strategies is worth discussing with an attorney.⁹

Property Titling

Married couples in Pennsylvania can hold real estate as tenants by the entirety, which passes full ownership to the survivor automatically. Unmarried couples cannot use that form. The closest alternative is joint tenancy with right of survivorship, which also passes ownership automatically at death. The deed must explicitly state the right of survivorship. Without that language, Pennsylvania may treat the property as a tenancy in common, and your partner’s share would go to their estate instead of to you.

Second-Parent Adoption

If you are raising children together and only one partner is the biological or legal parent, the other has no automatic parental rights. Pennsylvania courts have permitted second-parent adoption for unmarried couples since a 2002 state Supreme Court decision, which lets the non-legal parent adopt without terminating the other parent’s rights. Without an adoption order, the non-legal parent can lose all custody if the relationship ends or the legal parent dies. Handle this before a crisis forces it.

How to End a Registered Partnership

Terminating a Philadelphia Life Partnership is more straightforward than divorce, though there is a waiting period. You file with the Register of Wills using one of two forms.¹⁰

When both partners agree, they file a Joint Life Partnership Termination Statement, and the termination takes effect 60 days after filing. When only one partner wants out, that partner files an Individual Life Partnership Termination Statement and must serve the other partner with notice. The termination then takes effect 60 days after proof of service is filed with the Register of Wills.

The termination process does not divide property, allocate debts, or resolve custody. If your finances are entangled or you share children, those matters have to be handled separately through private agreements or court proceedings. Ending the registration only removes the municipal record.

When Marriage Fits Better

Marriage is the only option in Pennsylvania that carries protection at every level of government. Since Obergefell v. Hodges, both same-sex and opposite-sex couples can obtain marriage licenses.¹¹ Licenses come from the clerk of orphans’ court in any Pennsylvania county. Both applicants appear in person with valid ID and proof of Social Security number and pay a $60 filing fee. A three-day waiting period applies, and the license is valid for 60 days.

Pennsylvania abolished common law marriage for any relationship formed after January 1, 2005. Living together, sharing expenses, and presenting as a couple, however long, does not create a legal marriage today.

A municipal domestic partnership is a modest public declaration with limited local benefits. Marriage triggers the full infrastructure: tax filing status, inheritance rights, Social Security eligibility, FMLA leave, COBRA coverage, and automatic next-of-kin status. If you choose partnership over marriage, the private documents above close many of the gaps, but assembling them takes work, costs money, and still will not replicate everything marriage does automatically.

1
FindLaw. Pennsylvania Domestic Partnership Laws
2
City of Philadelphia. Register a Life Partnership
3
City of Philadelphia. Life Partnership Qualification Guidelines
4
City of Philadelphia. Life Partnership Verification Statement Checklist
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28L – Leave Under the Family and Medical Leave Act When You and Your Spouse Work for the Same Employer
6
U.S. Department of Labor. An Employee’s Guide to Health Benefits Under COBRA
7
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 15-B (2026) Employer’s Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits
8
Social Security Administration. Do I Qualify for Benefits as a Spouse if I Am Now in, or the Surviving Spouse of, a Civil Union, Domestic Partnership, or Other Non-Marital Legal Relationship?
9
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Inheritance Tax
10
City of Philadelphia. Guide to Terminating Your Life Partnership in Philadelphia
11
Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. Obergefell v. Hodges