Foreign marriages in Sri Lanka

Been away a few days – mainly in bed with a stomach bug. Sometimes this happens when you live in the tropics, no amount of cleanliness, or strict adherence to only bottled water will stop it. Being a lover of most Sri Lankan street food such as kotthu roti and egg hoppers as well as regularly eating out in “tourist” restaurants you can never be sure….it could have been a dodgy beer.

Anyway back to the subject of foreign marriages in Sri Lanka. By this I mean people from other countries marrying Sri Lankans, not the tourists who come here for 2 or 3 weeks for their all-inclusive wedding in a 5* resort complete with elephant rides on the beach.

Tourists getting married in Sri lanka – courtesy of Vivanta by Taj

I just read this blog by Indi, who is a great blogger on all things Sri Lankan and wanted to share it because I have a lot of non-Sri Lankan friends (both women and men) who are married to Sri Lankans. In the majority of cases these are genuine love marriages and these couples have a hard time of it…both in Sri Lanka and abroad.

Here is Indi’s view on the situation in Sri Lanka and one which I share.

http://indi.ca/2012/05/unequal-marriage-in-sri-lanka-the-foreign-kind/

There are of course people who marry solely for residency visa’s both here and abroad (or for money etc.) but these are generally easy to spot and Sri Lankans especially tend to be very intuitive and emotional when it comes to matters of the heart. I say give MORE rights to the genuine couples and families but to shift the immigration legislation focus from income and wealth issues to establishing whether these couples are genuine by interviewing them, looking at photo’s of them together, observing behaviours, perhaps visiting them in their home and finally wishing them a wonderful life together with the blessings of this beautiful country.