Many foreign countries do not recognise de facto marriages, Singapore for one. Has anyone had problems for example immigration, checking into a hotel, obtaining govt services,renting property? There are disadvantages to defacto marriages (but they do not seem to apply in western countries now).

Many foreign countries do not recognise de facto marriages, Singapore for one. Has anyone had problems for example immigration, checking into a hotel, obtaining govt services,renting property? There are disadvantages to defacto marriages (but they do not seem to apply in western countries now).

I'm assuming you are talking about an Aus defacto..well..

I had an Aussie student visa with a defacto for my gf (this mean she was dependant on my visa as unmarried partner) and we didn't have any troubles when she asked a Kiwi Visa in Sydney, all the lady asked to see was a credit card. Showed my Amex & my gf's VISA and the interview was over with a big smile from the interviewer.

We went to the Italian consulate asking for a Schengen-tourist visa with my lady having an EEA Family Permit Member/Unmarried visa from the UK+the Aussie Defacto on my student. The result was that I had a fight with the lady while doing the interview. She didn't like that my gf had a family member without being married (note that I'm Italian).

Having a valid UK Issued-EEA Family member you can get in Switzerland (not sure about Aussie one but might be the case), the border control guard didn't asked. In fact they didn't care at all.My GF was the first passing for that border with that visa.

If you are holding a Eu passport, and your partner has a defacto and you both want to travel in EU will be much easier to ask for a FREE EEA family member-unmarried partner. Just remember that not every country will issue one (E.g. UK does, for schengen you can choose from Netherlands and Scandinavian countries, forget about Spain, Italy, Portugal, France and Greece).

I really don't see problems. A defacto makes things much much easier for the part that has a passport with less value (e.g. for the part that doesn't hold a western passport)

g.