Employees of international organizations here on G-4 visas have been allowed to have their domestic partners here on derivative G-4 visas. UN-GLOBE, the United Nations LGBTQ group, has alerted UN employees that the State Department is now requiring these couples to be legally married in order to obtain the derivative visas for partners. It’s the same rule for different-sex couples, but many foreign workers cannot marry in their home countries. The UN is advising their gay employees in New York to marry here in order to maintain the visas.
Many corporations and state and local governments ended recognition of domestic partners once gay couples could legally marry. New York City itself has maintained the domestic partner option and more non-gay couples take advantage of it than same-sex ones.
The State Department began recognizing domestic partners in 2009, the first year under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Obama administration.
