Austria: one in four Austrian weddings involve foreigners

Almost a quarter of all the weddings in Austria are binational according to the latest statistics from Statistik Austria.

It said that 23.5 percent of marriages fall into this category were either one partner is an Austrian and the other a foreign national – or both are foreign nationals.

In 2010 that represented 8,823 binational weddings.

The statistics also showed that while the number of foreigners marrying each other in Austria has remained relatively constant, the number of Austrians marrying foreigners has fallen significantly.

In 2004 it was 27.8 percent but the latest figures it had fallen to 18.3 percent.

This was believed to be because of the law changes in 2005 that tightened up the regulations for residency for married foreigners to clamp down on sham marriages that will purely carried out for the purposes of gaining work Visa and residency permit. (via Austrian Times)