Florida Prenup Law is the flat-fee prenuptial agreement practice of Mack Law P.A., an Orlando trial firm serving all of Florida by video. A large share of the couples we draft for are international: one of you is here on a K-1 or a work visa, or waiting on a green card — or neither of you is a citizen yet. The statute is the same § 61.079 every Florida couple signs under. What changes is the engineering — the federal Affidavit of Support, the language each of you reads in, the calendar a visa sets, and property on two continents. Same published fees: $2,450 to draft, $1,450 for review with negotiated revisions, $500 for an independent review.
Free 15-minute consult first · every fee quoted in writing before you commit · we are Florida family lawyers, not immigration lawyers
If any of these is you, the agreement needs more than a template — and this page explains what.
Immigration couples do not get a different statute. They get the same statute with the attacks pre-loaded, so the process has to answer them in advance. Here is how.
When a citizen or permanent resident sponsors a spouse for a green card, the government requires a signed Form I-864, Affidavit of Support. It is not a formality. Under 8 U.S.C. § 1183a the sponsor contracts with the United States to keep the immigrant’s income at no less than one hundred twenty-five percent of the federal poverty guidelines — and the statute makes that promise enforceable by the sponsored spouse personally, in any federal or state court.
Divorce does not end it. The obligation runs until the sponsored spouse becomes a U.S. citizen, is credited with forty qualifying quarters of work (roughly ten years), permanently leaves the United States, or one of you dies. The form says so in plain words, and the courts have held sponsors to it. In Erler v. Erler, 824 F.3d 1173 (9th Cir. 2016), the couple had signed a premarital agreement in which neither would owe the other support. The Ninth Circuit held that “neither a divorce judgment nor a premarital agreement may terminate an obligation of support” under the affidavit, and measured the ex-wife’s shortfall as a household of one. In Liu v. Mund, 686 F.3d 418 (7th Cir. 2012), the Seventh Circuit added that the sponsored spouse has no duty to go find work to reduce what the sponsor owes.
So we do not draft a waiver that pretends the affidavit away. A clause that purports to cancel a federal obligation is a clause built to fail, and it invites a challenge to the rest of the agreement. We draft around it: the support provisions acknowledge the affidavit; anything paid under it is credited against support owed under the agreement so nothing is paid twice; and the sponsor signs knowing the exposure in dollars rather than discovering it in a divorce. Florida’s own statute points the same direction — under § 61.079(7)(b), if an alimony waiver would leave a spouse eligible for public assistance at separation, a court may order support anyway, agreement or no agreement.
A Florida prenup fails only on the defenses in § 61.079(7): it was not signed voluntarily; it was the product of fraud, duress, coercion or overreaching; or it was unconscionable when signed and the challenging spouse had no fair disclosure. Every one of those arguments is easier to make for a spouse who read the agreement in a second language, had no lawyer, and signed while a visa clock was running. Three things close them off.
One more thing we will say plainly. “Sign this or I won’t sponsor you” is the kind of pressure that turns a prenup into a duress case. We will not draft around it, and we will tell a sponsor so.
Section 61.079 lets you contract over property “whenever and wherever acquired or located,” so a Florida prenup can classify an apartment in another country, a family business there, or an account you have kept since before you emigrated. Disclosure has to reach that far too: the schedules list foreign assets with values in U.S. dollars at a stated exchange rate and date, because fair and reasonable disclosure is what keeps the unconscionability defense closed.
What a Florida contract cannot do is bind a foreign court. Many civil-law countries — much of Latin America and continental Europe — recognize a marital property agreement only in their own form, usually a notarial deed signed before the wedding, and some will apply their own matrimonial regime to property located there regardless of what Florida says. When you own property abroad, we tell you whether you also need a lawyer in that country, and we coordinate with them so the two documents say the same thing. The agreement chooses Florida law and a Florida forum, which is what keeps it predictable for everything here.
Central Florida couples who want the in-person version start at the Orlando page; everyone else, anywhere in Florida, starts with a free 15-minute video consult. The statewide guide covers how the practice serves Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville and the rest of the state.
The same three published fees as every Florida couple. $2,450 flat to draft a custom agreement from terms you have agreed. $1,450 flat for an independent review with your requested revisions drafted as redlines and negotiated. $500 flat for an independent review of an agreement you were handed, with a written plain-English analysis within twenty-four hours — the review service has its own page. A wedding inside forty-five days adds $500 rush handling.
A certified translation, or a lawyer in another country for property held there, is a separate cost quoted in writing before you commit — never buried in the flat fee. Every fee is confirmed at the free consult before you commit to anything.
Authorities on this page: Fla. Stat. § 61.079 and § 732.702; 8 U.S.C. § 1183a; Erler v. Erler, 824 F.3d 1173 (9th Cir. 2016); Liu v. Mund, 686 F.3d 418 (7th Cir. 2012). Immigration rules change; confirm the current requirements of your own case with your immigration attorney.
No. The affidavit is a contract between the sponsor and the United States under 8 U.S.C. § 1183a, and the statute makes it enforceable by the sponsored spouse personally. In Erler v. Erler, 824 F.3d 1173 (9th Cir. 2016), the couple’s premarital agreement said neither would owe the other support; the Ninth Circuit held that neither a divorce judgment nor a premarital agreement may terminate the sponsor’s obligation, and measured the ex-wife’s shortfall as a household of one at one hundred twenty-five percent of the poverty guidelines. What a prenup can do is acknowledge the affidavit, credit anything paid under it against support owed under the agreement so nothing is paid twice, and make sure the sponsor signs knowing the exposure.
A prenup is a private contract between the two of you. It is not filed with USCIS, and the petitions and applications in a family-based case do not ask for it. Whether it helps or hurts your particular case — and how it reads to an officer at an interview — is a question for your immigration attorney, and we coordinate with them so the two sides of your file are consistent. We are Florida family lawyers; we do not practice immigration law, and nothing on this page is immigration advice.
It can be, if the process answers the argument in advance. Under § 61.079(7) an agreement fails if it was not signed voluntarily or was the product of overreaching, and “I could not read what I signed” is the first thing a spouse in that position will say. So the final draft is translated by a certified translator, an interpreter is present at the signing, the agreement itself records that each of you read it in a language you understand, and your fiancée has her own lawyer and real time to review. Florida does not require a translation. The argument you would otherwise face does.
Before the wedding, with time to spare — and the planning starts before the flight. A K-1 fiancé(e) must marry within ninety days of entering the country, which tempts couples to leave the prenup for the last two weeks. Instead, negotiate the terms by video while your fiancé(e) is still abroad so the draft is final when they land, sign in the first weeks with the review time on the record, and then marry. The Affidavit of Support on a K-1 is signed after the wedding, when your new spouse applies for the green card, so the agreement is drafted knowing that obligation is coming.
Yes, if Florida is where you live or are building your life. Section 61.079 governs premarital agreements for anyone who marries under it, and the agreement chooses Florida law and a Florida forum so that is what a court applies later. If neither of you can sponsor the other yet, there may be no Affidavit of Support at all for now — the agreement anticipates the day one of you can. If you still live in another state or country and Florida is only where the wedding is, say so at the consult; we will tell you plainly whether a Florida agreement fits.
Here, yes; there, maybe. Section 61.079 lets you contract over property “whenever and wherever acquired or located,” so the agreement can classify an apartment, an account or a family business abroad, and the disclosure schedules list it in U.S. dollars at a stated exchange rate and date. But a Florida contract does not bind a foreign court. Many civil-law countries recognize a marital property agreement only in their own form, usually a notarial deed signed before the wedding. When you own property abroad we tell you whether you also need a lawyer there, and we coordinate so the two documents say the same thing.
Yes. Who pays the filing fees and the immigration lawyer, and whether those costs are reimbursed if the marriage ends within a set number of years, are ordinary contract terms under § 61.079(4). What the agreement cannot do is control the immigration result, require a spouse to leave the country or abandon a petition, or reduce a child’s right to support under § 61.079(4)(b).
No, and we will not pretend to. Mack Law P.A. is a Florida family-law trial practice. Your immigration attorney owns the petition; we own the agreement; and we talk to each other so the prenup, the Affidavit of Support and the immigration file do not contradict one another. If you do not have an immigration lawyer yet, get one before you sign anything — including this.
The same three published fees as every Florida couple: $2,450 flat to draft, $1,450 flat for an independent review with negotiated revisions, and $500 flat for an independent review of an agreement you were handed, with a written analysis within twenty-four hours. A wedding inside forty-five days adds $500 rush handling. A certified translation or a lawyer in another country is a separate cost, quoted in writing before you commit — never buried in the flat fee.
Fifteen minutes with the attorney answers most of this.
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