Tribal marriage/divorce issues

[JodyS 0]

Just wanted to post some information regarding a recent issue I ran into that I'm sure isn't very common but someone else may run into at some point. My fiance is Maasai. He was previously married in a tribal ceremony prior to meeting me. There is no marriage certificate/license/registry and it was not legally recognized by the government.

He previously came to the US on a visitors visa that listed him as married, but a few months after his return to Kenya, he and his wife divorced. Because both the marriage and divorce were strictly tribal, there is no documentation to support either. When we made the decision to apply for a fiance visa for him to move here to the US with me, we contacted the Embassy to find out how mark his marital status on my I-129F and both my lawyer and I were told to not worry about it and they would discuss it with him during his interview. I listed him as single on the petition because listing him as divorced would require a copy of his divorce decree, which didn't exist. And again, the Embassy told us not to worry about it.

He had his interview this past week and his visa was denied based on this situation. They are now requiring that he go through formal, legal divorce proceedings even though his previous marriage was never legally recognized by the US government and the only documentation indicating that he was married at some point is his old visa. Their concern is that they have no proof that I knew he was previously married (since I listed him as single) and that he could have deceived me in order to get me to petition for a fiance visa (the official reason they gave him was "failure to provide proof of a bonafide relationship"). They also voided out my I-129F and told him that once he gets an official divorce decree, I can file a new I-129F listing his marital status as divorced with the supporting documentation. So now we have to totally start over.

This was a very frustrating experience, especially after we made an effort to find out what we needed to do in order to prevent this exact scenerio from happening. I hope that if anyone else runs into this situation that my experience will be beneficial to help you get through the process more smoothly. He is in formal divorce proceedings now and we hope to start the process again in the near future.

[reeses16 8]

Sorry to hear about your situation. You are lucky that they told him he could re-apply. He could have been banned from the US for life because he misrepresented himself (lied) to the Consular Officer. Applying for fiance visa when his previous marriage was not officially ended (documented) means that he was not free to marry counts as misrepresentation. Have you seen a copy of his denial? If you haven't have him send it to you, so that you can get additional advice from VJers. Eventhough, they told him to reapply, don't be surprised if it is still an issue at his next interview.

Also, you said that he is in formal divorce proceedings now. I don't know his timeline of when his other marriage ended and the two of you applied for the fiance visa, but surely he could have applied for that before you two applied for the visa. That would have been the only way to avoid this situation.

I'm glad you shared your experience. I'm sure it will be helpful to others.

[JodyS 0]

I think that we were saved by the fact that I had a lawyer file my I-129F instead of doing it myself. So they determined that if he indeed was telling the truth that I did know he was married previously, the lawyer had advised me incorrectly on how to complete the petition. He was declared divorced by the elders in August 2009 and I filed my petition in December 2009.

Since his previous marriage was never legally recognized by either the Kenyan or US government, never at any point in time did we think that he would have to go through legal, court-approved divorce proceedings -- neither did my lawyer, although to her defense, she focuses primarily on corporate immigration law. And even with that, I'm not sure that too many immigration lawyers have run into very many cases like mine. Lesson learned! I feel fortunate that they are letting us have a do-over. But at least the second time around we'll know what to expect and when to expect it.

The reasons that they put on his denial letter were an invalid I-129F (since the Embassy opted to make it invalid so I could file again with him listed as divorced) and failure to provide evidence of a bonafide relationship. If I can get a copy of the full document I'll definitely post it to see if I can get any additional feedback.

[shefellfromheaven 18]

Hi Jody

welcome to Vj. If it was a traditional marriage and traditional divorce then chances were that not legal documents . He should have sworn an affidavit aand taken that with him to the interview. What was written in his denial form? They best thing is for him to just file for divorce in the courts. Wish you all the best and be blessed.

[Enlighten one :) 5]

My X husband had applied for a Student Visa. On that Student Visa he claimed he was Married. He was denied that Visa.

At the time of the itnerview he told me that he only stated he was married to show proof that he would return to his country.

During his interview he claimed that it was tribal marriage that had no legal documents. This was surfice for them. Although they did put him on AP and did some backround check.

So I guess it would go either way with them.

Good luck.

Once my husband was here I found emails in his suit case between him and his brather talking about getting divorce yet. So he had actually been married. Nothing to do with you. Just thought some might find that interesting.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

There was a case in Lagos recently with the same thing. Traditional marriage/divorce and a CR1 denied based on lack of a valid marriage. Seems this is a new denial excuse out of Africa. It was a friend of Naijabound see the post Lagos invalid marriage post Good luck

[DebbyNSeyi 15]

Just wanted to post some information regarding a recent issue I ran into that I'm sure isn't very common but someone else may run into at some point. My fiance is Maasai. He was previously married in a tribal ceremony prior to meeting me. There is no marriage certificate/license/registry and it was not legally recognized by the government.

He previously came to the US on a visitors visa that listed him as married, but a few months after his return to Kenya, he and his wife divorced. Because both the marriage and divorce were strictly tribal, there is no documentation to support either. When we made the decision to apply for a fiance visa for him to move here to the US with me, we contacted the Embassy to find out how mark his marital status on my I-129F and both my lawyer and I were told to not worry about it and they would discuss it with him during his interview. I listed him as single on the petition because listing him as divorced would require a copy of his divorce decree, which didn't exist. And again, the Embassy told us not to worry about it.

He had his interview this past week and his visa was denied based on this situation. They are now requiring that he go through formal, legal divorce proceedings even though his previous marriage was never legally recognized by the US government and the only documentation indicating that he was married at some point is his old visa. Their concern is that they have no proof that I knew he was previously married (since I listed him as single) and that he could have deceived me in order to get me to petition for a fiance visa (the official reason they gave him was "failure to provide proof of a bonafide relationship"). They also voided out my I-129F and told him that once he gets an official divorce decree, I can file a new I-129F listing his marital status as divorced with the supporting documentation. So now we have to totally start over.

This was a very frustrating experience, especially after we made an effort to find out what we needed to do in order to prevent this exact scenerio from happening. I hope that if anyone else runs into this situation that my experience will be beneficial to help you get through the process more smoothly. He is in formal divorce proceedings now and we hope to start the process again in the near future.

I'm sorry to hear about your situation. Hopefully, the next go-round will be smoother...my husband and I were also denied a K1 visa (for different reasons) and chose to marry and file an I-130 for a CR-1 visa. It's very frustrating but hang in there....your time will come....

By the way, why does your timeline show Armenia as the Consulate?

[JodyS 0]

Interesting -- for some reason, there is no option for Nairobi or Kenya in the Consulate section (unless I'm overlooking something) so it must have defaulted to the first one on the list.

We're definitely going to take our time this second time around and make sure we do things right. If we don't, I'm afraid that they won't give us a third chance and me moving to Kenya permanently isn't really an option right now. It's been frustrating, but we're getting through it as best we can.

[katie & sifa 25]

Interesting -- for some reason, there is no option for Nairobi or Kenya in the Consulate section (unless I'm overlooking something) so it must have defaulted to the first one on the list.

We're definitely going to take our time this second time around and make sure we do things right. If we don't, I'm afraid that they won't give us a third chance and me moving to Kenya permanently isn't really an option right now. It's been frustrating, but we're getting through it as best we can.

Yes, weirdly Nairobi is not an option on the consulate list. Most of us either have Armenia (since it's the first option) or Tanzania (as it's the closest consulate that's not Nairobi.)

Good luck this time around!!

[S&ET 2]

Interesting -- for some reason, there is no option for Nairobi or Kenya in the Consulate section (unless I'm overlooking something) so it must have defaulted to the first one on the list.

We're definitely going to take our time this second time around and make sure we do things right. If we don't, I'm afraid that they won't give us a third chance and me moving to Kenya permanently isn't really an option right now. It's been frustrating, but we're getting through it as best we can.

Good luck JodyS