Anybody know about having to register a divorce in Colombia?

[NickD 202]

Here is the situation, two natural born Colombians get married in Colombia, but shortly after move to Venezuela to get jobs, this was in 1980. Marriage does not work out, the husband returns to Colombia in 1997. The wife applies for a divorce and her attorney recommends since the assets of this marriage are in Venezuela and their marriage was already registered in Venezuela, the divorce is handled in the courts of Venezuela.

Power of attorneys had to be hired to represent the husband living in Colombia, the divorce is finalized. As the wife is also a natural born citizen of Colombia with her family living there, she likes to return to Colombia, the wife is currently a citizen of the USA. The USA and the USCIS does recognized the Venezuela divorce, the wife marries a USC. Venezuela recognizes the divorce and the marriage in the USA, and the marriage is registered in Venezuela.

But what about Colombia? The attorney that handled the divorce in Venezuela, left Venezuela, so contact with her is impossible. Impossible to find anything on the web on this subject about Colombian law. But been told different stories, one is that Colombia does recognize the divorce, but it was to be registered in Colombia, we don't know if this was done or not as the former husband was living in Colombia at the time. Another story I got, is that Colombia does not recognize the divorce, and the wife as far as Colombia is concerned, is a bigamist. These are from attorneys in Colombia that represent themselves as attorneys on the internet that one doesn't know from Adam, could be crooks, but both are asking for US bucks.

Anybody here go through this? Basically, you got married in Colombia, but got a divorce in another country. What steps have to be taken to correct this, if there is even a problem? How does one find out if a divorce was registered in Colombia?

Thank you for any honest replies.

[edward toro 3]

Here is the situation, two natural born Colombians get married in Colombia, but shortly after move to Venezuela to get jobs, this was in 1980. Marriage does not work out, the husband returns to Colombia in 1997. The wife applies for a divorce and her attorney recommends since the assets of this marriage are in Venezuela and their marriage was already registered in Venezuela, the divorce is handled in the courts of Venezuela.

Power of attorneys had to be hired to represent the husband living in Colombia, the divorce is finalized. As the wife is also a natural born citizen of Colombia with her family living there, she likes to return to Colombia, the wife is currently a citizen of the USA. The USA and the USCIS does recognized the Venezuela divorce, the wife marries a USC. Venezuela recognizes the divorce and the marriage in the USA, and the marriage is registered in Venezuela.

But what about Colombia? The attorney that handled the divorce in Venezuela, left Venezuela, so contact with her is impossible. Impossible to find anything on the web on this subject about Colombian law. But been told different stories, one is that Colombia does recognize the divorce, but it was to be registered in Colombia, we don't know if this was done or not as the former husband was living in Colombia at the time. Another story I got, is that Colombia does not recognize the divorce, and the wife as far as Colombia is concerned, is a bigamist. These are from attorneys in Colombia that represent themselves as attorneys on the internet that one doesn't know from Adam, could be crooks, but both are asking for US bucks.

Anybody here go through this? Basically, you got married in Colombia, but got a divorce in another country. What steps have to be taken to correct this, if there is even a problem? How does one find out if a divorce was registered in Colombia?

Thank you for any honest replies.

Well I don't think you are going to find tons of help here regarding this particular issue. So here's at least something:

I married my wife (Colombian citizen) in United States. We had to register our marriage in the Colombian consulate (Miami, FL) otherwise the Colombian government will have no records about our marriage. This is like the other way around of your problem. So I think you should go to a Colombian embassy and register that divorce. Like I did with our marriage.

Hope you get more replies.

[Mononoke28 135]

No need to register anything in Colombia. You will find lawyers there who will say you have to but Colombia recognizes both, marriages and divorces that took place in another country. Now, people feel "safer" registering them in Colombia in a "just in case" situation, but it is not necessary. I've known many people who have gotten married in Colombia and the divorced in the US. Or got married here and divorced there. No one had to register anything there to make it legit.

Diana

[NickD 202]

No need to register anything in Colombia. You will find lawyers there who will say you have to but Colombia recognizes both, marriages and divorces that took place in another country. Now, people feel "safer" registering them in Colombia in a "just in case" situation, but it is not necessary. I've known many people who have gotten married in Colombia and the divorced in the US. Or got married here and divorced there. No one had to register anything there to make it legit.

Diana

That is certainly interesting to read, I do know for a fact that Colombia does recognize marriages outside of Colombia. And do know the attorneys I have contacted so far want money with all kinds of scare the hell out of you tactics. But what I can't find, even in Spanish, official Colombian laws. Also read until about 1991, no such thing as a civil divorce, so spouses ended up splitting and moving in with somebody else. Wasn't very much separation of church and state back then either.

We did hear my ex's spouse was remarried and living in Colombia, which had to mean his divorce was valid in Colombia, but then heard new rumors, he is just living with this woman.

We do not have plans on living in Colombia, but visit frequently, my wife's entire family is there.

[edward toro 3]

No need to register anything in Colombia. You will find lawyers there who will say you have to but Colombia recognizes both, marriages and divorces that took place in another country. Now, people feel "safer" registering them in Colombia in a "just in case" situation, but it is not necessary. I've known many people who have gotten married in Colombia and the divorced in the US. Or got married here and divorced there. No one had to register anything there to make it legit.

Diana

Well, I actually went to register our baby when he was born in Cali, Colombia. The Notaria people told us that we couldn't register our baby as a married couple because we are not married. We show them our U.S marriage cert. and they said that we had to register the marriage at the consulate in the States or get married again in Colombia. So I had to travel back to the states, register the married at the consulate (free, but each cert. cost me $5.00)

This happened to my 16 months ago.

Edited February 20, 2010 by edward toro

[NickD 202]

Well, I actually went to register our baby when he was born in Cali, Colombia. The Notaria people told us that we couldn't register our baby as a married couple because we are not married. We show them our U.S marriage cert. and they said that we had to register the marriage at the consulate in the States or get married again in Colombia. So I had to travel back to the states, register the married at the consulate (free, but each cert. cost me $5.00)

This happened to my 16 months ago.

This one person told us it would cost us about $300.00 to register her divorce in Colombia, have to go to a notary for that. But we would need a copy of her divorce from Venezuela that was less than 3 months old with an apostile that doesn't make sense to me. We have the original divorce papers. Some phase like "Colombia un Exequatur" was used. We have no intention on living in Colombia, just want to visit occasionally.

Things are so much better here, can go to a notary for free, even our marriage here was free, we got married by a federal judge, he was more than pleased to perform the ceremony, even refused money for his charity. Plus we had to leave copies of her divorce with the State of Wisconsin for ten business days when we applied for our marriage license before we could get married. Don't know what they did, but said it was okay.

Venezuela isn't too nice either, they made a one letter error on my step daughters' birth certificate, wife had to go to their court to have that changed and it was their mistake. Cost me 800 US dollars for that, and they wanted US dollars, not Bolivars. USCIS had all of these papers, translated for almost a year, before they issued conditional resident cards. I don't know what they did with these papers either, but said, all is okay. Now Colombia.

[NickD 202]

What a mess, Colombia was, bus strike, major traffic jams, POE didn't want to admit my wife because she had Colombia on her country of birth on her US passport. But explained she was in a catch 22 position, has to go into Colombia to renew her ID. They let her in, I had no problems, took two seconds, with my US passport, born in the USA.

So we chased all over Bogota for three days to get an up to date ID registration even though my wife's mom had what I would call a certified copy. The newest one was identical, but had to pay a notary to retrieve it. Ironically, her Colombian marriage was never registered with this state. Never saw such a sloppy marriage certificate in my life, my wife was only 18 at the time, no signatures, no fingerprints, date and witnesses were wrong, her name was misspelled, and was done in some Catholic church. Wife and her ex left shortly after to go to Venezuela and neither could find any work in Colombia.

In just comparing our USA marriage certificate, both hers and my signature, the signature of a federal judge, our two witnesses, the clerk of court, and the register of deeds, a bit more iron proof.

In making inquiries to registering our marriage in Colombia, first would have to get a recent copy of her Venezuelan divorce and pay the supreme court of Colombia about $3,000.00 USD to read it over and decide if it meets Colombian law, adding another couple of thousand would assure it does. Another option offered would just to get a Colombian divorce for about 150 bucks, that would require her meeting up with her ex, a wife beater by the way, and admitting to the fact we were married illegally as far as Colombia is concerned for the last six years. Not an option.

But since all Colombian records showed that she was never married in the first place in that country and still single, just renew her ID as a single person in her maiden name so she could get her Colombian passport so she can visit her name. With that piece of ####### marriage certificate still floating around, we wouldn't dare register our marriage. In a practical sense, don't know how much longer her mom is going to live, and our only goal is to let my wife visit her, perhaps once a year, and because her place of birth is on her US passport, she needs that Colombian passport to just get in to see her mom.

Never ran into so much political BS in my life with both governmental and church corruption. But they will be happy to correct for lots of money.

[cristina1977 1]

Here is the situation, two natural born Colombians get married in Colombia, but shortly after move to Venezuela to get jobs, this was in 1980. Marriage does not work out, the husband returns to Colombia in 1997. The wife applies for a divorce and her attorney recommends since the assets of this marriage are in Venezuela and their marriage was already registered in Venezuela, the divorce is handled in the courts of Venezuela.

Power of attorneys had to be hired to represent the husband living in Colombia, the divorce is finalized. As the wife is also a natural born citizen of Colombia with her family living there, she likes to return to Colombia, the wife is currently a citizen of the USA. The USA and the USCIS does recognized the Venezuela divorce, the wife marries a USC. Venezuela recognizes the divorce and the marriage in the USA, and the marriage is registered in Venezuela.

But what about Colombia? The attorney that handled the divorce in Venezuela, left Venezuela, so contact with her is impossible. Impossible to find anything on the web on this subject about Colombian law. But been told different stories, one is that Colombia does recognize the divorce, but it was to be registered in Colombia, we don't know if this was done or not as the former husband was living in Colombia at the time. Another story I got, is that Colombia does not recognize the divorce, and the wife as far as Colombia is concerned, is a bigamist. These are from attorneys in Colombia that represent themselves as attorneys on the internet that one doesn't know from Adam, could be crooks, but both are asking for US bucks.

Anybody here go through this? Basically, you got married in Colombia, but got a divorce in another country. What steps have to be taken to correct this, if there is even a problem? How does one find out if a divorce was registered in Colombia?

Thank you for any honest replies.

[NickD 202]

Got to thinking about my wife's situation and Colombia, her grandfather ended up there from Germany where my Italian grandfather ended up in Chicago. We visited all of her known relatives in Colombia, aunts, uncles, in-laws, brother, sister, mom, nieces, cousins. and nephews. The total count of everyone remaining was about 14 different people.

A couple of years ago, my family had a reunion in Milwaukee, just on my mother's side, over 250 people showed up, we had to rent a park, and some cousins I was close to as a kid, never showed up. What a major difference in our families size. My new father-in-law passed away three years before I met my wife, owned a small hardware store, my kind of guy, but never met him. He was put out of business by an across the street chain store, sounds just like America. My mother-in-law sure loves me, wanted to help her as much as I could. Sister-in-law as a farm and was really concerned about the bad drought they are going through, could help with the mechanics of their farm, but not very good at making rain. She is also a wonderful woman. Brother-in-law is a minister, also a great guy, but we never discussed religion. The four nieces and nephews could speak very good English, very polite and wonderful kids, we had a great time.

I married into a wonderful family and they are my family too. Was told to take good care of my wife, but wife said I am taking wonderful care of her.

Mother-in-law did visit us once after waiting a full year to get a US visa, but she said never again. Must be that Colombian stigma where all Colombians coming here are drug dealers, poor old woman was stripped searched for drugs when she arrived here, what a humiliating experience that poor old woman with dignity had to go through. Normally, son-in-laws don't get along with mother-in-laws, I love my mother-in-law. Her neighborhood is going to hell, offered to buy her a new home, was turned down cold, she lived there for 40 years and wants to die there. But with all those bars, feel like I am in prison.

Wife is of German decent, has reddish brown hair, green eyes, and burns very easily with her fair skin, only thing that bugs me, we didn't meet 25 years earlier, how different our lives would have been. Also quite a knock out in a bikini, but hey, it's the personality that counts, right? But better late than ever. Her daughter, also an extremely attractive woman now has a dad that watches over her, had some problems at first, but very proud of her now, is in the National Honor society with high grades in college.

So my wife is not a USC like I am, still has to maintain her Colombian citizenship so we can visit our family, that still doesn't seem right, but only more money and inconvenience for us.

It's a shame its not about family, but about politics, seems to me our countries are run by idiots or attorneys, even worse, concerned more about their welfare.