ever hear of "recognition of foreign divorce decree" in the philippines?

[FILIPINAFLYGIRL 0]

has anyone ever heard of this? i've been trying to do some research on this! my fiance was previously married to a us citizen. the ex-wife never petitioned for him to join her but instead filed for divorce. now a few years later, here we are and i want to petition my fiance. my problem is there is no divorce in the philippines. i've heard 2 things -

1. my fiance has to file something called a petition for recognition of foreign divorce decree with the regional trial court in the philippines

2. on the manila us embassy website it stated: a common basis for refusal is a prior marriage for the beneficiary or the petitioner that has not been legally terminated. there is no divorce in the philippines. a consular officer will only accept a death certificate or a court ruling of annulment or presumptive death as evidence that a filipino marriage has been terminated. an american may terminate a filipino marriage through a us divorce.

so i'm so confused! i don't want to submit the petition without knowing what to do...but no agency can give me a straight up answer....how frustrating!

[Leatherneck 693]

has anyone ever heard of this? i've been trying to do some research on this! my fiance was previously married to a us citizen. the ex-wife never petitioned for him to join her but instead filed for divorce. now a few years later, here we are and i want to petition my fiance. my problem is there is no divorce in the philippines. i've heard 2 things -

1. my fiance has to file something called a petition for recognition of foreign divorce decree with the regional trial court in the philippines

2. on the manila us embassy website it stated: a common basis for refusal is a prior marriage for the beneficiary or the petitioner that has not been legally terminated. there is no divorce in the philippines. a consular officer will only accept a death certificate or a court ruling of annulment or presumptive death as evidence that a filipino marriage has been terminated. an american may terminate a filipino marriage through a us divorce.

so i'm so confused! i don't want to submit the petition without knowing what to do...but no agency can give me a straight up answer....how frustrating!

What are you confused about?

If your USC fiance has a signed off divorce degree from a judge from a court here in the U.S., then he is legally divorced. If you were ever married in the Philippines, then you need to have a legal annulment from the courts there. The only problem will be if he is not legally divorced or if you are not legally annulled...then you can not be granted a visa because you or he are still legally married.

So basically what you are reading on the embassy site are the reason (s) why you would be denied in the cause of not having a legal divorce or a legal annulment.

Does it makes sense to you now?

What your fiance needs to do is to get a copy of the final divorce decree from the court that issued/granted the divorce. If he does not know the court or the county where the divorce took place, he will need to contact the ex-wife to see if she will give him a copy of it or just even provide the information about the county where the divorce took place. It would be a very big help to him if she would provide the copy or even the case number and the county where she filed for the divorce.

I hope this will help you...pm me if you need more help.

[Joe and Ann 6]

You have all of the right information; it just needs to be reorganized a bit in order to make sense of it. It is true that a USC can obtain a divorce in the United States. However, such a divorce is not automatically recognized by the government of the Philippines. This is where the petition for recognition of foreign divorce decree comes in. That failing, the only recourse would be for your fiance to file for an annullment. Ann had to go through the annullment process and we would be happy to share our lessons learned with you if that ends up being the path that you pursue.

Take care and God bless!

Joe

[jalie 3]

has anyone ever heard of this? i've been trying to do some research on this! my fiance was previously married to a us citizen. the ex-wife never petitioned for him to join her but instead filed for divorce. now a few years later, here we are and i want to petition my fiance. my problem is there is no divorce in the philippines. i've heard 2 things -

1. my fiance has to file something called a petition for recognition of foreign divorce decree with the regional trial court in the philippines

2. on the manila us embassy website it stated: a common basis for refusal is a prior marriage for the beneficiary or the petitioner that has not been legally terminated. there is no divorce in the philippines. a consular officer will only accept a death certificate or a court ruling of annulment or presumptive death as evidence that a filipino marriage has been terminated. an american may terminate a filipino marriage through a us divorce.

so i'm so confused! i don't want to submit the petition without knowing what to do...but no agency can give me a straight up answer....how frustrating!

1. The divorce decree alone is not sufficient for him to legally remarry as it is not automatically recognized in the Philippines. If the ex-wife was ALREADY a US citizen at the time of their marriage then he has to file a petition for Judicial Recognition of Foreign Divorce Decree.

2. The US embassy in Manila is very well aware of our Phil. laws

I hope that helps.

Good luck.

Good luck!

[uverseman 5]

Didn't you inquire about this same subject in 2 other post? No need to keep asking, i think your answers were clear in all of them..

[FILIPINAFLYGIRL 0]

thanks everybody for all your insights!