All Prior Marriages Legally Terminated

[Bill3131 0]

Is the Indonesian KUA marriage book considered a document that all prior marriages have been legally terminated?

What exactly does the marriage status "janda" mean?

I am preparing the I-130. I have never been married. My wife's divorce was on record at KUA. I had to prove to the KUA I had never been married. My wife's marital status on the marriage book says "janda". Soon I will have the marriage book translated, but I have seen this means widowed, or widowed or divorced. The truth is her previous husband abandoned her, thus there is no divorce papers. If there are divorce papers, my wife's previous husband has them and his whereabouts are unknown. Is it futile to attempt to get divorce papers from KUA? Is it nessesary if we are legally married and have marriage books? What happens if my certified translation of "janda" it translated to widowed...could I be required to produce a death certificate?

[Inky 1,110]

Topic moved from IR-1/CR-1 forum to Regional - Region specific question should get more answers here.

You are required to provide all copys of divorces from all previous marriages to prove they have been terminated, if there is no divorce record you can pretty much bet they will ask for a death record to prove your spouse is no longer living and you are free to marry.

[Bill3131 0]

Thank you Inky, I appreciate your input. I believe the wording of the I-130 instructions intentionally avoids stating that divorce papers are required. I believe this is for two reasons:

1). Not all goverments and religions require divorce documentation.

2). In some countries, maybe only the husband has the right to divorce documentation when the divorce is initiated by the husband.

In this case, the husband may have simply said the word "divorce" three times to a goverment official, then the government office waited 30 days to insure the wife was not pregnate before recording a status change that the husband and wife were free to legally marry. My wife does have the date of when her marital status was changed. We obtained our marriage certificate from the same goverment office that recorded her first marriage and divorce. This is why we did not marry in China where we were living.

I was required to provide documentation from the US government to this Indonesian goverment office, of my religion and status free to marry.

(the goverment office I reference above is KUA)