Fiance has no legal marriage/divorce papers

[Blue1133 1]

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

 

My fiance (A) lives in West Africa and got married to a woman (B) in his village in the 1980's. They had 3 children and they divorced about 20 years ago. The woman (B) is remarried.

 

I want to apply for a k-1 visa for my fiance (A) and I requested a divorce decree from him.

 

After some research, he indicated that the marriage and divorce were done at the village-level and nothing was registered (no papers filed) at that time.

 

What should I do?

 

Will a letter of explanation with the above details suffice or do I need him to get a civil authority in his area to draft a legal or notarized document that explains this?

 

Or, is there a third option?

 

 

Edited July 2, 2017 by Blue1133

[dwheels76 5,468]

**Thread is country specific and moved to the Sub-Sahara forum for better visibility.**

Edited July 2, 2017 by dwheels76

[GabiMatch 161]

I don't think that you should mention it if there was no paper filled there was no marriage to begin with...you have to mention his kids for sure but if this question come around at the interview he should only say that they lived together but never got married...I really don't know how things works in "West Africa", but I lived with my ex for many years and our families and friends would consider us married but we really never signed any papers, so my application do not even mention the relationship...you can't say that you're divorced if you nerf signed a divorce decree.

Just something to think about, he probably knows more about his country than I do...ask him how it works over there.

Best of luck!

[dwheels76 5,468]

2 minutes ago, GabiMatch said:

I don't think that you should mention it if there was no paper filled there was no marriage to begin with...you have to mention his kids for sure but if this question come around at the interview he should only say that they lived together but never got married...I really don't know how things works in "West Africa", but I lived with my ex for many years and our families and friends would consider us married but we really never signed any papers, so my application do not even mention the relationship...you can't say that you're divorced if you nerf signed a divorce decree.

Just something to think about, he probably knows more about his country than I do...ask him how it works over there.

Best of luck!

You can never advise anyone to lie to immigration. They were married and divorced. Papers not being filed doesn't mean they weren't. Many have been denied for having traditional ceremony and not filing papers. They were married they admit that.

 

OP: I would advise getting a court document or from village and notarized of dissolution of marriage. To shw it did end. Even including ex-wifes new marriage certificate to show she is no longer married to you.

 

Did the ex-wife provide anything to remarry?

[Blue1133 1]

Just now, dwheels76 said:

You can never advise anyone to lie to immigration. They were married and divorced. Papers not being filed doesn't mean they weren't. Many have been denied for having traditional ceremony and not filing papers. They were married they admit that.

 

OP: I would advise getting a court document or from village and notarized of dissolution of marriage. To shw it did end. Even including ex-wifes new marriage certificate to show she is no longer married to you.

 

Did the ex-wife provide anything to remarry?

The ex-wife married someone at the village level and no papers were provided.

 

I will ask him about getting the documents you mentioned since I definitely don't want this to be a barrier. Thank you!

[Coco8 1,042]

As said, you should provide evidence of this. Someone from an African country mentioned that the consulate sent someone to make inquiries about the fiance to the neighborhood. The consulate even found out about a marriage the fiance had, even though it was a traditional ceremony with no official paperwork (it was different, though, the guy was actually still married and living with the wife). This shows that it is important to be as transparent as possible with the visa procedure. 

[Blue1133 1]

57 minutes ago, dwheels76 said:

You can never advise anyone to lie to immigration. They were married and divorced. Papers not being filed doesn't mean they weren't. Many have been denied for having traditional ceremony and not filing papers. They were married they admit that.

 

OP: I would advise getting a court document or from village and notarized of dissolution of marriage. To shw it did end. Even including ex-wifes new marriage certificate to show she is no longer married to you.

 

Did the ex-wife provide anything to remarry?

 

15 minutes ago, Coco8 said:

As said, you should provide evidence of this. Someone from an African country mentioned that the consulate sent someone to make inquiries about the fiance to the neighborhood. The consulate even found out about a marriage the fiance had, even though it was a traditional ceremony with no official paperwork (it was different, though, the guy was actually still married and living with the wife). This shows that it is important to be as transparent as possible with the visa procedure. 

Thank you! I just told my fiance this story. It is definitely our intention to be as clear as possible. He is going to ask the village chief and mayor about what type of stamped documents that he can obtain to outline what happened so that I can include it with my application. I definitely do not want my application denied. We have been waiting 10 years for this.