Just got annulled, what's next?

[pushbrk 13,254]

15 hours ago, AnaMarie18 said:

Hello Everyone,

 

My step-father is American and my mother is Filipino. My step-father married my mother in 2005, soon after he tried applying for a tourist visa for her. She got denied because they found out that her previous marriage was never annulled. My parents hired a lawyer in the Philippines to settle annulment once and for all. It took them 10 years to finalize the annulment and now my mother is finally free from her previous marriage! Now, my father would like to bring her in the states. What would be the best approach/route to take for them? Asking for advice because these situations are rare! Thank you.

If she just got an annulment for her first marriage, the next step would be for your mother and the man you are calling your stepfather to legally marry.  She cannot be legally married to two people at the same time, so any marriage from 2005 was NOT legal.  Where did they marry?

[geowrian 22,338]

5 hours ago, JE57 said:

Note that while others have suggested that the 2nd marriage was never valid because it was conducted while your mother was still married to someone else I would suggest that this is not necessarily the case.  If the annulment was recent than they need to make sure they complete the registration of that annulment with PSA so the CEMAR or CENOMAR would be annotated with the Annulment.  If the obtained CEMAR shows that they are married then all is good to go.

This is not actually the case. If the annulment was finalized at any point after she married somebody else, then the first marriage is not recognized by US law. This is regardless of what any CEMAR states. The CO will see the dates for the marriage and the annulment, and that will be the end of the line.

 

5 hours ago, JE57 said:

There would be questions how this could have happened given the 2nd marriage would have been a bigamous marriage at the time but the annulment makes the first marriage non-existent so the 2nd marriage would become valid.

The 2nd marriage doesn't automatically become legal once the annulment finalizes. The marriage must have been entered into while being free to marry (under US law) in order for it to be valid. An annulment dissolves a marriage, but does not mean it never existed.

She needs to legally marry to continue.

 

It's an unfortunate situation, but one that we have seen numerous times here so the process to fix it is known.

[doggieandsam 765]

@geowrian @pushbrk - for purposes of discussion, we agree that the mom and stepdad's marriage is not legal, but they have a PSA CEMAR that says they are. how do they fix that bit? say they get married to each other now, i don't think they can just go to PSA and request them to change the date of marriage on the CEMAR to reflect the new marriage date can they?

[geowrian 22,338]

8 minutes ago, doggieandsam said:

@geowrian @pushbrk - for purposes of discussion, we agree that the mom and stepdad's marriage is not legal, but they have a PSA CEMAR that says they are. how do they fix that bit? say they get married to each other now, i don't think they can just go to PSA and request them to change the date of marriage on the CEMAR to reflect the new marriage date can they?

That is the million dollar question...getting married again in the Philippines may be a long process. Getting married abroad, however, should be simpler. Although I admit that I’m unsure on exactly how this is viewed by the CO. I wanna tag @Hank_ as I’m confident he has seen this more within the Philippines than probably anybody else on VJ, but I am unable to do so.

Edited July 17, 2018 by geowrian

[pushbrk 13,254]

7 hours ago, doggieandsam said:

@geowrian @pushbrk - for purposes of discussion, we agree that the mom and stepdad's marriage is not legal, but they have a PSA CEMAR that says they are. how do they fix that bit? say they get married to each other now, i don't think they can just go to PSA and request them to change the date of marriage on the CEMAR to reflect the new marriage date can they?

They cannot just change the date, no.  They should go to the PSA office and ask about their options.  How did they manage to register two marriages for the same person at one time to begin with?

[doggieandsam 765]

27 minutes ago, pushbrk said:

How did they manage to register two marriages for the same person at one time to begin with?

yeah, i was wondering about that too. but then again, i am not surprised, this is the philippines after all.

[pushbrk 13,254]

14 minutes ago, doggieandsam said:

yeah, i was wondering about that too. but then again, i am not surprised, this is the philippines after all.

Yes, and that part of the mess needs to be cleaned up in the Philippines.  It is not a US immigration question, except to know that they need a new clean PSA marriage certificate showing she is married to the US Citizen in question, and only him, and that the marriage took place AFTER her annulment was completed.  Prior to that, any marriage would have been bigamy.