Technically speaking,if she is still Filipino,the Philippines will not recognize her U.S marriage so if that is true how can she be a bigamist??
If you intend to marry and reside in the US or the UK then you may divorce in the UK and that will be recognised in the USA. You have no need for the divorce to be recognised in the Philippines and an annullment is not necessary.
So does this mean if married in the philippines but then moves to another country ie. the UK, and acquires UK citizenship and then divorces this will be recognised in the Phils after filing a petition which I assume to be relatively quick and cheap. Does anyone know how (if at all) this changes if dual citizenship has been acquired? Also what happens if they return in the future to the Phils for a holiday / to live
a foreign divorce can be registered in the Philippines but there are certain rules about it such as when the marriage is between a westerner and a Filipino the westerner should initiate the proceedings.
a "foreign " divorce is only possible if the filipino / a marries a foreigner--and the foreigner institutes the divorce proceedings.
in our case--my ( now ) wife was living in the UK on a student visa and filed for divorce here against her filipino husband--under the 5 year separation rule. it was actually granted after she had returned to the filis when her student visa expired. there followed a lot of debate on here--and the other site---about whether she could apply for a fiancee visa using her UK divorce has proof of being single. it was even suggested she go to live--briefly--in another country ( hong kong ) and apply from there. whether she could have got her fiancee visa was never really decided. but --as i saw it--the fly in the ointment would be the CFO. would they have given her the all important exit sticker on site of a UK divorce --but no annulment ? i doubted it---and importantly----we would have paid for her visa--maybe got it--only for the CFO to thwart our plans. so--throwing away the visa fee.
One advantage of marrying in the UK, the missus can get shut of you when she's had enough and it will be recognised in the Philippines but a procedure has to be gone through in the Philippines as John mentioned.
I've always assumed that if you are applying for a UK visa and you have UK divorce documentation then surely everything should be fine. Do the CFO even inquire as to your former marital status?
Or maybe with Philippine red ribboned paperwork showing that your foreign divorce has been acknowledged in the Philippines.
It wasn't a foreign divorce...was a marriage of a filipines couple. Foreign divorce is when 1 is non Filipino.
I don't think that's accurate bigmac. Imagine if you have a Filipino couple who both divorce outside the Phils. The defendant returns to the Phils whilst the plaintiff remarries.and broad. There would then be the problem that the plaintiff was married to two people whilst the defendant was married to one. That's why the legislation was amended to try and overcome that problem. I was under the impression that the innocent party to the divorce could register it.
If two Filipinos divorce abroad then that divorce is not recognised in the Philippines. For a Filipino to be able to have their divorce recognised in the Philippines they must [1] be married to a foreigner and [2] that foreigner has to initiate the divorce proceedings, regardless of who is the guilty party.
in our case--we didnt want a situation wherby if we had got married here--with her UK divorce--but no annulment--then it would not be recognised in the Philippines. in which case--if she returned for a holiday--she could face arrest and imprisonment for bigamy. unlikely i know--but stranger things have happened.
If you have only British passport and does not have dual citizenship (meaning you don't have Philippine passport) you don't need an annulment in the Philippines so long as you don't intend to settle back in the Philippines. Your divorce in the UK is sufficient enough to marry your US boyfriend. But you will need to process your divorce first or else you can face bigamy. Your marriage is dissolved after 2 years of separation in the UK law but in the Philippine law its 7 years, in your case you've been separated for 11 years so it should go without any hassle. I think you have rights to your husband assets as you are still married to him. This is if you want to draw attention, otherwise you can just go ahead without giving yourself any further problems. There's no such concubinage here in the UK unlike in the Philippines husband who are living with other woman can be charge of concubinage and married woman who is having an affair can be charge of adultery. So if you don't have any link in the Philippines, you can divorce him without any problem. Remember divorce can cost you from 3000 to 6000. This is how much my brother-in-law paid for all his 3 divorcee and he is now married to his 4th wife!
It can also cost about 50 quid if you can both agree on everything and not need solicitors. That's where the money goes rather than on the actual divorce. If you've been separated a long time you may be able to do things relatively simply and cheaply as there will probably be no bitterness.
