HONG-KONG DIVORCE.. WITHOUT ANNULMENT IN PI

[marklovetina 52]

Will a Hong Kong Divorce be accepted in Manila USE?, Legal HK divorce but no annulment in Phil OK for K1?

post Mar 4 2008, 11:42 PM

Post #1

Junior Member

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Group: Members

Joined: 18-February 08

Filed for: K-1

California Service Center

Local Office: unknown

Country: Philippines

My fiancee lives and working in Hong Kong, and hearing of the problems / difficulties with obtaining an anullment in Philippines, she filed for divorce in Hong Kong. The divorce was completed entirely legally.....But will the US Embassy in Manila grant her K1 Visa with the Hong Kong divorce?

We have already filed and recieved NOA1...any comments or suggestions will be helpful!

have a blessed day!

I wish to thank all of you for your efforts and replies to my original topic / question. Just so all of you are aware, I was eventually able to make contact with the USE in Manila regarding my Phil fiancée’s divorce in Hong Kong. After looking through her regulations, she reported "I have good news for you." then she stated something like...since the marriage would take place in the US (which recognizes HK divorces) she would be considered free to marry and so she could obtain the K1 Visa. She further noted, however, that I could not marry her in Phil and then use a K3 since my fiancée is not free to marry there due to lack of annulment.

It is clear from what I have been able to see, Phil recognizes only annulment between Phil nationals, however, the visa is being offered through the US government at the request of a US citizen and the marriage is to take place under US jurisdiction. It is only for that reason that the USE is able to approve the K1 visa despite her still being legally married in Phil (but I might add, not in most other countries which recognize divorce - for instance she could marry in HK to an HK Citizen).

Also, FYI, the attorney she used in HK reported that she has had other clients who were divorced in HK and then married in the US and were living there legally. I do not know if they filed for K1 in HK or Phil. We are only filing through Phil (Manila) because in addition to the other errors in her documents, her Phil passport is inaccurate. She will need to correct that before going for interview but once she does, she is in danger of being accused of fraud by HK immigration if she returns to HK....she has heard of other domestic helpers who have been jailed for correcting errors years later and then returning to HK on corrected documents only to accused and arrested by HK officials suspecting them of trying to mislead HK about their identity.

Additionally, an attorney I spoke with was able to identify records of proceedings in which the Phil fiancée / spouse was acknowledged to have a divorce but not annulment and it was not looked at as a problem. However, he was so far unable to locate any regulations that directly state the acceptance / rejection of a foreign divorce for Phil citizen.

Finally, due to the fact that Phil will never recognize the divorce we are most likely going to proceed with getting annulment any way....now that we know of a way it can be obtained in under a year (THANK YOU VJer's You are SOOO helpful!) but we will not use it in the K1 process since we have already filed....but unless we can bring her boys over (might be complicated due to ex husband's attitude - not likely to give permission- though one boy is 18) she will have ongoing reasons to at least visit Phil and we want her to be legally safe there.

THanx again and have a blessed day!

Congratulations that finally you found an answer to this difficult issu which we , the other members also learned a lot. The USEM is right, just dont marry in the Philippines since legally, the divorce is not recognized there but the good thing is that it is possible for her to be approved with the divorce decree obtained from Hongkong.

The regulation that directly rejects a foreign divorce for a Phil citizen is in the Family Code of the Philippines itself where it states that the only way to declare a marriage null and void is thru annulment . The difference is that in Divorce, the grounds for it can be anything as long as both parties do not contest while in Philippine annulment, the grounds are exclusive.

I wish you all the best and hopefully, we will see a post here very soon that your lady is already here.

Goodluck and keep us posted.

i saw this quiry and i want to know if this is really true.... hope u can share infos. about this... bcoz if its true then why pinay will undergo an annulment and waste money if its ok in the the us embassy here in manila the divorce decree obtrained in hong-kong...?