Is my marriage valid? Scam annulment?

[NicoNico 0]

We desperately need your help 😥😥

My husband asked me to marry him. Although I was on a tourist visa he said he loved me and was willing to petition and support me. So I did marry him in America. 

He believed he was single but apparently was not.

The story is he was taken advantage by a woman he married in the Philippines before. Even though he was a battered husband he was accused of psychologically abusing that woman.  He was detained at the embassy. He had to give an enormous amount of money in the condition that the case against him would be dismissed and for an annulment to be processed. 

After signing the hand over of cash at the embassy he was deported back to America. He was banned from coming back to the Philippines. Apparently the woman has relatives and friends in the government. 

Now we found out that my husband was scammed of an annulment.  It wasn't processed at all.

We're worried that my marriage to him is void. He's stressed because he can't go back to the Philippines to fix this.

What should we do?

We really need your help please

[merc0230 28]

Others much smarter than I will weigh in, but to me your marriage is invalid and therefore you will not be able to get a greencard (yet). Your husband will have to divorce his first wife, then marry you and THEN you can AOS. Until then you are out of status and deportable.

[NicoNico 0]

So does he need to divorce me first then divorce his first wife then marry him again?

Or could he divorce his first wife while married to me?

[Becci391 339]

He needs to get divorced first.

Then he can marry you and you can do AOS.

[belinda63 2,981]

Technically you are not married to him as he was not legally free to marry. He needs to divorce the first woman then he can marry you.

[Unlockable 7,306]

As others have said, the first marriage makes your marriage to him invalid. He is probably looking at annulment with you based on the previous marriage and divorce with the first wife. Fortunately, he doesn't have to go back to the PH to get a divorce from the first wife.

 

Now here comes the other issues. You stated that you were here on a tourist visa. Did you overstay? Were you filing for adjustment of status? The reason I bring this up is because, if so, you are now in limbo without legal status in the US until he gets this fix. And dealing with this may take a great deal of time. So you are either stuck here unauthorized or will have to return to your country but won't be able to visit the US with your old tourist visa.

[milimelo 4,205]

Wonder which embassy detained him and he had to pay money? Wasn’t US one. 

[ThomasNC1988 762]

30 minutes ago, milimelo said:

Wonder which embassy detained him and he had to pay money? Wasn’t US one. 

Yeah I'm not sure what she means, sounds like she needs to calm down and get all the facts in order.

[John & Rose 7,237]

50 minutes ago, milimelo said:

Wonder which embassy detained him and he had to pay money? Wasn’t US one. 

That was what I was thinking.  The US wouldn't do that.  They also would not make him pay a bunch of money before leaving.  There is more to this.

 

If she is out of status won't that impact her legitimate visa attempt?  If she overstayed her tourist visa they may have an uphill battle ahead of them for the spousal/fiancee visa.  It seems like she is not married so there is no need for her to divorce but the husband needs to divorce his first wife and that can be challenging without her involved depending on where he lives.  My spidey sense thinks he may not be being 100% truthful to her.

[NicoNico 0]

When he was taken by police he insisted to be detained in the US embassy instead of a local jail after he was charged of psychological abuse.

He married me before he found out that the annulment wasn't processed. He was working on the petition already.

Apparently the woman used the case of Psychological Abuse as grounds for annulment. In exchange to dismiss the case against him he had to pay a large sum of money to her. Money that was supposed to go to the annulment process. 

[John & Rose 7,237]

1 hour ago, quenma888 said:

When he was taken by police he insisted to be detained in the US embassy instead of a local jail after he was charged of psychological abuse.

He married me before he found out that the annulment wasn't processed. He was working on the petition already.

Apparently the woman used the case of Psychological Abuse as grounds for annulment. In exchange to dismiss the case against him he had to pay a large sum of money to her. Money that was supposed to go to the annulment process. 

Psychological incapacity is a very common excuse for annulment in the Philippines.  There really shouldn't be a case unless he was accused of abuse (which is usually different from incapacity).  I've never heard of a case where any police agency in a foreign country allows the "sentence" to be carried out in a foreign embassy.  Once he is at the US Embassy he is on US soil and not under the jurisdiction of the local country.  I don't believe they would incarcerate him there but others know much more than I do.  Being somewhat familiar with the Philippines there are parts of that story I get and parts that just don't quite add up.  It is definitely not the whole story.

 

Bottom line is he is still married so your marriage is null and void.  He needs to end the first marriage.  That is the first step.  You never answered if you are overstaying your tourist visa.  That would be my main concern.  This can all be worked out but if you are staying illegally in the US that can have a serious impact to your next petition.

 

There are things that need to be handled to get this back under control.  Get yourself legal.  End his first marriage.  Get married.  File a spousal visa.  You can also get yourself legal, end his first marriage, file a K-1 and then get married.  You should get a good lawyer because it seems like a lot of this would require you to be out of the US or get your visa extended (if possible) while the rest plays out.  This is going to take a while.  K-1 and CR-1 are both roughly a year and he will need to have his first marriage legally dissolved before he can file the K-1 or remarry you and file the CR-1.

 

This is probably doable but it doesn't sound easy as there are a lot of "gotcha" points during this process.  Annulments in the Philippines take anywhere from a year to two and would cost between 200,000 and 500,000 pesos ($4000 to $10,000 US)

 

That is not all paid at once.  It is paid at stages along the process.

Edited October 30, 2018 by John & Rose

[Boiler 43,436]

First you need to find out what happened. Otherwise agree with everybody else.

[aaron2020 11,651]

The law considers your husband a bigamist, so you will not qualify for a green card based on being the second wife.  This is not a do-it-yourself case.  You need good competent US lawyers who understands bigamy laws and immigration laws. 

[Russ&Caro 1,548]

Where is your home country? Are you free to visit back and forth as he gets all of this straightened out?

[Boiler 43,436]

Presumably if you get an Annulment there will be paperwork.