MyK1Journey

To my understanding, even if we were both in the US at the time of the divorce, it would still affect my gf, in the sense that, if she ever were to want to remarry a filipino, she could not - as the philippines would not recognize the US divorce as a "real" divorce here in the philippines. She would have to spend years and many dollars in lawyers fees to get it recognized as a "Judicial Recognition of Foreign Divorce".

Hi Chancy,
 
First of all, thank you SO much for your insight... you dont know how much me and my gf appreciate it!
 
Also, just to be sure, I am going to lay out what I think all the abbreviations you used stand for below... please correct me if Im wrong on anything:
 
USCIS - United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
USEM - United States Embassy (in the Philippines)
ROM - Report of Marriage
PSA - Philippine Statistics Authority
CFO - Commission of Filipinos Overseas
CENOMAR - Certificate of No Marriage Record
 
Also, I just want to make sure we are on the same page - the whole reason me and my gf are even CONSIDERING the possibility of doing the CR1 without reporting the marriage to the Philippines government is because we want to avoid the requirement of her needing to file a foreign recognition of divorce IF we end up divorcing years down the road... so I guess my question is, if we ARE able to do the entire CR1 process WITHOUT reporting our marriage to the PSA, and then, we DO divorce, would my gf have to file a foreign recognition of divorce, or, would that not be necessary since the marriage was never reported to PSA in the first place? Does that all make sense?
 
Thank you so much for all of your help!!

oh shoot, there are financial requirements? What if I dont meet them? Do you know if I can have a family member or somebody else act as a financial sponsor for my gf? thanks so much

hey, first of all, I just wanted to say a sincere thank you because your answers have been phenomenal... also, I completely share your point of view that "nobody can tell the future", its best to be real about it rather than lying to yourself. Ok, about what you are saying - I think I understand - if the utah zoom marriage DOES need to be registered with the PSA (Philippine statistics authority) before the US embassy in manila grants a spousal visa, then IF we divorce AND she wants to marry a new filipino, then she will have to do the judicial recognition of foreign divorce, which is a major pain to go through, if im understanding it all good... 
 
ok, so, how can we figure this out? should I call the US embassy in manila, tell my situation to them, and ask them if my gf could remarry a filipino without doing the judicial recognition of foreign divorce if we do divorce? thanks so much