Not divorced, only legally separated, Can I get married in the US?

inspiron

New Member
Hi all,

In order to get married in the states, do I have to be divorced in my country of origin? or being legally separated is ok?

regards!

Brent
 
I believe in order to marry in US, you have to be able to marry freely.

Separated is not same as divorced. By all means, your matrial status is still "married".

ie, if you attemp to marry in US, you might break the law (i am not an expert so I do not know you might or you might not).
 
I am not saing it's the right thing to do from the moral or legal percpectives, but actually you could. I know somebody who did. Although, she was already a citizen...
 
I guess you can't married in the US once your married on your country.

But my friend of mind is a US Citizen and married to a different country and in order for him to get married again what he did is he filed a divorce papers here in the US (his state court) and send the papers to the country where he was married and let her sign the papers and send it back in the US to finalize the papers.

Hope it helps.
 
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I assume for obvious reasons that you want an answer to your question related to immigration.
In that case the answer is NO.

In the us if you want to be legally married you HAVE to divorce or annul your prior marriage BEFORE you get married.

If you lie and get married before that you will be practicing polygamy in the us and this is against the law and your petition for GC will be automatically rejected.
 
bps01 said:
I assume for obvious reasons that you want an answer to your question related to immigration.
In that case the answer is NO.

In the us if you want to be legally married you HAVE to divorce or annul your prior marriage BEFORE you get married.

If you lie and get married before that you will be practicing polygamy in the us and this is against the law and your petition for GC will be automatically rejected.

Its actually more like bigamy, which is still illegal in the U.S. I wonder how the USCIS would find out though. I know they do a background check, but isn't that a criminal check?

Im not suggesting anyone break the law here, Im just curious to find out how they'd find out about the previous marriage.
 
UnionJax said:
Its actually more like bigamy, which is still illegal in the U.S. I wonder how the USCIS would find out though. I know they do a background check, but isn't that a criminal check?

Im not suggesting anyone break the law here, Im just curious to find out how they'd find out about the previous marriage.
in this case more than mono equals poly :)
Most probably they will not even look into it if it's a labor immigration. In case of marriage based (which i assume is the purpose of this marriage) they can look into it. In any case - lies to USCIS (and to anyone else) is NEVER a good thing and i suggest to make it legally to ease your pains later.
 
HAHAHA...that phrase is great "more than mono equals poly". good one!

I think that they can find it out since the one who wants to immigrate had come with a visa (even if overstayed) right? and in that visa is link to a database that have all your info, including your marital status by the time of the issuance right?
 
I am confused with legally separated. Is there any document for that in India?
I don't know much about those documents. But you may get married in US without divorce in India. But if the other person know about that they can give a compliant in their local police station - their regional investigation Bureau - they can give a compliant in local INS - Basically what i am saying is they can take it upto international bureau. Based on the case sevierity Indian government can seek the help from the US police department to find the details. There are lot more complications. One of my friends cousin went th' all this...
I would suggest better wait for divorce or if you think you cannot get them so easily better marry quietly.
 
Unless we report about the marrital status or divorce while applying for
H1 or GC or anything USCIS will not know about the status. Unless otherwise you already mentioned in INS in India that you are married they will not know about it.
I got H1 after my marriage and i didn't mention that i am married in the Immigrant form that we fill in Consulate. I gave H4 for my husband. Later after 2 years i got divorce. I didn't inform that. After 4 years now i am married and i applied for labor th' PERM and got approved. This time i mentioned i am married. So far no problem regarding any status.
 
Uhmm you said that you did not mention that you was married when you get your visa, but then how you get the H4 to your husband? When you filed the H4 for him, you didn't disclose it?? :cool:

Well with your PERM you had to inform your new husband since in your previous visa you had another person as your spouse (you gave H4 through you)...you don't have to report your divorce, is the problem of your ex-husband to find a legal status later on if he wanted to stay and of USCIS to track it. And by your post you was not married with two different men at the same time. You said that after 2 years you got divorce, and after 4 years now you are re-married.

The issue here is that a person who is seeking an immigration benefit through a legal relationship with a family member e.g. legally married or is truly your father/mother, etc. Regardless of the morality involve :rolleyes: , to seek a benefit through fraud is exactly that and of course jail time since the person is legally married with another person does not matter where it was and is consider poligamy.

As many other issues with USCIS probably they won't found out :rolleyes: or probably they will and everything always goes around :p .
 
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inspiron said:
Hi all,

In order to get married in the states, do I have to be divorced in my country of origin? or being legally separated is ok?

regards!

Brent

Definitely you have to be divorced...otherwise you commit polygamy and USCIS is not a big fan of such offense.

cherr1980 said:
As many other issues with USCIS probably they won't found out or probably they will and everything always goes around :p

We're still waiting for you to tell us how many people are you married with :p :D :D
 
One of my friends got married here without divorcing her husband in her home country first (because her American husband insisted). It all would be ok, but during the interview her American husband told that to the INS officer. She had to appear in Immigration Court. Just because she had a VAWA case she was not deported, otherwise - Good bye, America!
 
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