Divorce Support Forums: Annulment

Double check everything I'm about to say with a lawyer from your state, and you may even need to check with an immigration lawyer. YOu've got something to worry about, but it's not the question of wehther to get a divorce or annulment, I don't think. Both divorce and annulment are equally final. Be worried more about whether she will come out of the woodworks and accuse you of domestic violence. This is about the only way a person in her situation can stay in the country is if there was domestic violence involved in her decision to leave you, so she might just make up something, maybe even making up something ancient, from before she left you.

So keep good records of what has happened, change the locks, move, don't let her back in for even a minute, becasue that would give her long enough to falsify a complaint, and we know she's not above falsifying official documents, becuase it seems she even did that with her intent to marry you.

Good luck.

But unless you're in a state which requires, grounds, just do a no-fault divorce and maybe you can get it over & done with before she notices enough to come back & fight it. If you get the divorce over with, then you can notify the immigration that you believe she married you for fraudulent reasons, because you don't want your old testimony in front of them when she got her green card to be used against you ever, as a suggestion that you lied. You want to be clear to them that you were telling the truth and intending to enter into a complete marriage, and at the time you thought it was, but you had no idea of her intentions and that since then, she disappeared.

Before you can serve her by publication, you may need to have an investigator show that she couldn't be found through the ordinary channels (it's called "due diligence") and so if you know where she is, divorce by publication might not work. But check with the laws of your state first.

You really don't want to mess up any step of this procedure, because you want it done quickly and cleanly. Once she's out, you can legitimately keep her away from you and thereby prevent any FUTURE accusations that you might be violent.

Edited by gigi (02/23/07 12:23 PM)

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