Divorce to sponsor my 2nd wife

Hi,

I'm british and I'm legally married here in England. I've been together with my wife for over 4 years now but our relationship never worked as expected so few months ago I went Pakistan and I met really a nice lady who I married recently. Now I want to sponsor my new wife so we can live here together.

Does anyone know how would it work, what's the process?

I haven't divorce my ex-wife yet.

The UKBA won't recognise your second marriage as the marriage date is before the potential divorce date and in terms of the requirements to sponsor your new wife, you have to prove that 'you were free to marry', which you are not.

You will need to process the divorce and then probably re-marry your second wife otherwise her visa application is likely to be refused.

Polygamy isn't allowed in the UK and your second marriage will not be recognised whilst you are still married to your first wife.

One of the questions is the visa form asks if you are been previously married and to attach divorce documents to prove you were free to re-marry. You would not be able to satisfy this requirement to the Home Office and they will refuse the visa application.

Thanks for all replies.

I didn't mention that I kicked off divorce process in November 2013 but it is still under process. I last posted Decree Nisi by mid december but I haven't got any reply yet.

I got married just a week ago. So what'd be the alternatives now? Any suggestions please?

your divorce date will be the date of the decree absolute. your marrigae will preceed this so wont be valid as you were not free to marry.

Just confirming the above poster.

You divorce in not finalised until you are in possession of a "Decree Absolute". So at the moment, you are only going through a divorce and not actually divorced yet.

Therefore, your second marriage will not been recognised by the UK Border Agency and will not be able to apply for a visa as the date of your second marriage pre-dates the coming divorce date.

moveez wrote:
I got married just a week ago. So what'd be the alternatives now? Any suggestions please?

if you just got married a week ago, then get hold of whoever did your marraige and tell them not to process it yet.

if he can put your marriage papers on hold, then you can wait for your decree absolute to come through, and then if possible tell him to process it or go back there and get married again.

as if he now process your marriage and the date on the certificate shows that you got married before your divorce absolute went through then the UKBA will give you problems

as you might need to divorce your 2nd wife first and then re-marry her to get the dates in order

i remember when i got married in Pakistan that the person who done the marriage took a while to send the papers off to get it registered as i think he may have been sending it in batchs

Thanks.

It sounds really complicated process. I didn't know that.

Abdul - how long they can hold the documents for. If I tell them a month or so would they wait until then. I'm also chasing the court to speed up the process.


Thanks