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divorced from a UK citizen

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tripleL
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Joined: Sat May 07, 2011 2:51 am

divorced from a UK citizen

Post by tripleL » Sat May 07, 2011 3:03 am

A young woman married a British man and went to live with him in the UK from an Asian country. From the start they had marital difficulties. After 6 months they went on a previously planned holiday in that country (not the girl's country of origin, but she had been studying there). On the trip they decided their differences were irrevocable and they divorced. He returned to the UK alone and she started her post-graduate studies. Now she is planning to return to the UK while her visa is still valid and stay with relatives. She needs to know whether what rights she has and whether there is still a possibility of her eventually gaining citizenship.

pennylessinindia
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Post by pennylessinindia » Sat May 07, 2011 4:57 am

you need to give more details of nationality and countries to get clear help. divorce on holiday does not seem correct if a british national involved will need a court divorce to be valid .
If the marriage is not ongoing then you can not enter on spouse visa
pennyless

tripleL
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Post by tripleL » Sat May 07, 2011 6:39 am

Thanks, pennyless.
The man is British, born and raised. The young woman is Bangladeshi and was studying in another Asian country.

They married and divorced under Islamic law which is recognized as civil law for Muslims in that country. the guy turned out to be abusive and unbalanced, so when they went on a holiday to the same country they'd gotten married in she decided safest option was to divorce. he agreed.

now she's flat broke, and figures better to go back to the UK while her visa's still valid and work for a year; she's got a relative to stay with.

the catch is that she doesn't know whether the marriage was ever officially registered in UK; ditto the divorce, and she wants to avoid all contact with him.

so what's her status adn what are her options? She got married her, went to the UK 6 months later, stayed there with the husband for 6 months, and now has been away for 6 months. she says her spouse/cp visa is still valid for a bit more than a year.

would appreciate any help on this; she doesn't want to get into any difficulties.

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Casa
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Post by Casa » Sat May 07, 2011 9:58 am

Without going into whether the divorce is valid or not, if the husband has notified the Home Office that they are no longer together (which is what generally happens), then this will be on the UKBA system and she will be refused entry by UK Immigration at passport control on arrival here. Even if the Home Office haven't been notified, she is likely to be questioned as to the length of time she's been living outside of the UK on a spouse visa and they may well contact the husband to check the situation. Although she may have time left on her spouse visa before expiry, this became invalid when the couple separated.
Just one point. It's irrelevant whether the marriage has been 'registered' or not in the UK. It doesn't have to be registered in order to be recognised as legal under UK law.

tripleL
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Post by tripleL » Sat May 07, 2011 11:33 pm

Thanks, that information was helpful. She's pretty much decided not to go after all as she does not want to be embarrassed in the airport and be turned away! Unfortunately the ex was quite uncommunicative and actually gave her misleading information about her status there etc (although he's a civil servant himself so presumably has access to relaible infomration lol !)

One last question then if anyone can answer: is there any way that she can check her status online using her National Insurance Number? ie., find out whether he's informed that they're no longer together?

Greenie
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Post by Greenie » Sat May 07, 2011 11:40 pm

tripleL wrote:One last question then if anyone can answer: is there any way that she can check her status online using her National Insurance Number? ie., find out whether he's informed that they're no longer together?
No

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