Are we married?

What is the name of your state? Florida

I was married in February of 1996 to an illegal citizen(argentina) but we moved apart in September of that same year. We have no property, kids or investments together. I have not really been in contact with him at all since 1996 & am not even sure that he's still in this country.

My questions are:
Are we legally married & how do I check my status according to the state?
If yes, how do I get the divorce or annullment without him or knowing his social security # or actually ANYTHING about what he's been doing or where for the past several years?

Where do I go from here to be single again? Thx.

Questions and my take on the situation. This is NOT legal advice.

If you were legally married in Feb 1996 and were not divorced or had the marriage annulled in the interim either which of which you should remember. you are still married. The state should have a record of your marriage and would have a record of any divorce or annullment. There is no one place to check "my status" with FL or any other state.

You state he was an "illegal citizen" which I take to mean an illegal alien, one not legally admitted to the USA. If he was an illegal alien he would not have a valid social security #, might possibly have a fake one but again you don't know the number. Do you know his full legal name and date of birth at least? Do you have a copy of the marriage license or permit?

Was this a "green card" marriage? Does the INS know where he is?

To be single again you have to divest yourself of the past marriage by dissolution of that marriage. Since you were together for 7 months I don't feel you qualify for annullment. If you feel you do, on what basis?

I'm sure that your attorney that you hire for the divorce will after making a diligent search for him will have to resort to filing notice of the intended action in the newspaper where you last knew he was located.

Probably not a good idea to try to file on your own.

The reason I ask if we are legally married is that we didn't live together for a full year and have been apart for so many, with no joint property. Wasn't sure if there is a law for "commonlaw divorce" so to speak, since commonlaw marriage seems just as strange of a concept. Probably not, just wanted to ask.

Yes, he did give a social security # when we married, but he was here on an artists visa which was only for 10 months He would then need to renew, but that was after we moved apart. I do have a birth date and his name, but do I take that to the courthouse or where, if you know?

I prefferred to ask this question here before going to a lawyer to avoid putting him in any jeopardy if he is still working here and is without a legal visa. This was not a greencard marriage, just a young & spontaneous decision that ended when I realized that we went into the whole thing way too fast and that marriage is not what I want from life. We just kind of separated and then moved apart.

I am NOT an attorney, this is not legal advice, just advice and suggestions.

No, there is no such thing as a "commonlaw divorce".

Ok, you stated "he did give a social security # when we married". Florida has an excellent public records law and you have an advantage even if it didn't , your name should be on the same paperwork. Simply go back to the same office and ask to see the paperwork. In lieu of that or maybe in addition to that you may want to check for free at www.anybirthday.com Type in your hubby's name and it will a provide a list of persons with same name and give a date of birth for each. Out to the side will be a zip code. You may not find him there as one of the 130,000,000 on file because he never got listed or he may have left the zip code area if he was listed. If he has a rather uncommon name it sure cuts down on the length of the list.

If no luck there, simply give the attorney you go thru to get the divorce his name, date of birth, and last address where he resided with you, plus the social security # if you can come up with it. The attorney is entitled to pull either a full credit report or just the header portion under the criteria "in anticipation of litigation".

If he is not locatable that way the attorney will know how to proceed, probably will advertise 3 times in the notice section where he last resided.

Thanks so much for the info & ideas. Assuming that I cannot find him in the states, after we (lawyer) run the ad three times, then what? Is there a way for me to file under any other law if we can't find him or his info?

You don't actually have to find him, you just have to make an honest effort at giving notice that he is a party to an action for dissolution of the marriage. Since you have no children and no property to divide there isn't even anything to decide for the courts. If he does get in touch with you just ask him to sign off on the divorce, seems ya'll were on good terms. By know he may have his eye on someone and want a divorce also. Either way, once you respond yes to the question "Is the marriage irretrievably broken?" the divorce is a done deal.