Void marraige?

What is the name of your state? California

Hello, need some marraige advice. I married someone in 2001 in the state of Nevada, he was however previously married outside of the country (philippines) and was not divorced, I don't believe divorce is even legal there. We ended up not living together at all, and have been seperate since. I now reside in California (san francisco), and am engaged to someone new.

Is my first marraige considered void? I'm not sure what that exactly means it if were void. Does that mean I can get married to my fiance without having to worry about paperwork from first marraige; or is there some sort of affidavit or some type of papers I must get before getting married to my fiance?

Thanks!

You will need to deal with your prior marriage before you get married again.

It is voidable. You need a divorce.

Ohiogal said:

It is voidable. You need a divorce.

Click to expand...

I disagree that the marriage was voidable.

It was void.

However, I do agree that our poster needs a divorce since proving that a valid marriage still exists in the Philippines is impossible.

Thanks for everyone's advice on my thread. Just to clarify, I'm wondering about the comment from seniorjudge below, specifically the part that says "since proving that a valid marriage still exists in the Philippines is impossible":

"seniorjudge
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohiogal
It is voidable. You need a divorce.

I disagree that the marriage was voidable.
It was void.
However, I do agree that our poster needs a divorce since proving that a valid marriage still exists in the Philippines is impossible."
____________

If there was a way I could get proof that he had a valid previous marraige before ours, what would I have to do then; is it still necessary to get divorce papers then? If there is proof that our marraige was void, then I'm curious if divorce papers are needed before I can marry my current fiance.

Thanks again.

vshanti said:

Thanks for everyone's advice on my thread. Just to clarify, I'm wondering about the comment from seniorjudge below, specifically the part that says "since proving that a valid marriage still exists in the Philippines is impossible":

"seniorjudge
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohiogal
It is voidable. You need a divorce.

I disagree that the marriage was voidable.
It was void.
However, I do agree that our poster needs a divorce since proving that a valid marriage still exists in the Philippines is impossible."
____________

If there was a way I could get proof that he had a valid previous marraige before ours, what would I have to do then; is it still necessary to get divorce papers then? If there is proof that our marraige was void, then I'm curious if divorce papers are needed before I can marry my current fiance.

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

A legal action needs to take place to acknowledge that the marriage is void. I don't think that SeniorJudge was attempting to say that you could just move on and pretend that the marriage never happened without legal action taking place.

In this instance however, he is also stating that a divorce really needs to happen, due to the difficulty of proving that a valid marriage exists in the Phillipines.

However, there is no divorce in the Phillipines (I know that for a fact). They will recognize a divorce that takes place in another country, but only if it takes place against the will of the citizen who remains in the Phillipines. So it would never be possible to prove that a divorce took place in the Phillipines.