divorcing an illegal immigrant

Helio, i'm from Texas, I got married a year and 9 months ago to a woman from mexico, she was not then and is still not legal in America, it is a situation we have been working on but we are having alot of problems with. we cannot get visa at this point. but that is another story. We are living 2 seperate lives, we barely talk we have little to no physical contact. we have talked about seperation and divorce, but she is afraid if we divorce she will have no chance at getting an American visa, i'm afraid if we divorce she might possibly get half my stuff, everything i have i had before we got married, and anything we got after is on my credit, she has no social security number, no drivers lisence, the only reason is able to be here without major problems is because of our marraige certificate. this is my first marraige and i thought it was supposed to be different than this, i wanted a partner, and feel like i'm her parent, there is a 13 year difference. she opened her own bank account and puts all her money in it i have no access to it, i pay all bills, my question is if i decide to divorce what is she entitled to? i dont want to lose what i have worked so hard for.

thank you for any advice.

i just realized my typing skills in the above question were terrible, i apologize for that, but i still need some advice?

cool mr grinch said:

Helio, i'm from Texas, I got married a year and 9 months ago to a woman from mexico, she was not then and is still not legal in America, it is a situation we have been working on but we are having alot of problems with. we cannot get visa at this point. but that is another story. We are living 2 seperate lives, we barely talk we have little to no physical contact. we have talked about seperation and divorce, but she is afraid if we divorce she will have no chance at getting an American visa, i'm afraid if we divorce she might possibly get half my stuff, everything i have i had before we got married, and anything we got after is on my credit, she has no social security number, no drivers lisence, the only reason is able to be here without major problems is because of our marraige certificate. this is my first marraige and i thought it was supposed to be different than this, i wanted a partner, and feel like i'm her parent, there is a 13 year difference. she opened her own bank account and puts all her money in it i have no access to it, i pay all bills, my question is if i decide to divorce what is she entitled to? i dont want to lose what i have worked so hard for.

thank you for any advice.

Click to expand...

Gee...When you marry a criminal (and if she is here illegally she is committing a crime) you should not be surprised that her options are limited. She will get half off the marital property and be responsible for half the marital debt. Although how she will pay her half is a mystery as she can't work...Oh well! That is the risk when you CHOOSE to marry an ILLEGAL ALIEN!!

baystategirl said:

Gee...When you marry a criminal (and if she is here illegally she is committing a crime) you should not be surprised that her options are limited. She will get half off the marital property and be responsible for half the marital debt. Although how she will pay her half is a mystery as she can't work...Oh well! That is the risk when you CHOOSE to marry an ILLEGAL ALIEN!!

Click to expand...

Note that she will get half of the MARITAL property and half of the MARITAL debt (probably).

Get a consult with an atty. Really.

Bay, TX can be a bit weird, especially when dealing with a short marriage. I just had a good friend get divorced (finalized 3 weeks ago). They had been married for 3 years. ** I told them that within 3 years they would either be divorced or she would be pregnant. (You can't imagine this girl....)** She walked away with HER used car, and 8% of the equity in the home. That's it. Seriously. Of course, she got a heck of an education out of the marriage thanks to his 'sponsorship' and a honking (outrageous) ring that I'm sure she pawned the minute the orders were final.

She still got more than she deserved.

mommyof4 said:

Note that she will get half of the MARITAL property and half of the MARITAL debt (probably).

Get a consult with an atty. Really.

Bay, TX can be a bit weird, especially when dealing with a short marriage. I just had a good friend get divorced (finalized 3 weeks ago). They had been married for 3 years. ** I told them that within 3 years they would either be divorced or she would be pregnant. (You can't imagine this girl....)** She walked away with HER used car, and 8% of the equity in the home. That's it. Seriously. Of course, she got a heck of an education out of the marriage thanks to his 'sponsorship' and a honking (outrageous) ring that I'm sure she pawned the minute the orders were final.

She still got more than she deserved.

Click to expand...

I agree that he needs a consult with an attorney ASAP.

I also would like to point out that although she is an illegal alien, she may not be the actual "criminal". There are many, many illegal aliens who were brought to the US as children, by their parents, and culturally are just as american as any other young adult here. Some of them remember very little about the country they came from, have no family there, and don't even speak the language very well, if at all.

LdiJ said:

I agree that he needs a consult with an attorney ASAP.

I also would like to point out that although she is an illegal alien, she may not be the actual "criminal". There are many, many illegal aliens who were brought to the US as children, by their parents, and culturally are just as american as any other young adult here. Some of them remember very little about the country they came from, have no family there, and don't even speak the language very well, if at all.

Click to expand...

If that were the case wouldn't she have more than a marriage license to document herself? And the fact that she MAY have been brought here as a child, although I sympathize with her, does not take away the illegality of her status.

Fact is, according to his posting, OP married a ILLEGAL alien that is 13 years younger than him, no documents at all, no means to support herself or contribute to the household and is p and m'ing that this marriage is not all he thought it would be. How annoying. I have an idea what OP though marriage to the illegal would be and is now upset that the seemingly powerless illegal didn't agree.

baystategirl said:

If that were the case wouldn't she have more than a marriage license to document herself? And the fact that she MAY have been brought here as a child, although I sympathize with her, does not take away the illegality of her status.

Click to expand...

No, actually she wouldn't. A quite a few young people in this situation are tax clients of mine. I feel very sorry for them because they are not criminals, they are victims. This is the only country that they really know, and the only place where they are culturally comfortable, yet they do not legally reside here. Some of them have even been deported to countries where they know no one, do not speak the language, and also don't have the necessary documentation to survive there if they did. Some of them no longer even have living parents in the US.

Marriage does eventually give them legal status, but its a very complicated process, usually requiring them to return to the home country for anywhere from 6 months to 2 years, in order to be readmitted to the country legally. Often those marriages don't survive the process.

I have another client who loves his wife very much, but they have not legalized her status because they simply cannot afford to send her back to Mexico to live for up to two years, they aren't willing to be separated for up to two years. So its also a "catch 22" for them. If you met her, you would have absolutely no idea that she wasn't born in the US.

Its a horrible and ugly part of the illegal immigration situation that no politicians have addressed at all.

Fact is, according to his posting, OP married a ILLEGAL alien that is 13 years younger than him, no documents at all, no means to support herself or contribute to the household and is p and m'ing that this marriage is not all he thought it would be. How annoying. I have an idea what OP though marriage to the illegal would be and is now upset that the seemingly powerless illegal didn't agree.

Click to expand...

I can't disagree with that.