Advice needed on marrying Filipina girl

Hello everyone this is my first post on here, i met my girlfriend in HK she is working there as a domestic helper, she left her abusive husband in the Philippines 4yrs ago. We want to marry so she can come to UK with me to live and work. Problem is we need to make it possible for us to marry and her obtain a spouse Visa. We have been told she can get a divorce in HK and then we can marry, Phil consulate legal aide told her she needs to get annulment in Phil. We are so confused and we just want to be together, please anyone been in the same situation get in touch and let me know best thing to do. Thanks Alex

Firstly are you sure of her intentions and have you hired a PI to check out her story about the husband? How long have you known her and in what context did you two meet?

I'm pretty sure, we met in HK when I was on business trip, I have been out to see her a couple of times and we are not planning to do anything until her current contract expires in Aug15. I have met her friends and know she has a good job there already, she has a daughter living in Philippines that lives with her auntie away from the husband. She has never asked me for anything, never thought about getting the husband story checked out.

From what I know, the Philippines does not allow divorce. If she got married there, her only option would be to seek annulment--and that scenario itself is known to be a long and tedious process.


Here is an article that might shed some light on your current predicament: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/24/divorce-philippines_n_4157099.html

frankie is right, however i believe that if you get a divorce in hong kong, you can then remarry in hong kong too

You said her husband was abusive so she had to flee? Do you think this would make him more irate and cause you or her or her daughter physical harm. I'm not saying you are not capable of defending against it but he could also be "Manny Pacquiáo" in terms of KO ability and/or worsely psychotic in such a scenario i.e. OJ Simpson.

I came across this website that talks about the legal aspects of getting a divorce for Filipinos that may help as well:


http://www.hg.org/article.asp?id=20090


cookie09: Unfortunately, I don't think the scenario you mentioned will work out.


"For Filipino couples, neither of the parties may avail of divorce from anywhere in the world, the reason being Article 15 of the New Civil Code which states that “Laws relating to family rights and duties, or to the status, condition and legal capacity of persons, are binding upon citizens of the Philippines even though living abroad.” This means that, as enumerated by law, matters pertaining to Filipinos’ family rights, duties, personal status, condition and legal capacity are dictated by Philippine law, and these laws will follow Filipinos anywhere they may be. And since Philippine law does not allow divorce, this law goes with them wherever they reside."


On the other hand, I don't know when this was published so I'm not sure how updated this information is.

frankie, to be clear my understanding is as follows:


every country follows their own laws, so you only need to be "clean" in the country where you physically are.


from a HK standpoint you can divorce and then remarry. at that point she has then (illegally) remarried from a Philippines standpoint of view. but that shouldnt bother the OP if he doesnt plan to live in the philippines. i would believe that every country in the world will recognize that HK divorce and remarriage - except the phillipines itself due to the law that you have mentioned

Hi, thanks for your replies everyone. I have kids already here in the UK so I wouldn't want to move to HK. We planned to get the annulment sorted once she was here. Cookie, who can we talk to about sorting out a divorce for her in HK? If it looks like it will be trouble to do that that we will just have to wait and sort out the annulment as time and money allows.

There has actually been quite a bit of misinformation and scaremongering given out on this thread, although what cookie09 says above is correct. I would strongly advise you and your girlfriend to talk to a HK lawyer.


There is no need for anybody to be a ''risk taker'' or anything like it.


If your girlfriend is domiciled or habitually resident in HK and then divorces in HK then she is divorced in every country in the world - except the Philippines. So you will then be free to marry either in HK or the UK - the UK recognises divorces and marriages that take place in HK. Again, check with a HK lawyer, but if she is a DH in HK and has been here for at least a year then there will be no problem with her being habitually resident in HK. Note that habitually resident does not have to mean permanently resident.


Your girlfriend can come to the UK either as a fiancee or as your wife and her daughter can come too. If she arrives as a wife then she can start working straight away if she wants to but, if she enters the UK as your fiancee, then she cannot work until after you get married.


With regard to the scaremongering above about it being difficult to get a spouse visa nowadays that is totally incorrect. The two main things are that you can prove that you have a real relationship - you've met and have got loads of photos of you both together etc and that you, as the sponsor, earn at least £22,400 per year if both she and her daughter are applying to come to the UK. The amount is lower, £18,600, if it is only your girlfriend that is applying.


In addition, she must either show that she has a degree that was taught in English or pass an exam in English - the exam is not at all difficult, my wife passed it first time without any problems.


A poster goes on above about how bad things might get if her husband starts cutting up nasty if/when you return to the Philippines. Well, to be frank, I think it's probably likely that he has moved on to some other woman by now and it is highly likely that it would be possible to bring an adultery case against him - both bigamy and adultery are illegal in the Philippines.


The husband would only potentially be a problem if he came from one of the very rich families in the Philippines - and in that case it would probably have been him initiating the annulment anyway. However, given that your girlfriend is now working as a DH in HK I would think that is very unlikely - in the Philippines the rich tend only marry other rich people.


Hope this helps

I believe you can file for a legal separation under Philippine law and not necessarily an annulment.

I'm in the same situation. Hired a lawyer to go through the process. Roughly it takes around 6 months if everything go as expected.


One thing to note is that the husband will need to sign an agreement or something like that. If he does not agree then it get pretty tricky. In my case he got a daughter from another wife so technically he's the one breaking the law, so he will sign without a question.


However if it doesn't he will probably ask for money, happened to one of my friends. He keeps on asking more and more

hi BEANCURD,
I have the same problem, appreciate if you can share with me any contact of the HK lawyer that you had.
Really glad to see this thread. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks a lot.

Alex,
Beancurd and Tonybee seem to have hit the nail on the head with the advice.
There are quasi legal means of getting out of a marriage in the Philippines, a friend of mine married a Filipina DH here in HK several years ago after she had the previous marriage annulled in the Philippines; she had an abusive but estranged husband and a child she was supporting herself. Even if your girlfriend divorced and remarried here in HK I find it highly unlikely that she would be arrested for bigamy the moment she sets foot in the Philippines as suggested by scaremongers earlier. Interpol and other agencies dealing with trans-national organized crime have slightly more important things to worry about. Considering how many Filipina DH's have lived here over the years, your situation has probably occurred many times before in HK so I am pretty certain there are lawyers here that have experience in this.
Any other checks you decide are necessary for your peace of mind re your girlfriend are entirely up to you and should be based on your feelings, not the suspicions of others.

Could it be that this 'pina is looking for a "Meal ticket" for life?

My brother NOW suspects as much after getting married for a few years - and now facing expensive divorce proceedings 'cos he did NOT die as expected - She's out to fleece him for all she can get whilst he's still alive !

Caveat Emptor!

i.e. Let the [bride] buyer beware!!!

JennyTalia, scammers and fools come from all walks of life - and it doesn't matter what nationality. Of course, you coming from a superior race and citizenship should know this by now.