Help with a big issue

Hi Tokyokitty12,

Just out of curiosity, how could it happen that you didn't know you were still married in the USA? Were you told by your husband that he had divorced you? Unless a spouse dies, a marriage doesn't just go away, it must be disolved judicially. Actually, even if done unknowinly, the fact that you did not have the legal capacity to marry (because of the existing marriage) this can mean that your marriage is not even valid. That is something you'll need to check out with the local authorities. It may well be that the lack of legal capacity rendered the local marriage void from the outset.

I'm quite surprised that you could have married your Moroccan husband in the first place without proof that you were divorced.

At any rate, you're correct it will probably be much easier and less time consuming to re-marry your Moroccan man. It's going to present a legal nightmare for you in the USA to try and get them to recognize a foreign marriage that pre-dates a US Divorce. Essentially they'd need to declare a marriage that was entered into ILLEGALLY as being legal. I highly doubt they'd even attempt to do so.

Cheers,
James      Expat-blog Experts Team

Tokyokitty12 wrote:

Aloha i am married to a moroccan man but i didnt know i was still married in the usa so now i got the divorce here in the usa what do i do next to clear my marrige in morocco we both want us embassy to recognize this marrige so do i have to marry my husband again or what should we do next i have been with my moroccan husband now going on 4 years

How did you manage to legally get married in Morocco (when you're still married to someone else), as they require a certificate of non-impediment, along with plenty of other paperwork, before they approve the marriage? Did you not provide that certificate? Was this an "Islamic" marriage or something? I don't see how it's possible to legally get married in Morocco, when already married.

XB23 is correct.  Americans are required to obtain an affidavit of eligibility of marriage from the U.S. Consulate in Casablanca before getting legally married in Morocco (one of many documents required(.   You would have had to bring your divorce papers to the Consulate so if you didn't do that I don't understand how you were legally married in Morocco. 

I agree with James that it doesn't seem possible to find a way for the U.S. to recognize a marriage that actually preceded a legal divorce.  Since you weren't divorced, the marriage would be invalid. 

At any rate, I wish you luck and hope you get this sorted out.

TariqTaz wrote:

I saw your comment (which quoted me), before it was moderated.

No, money doesn't help in this as far as I'm aware. In my country, and many others, yes, you can pay for a quick marriage that ignores inconvenient facts. But from what I've heard, although bribery is common place in Morocco, they appear to take marriage quite seriously (which is why there is so many papers to it!). Money does help in getting your papers translated quicker, getting a medical or police clearance without checkup, and speeding up the process in general, but I don't think you can pay them to ignore certain papers that you must provide. That is because part of the process requires that you must obtain the certificate of non-impediment from your own embassy/consulate. Unless you're from a country where bribery is the norm, then no matter how much you're willing to pay, your embassy won't give you a fake certificate. If you come from a developing country, then you can quite likely pay for a fake certificate, and end up with a official Moroccan marriage certificate based on lies. But she's from the USA, where they don't hand out fakes (unless I'm mistaken about this), hence my questioning of how she managed to legally get married in Morocco, as she would of been asked for proof of current marital status, and since she was married at the time, that would of prevented her from getting married there. But somehow she still managed to.

I am not sure how could you get married in Morocco without providing the certificate of non-impediment, but I think you better guys try the visa fiance and you can get married in US within 6 months if you are already divorced.

if you are a U.S. citizen, and  your marriage was not legally terminated when you married the Moroccan, that marriage is not valid, for U.S. Visa purposes.   So if you apply for a visa for him on an I-130  they will look at the date of your divorce and the date of your marriage and will see that you were not legally divorced at the time of your marriage to the Moroccan.

My advice, since you have been with this Moroccan for 4 years, you can prove your relationship and that you traveled there for purposes of visiting him and courtship with him, and make plans for marriage, you should return to the U.S. and apply for a K visa which is a fiance's visa.  THey are much easier to obtain than if you married him in Morocco.  The K Visa has a turn-around period of abut 3 months where the 1-130 process from Morocco, takes much longer, maybe a year or possibly  more.  you can google, which is easire K visa or marrying someone overseas and apply.
Hope this helps