Hi Everyone Im new here so go easy haha.... I need advice and hopefully someone has been through something similar. I met my beautiful Pinay girlfriend in the Maldives, she works in the hospitality industry for the big resorts. she is married in the PI but has been seperated from her ex for 6 years and they havent annulled the marriage and as she hasnt been in PI for many years. I would like to ask if anyone knows of someone in the UK that can help me try and get her a visa in the UK and help with her annulment and possibly a divorce here in the UK (i know there is no divorce in PI) but if we can do that here then at least in UK she is classed as not married until we can get the annulment in PI. any help with immigration lawyers or help with the annulment and getting her a UK divorce from her ex would be much apprieciated. kind regards
Welcome to British Filipino pudzee, another chap in the annulment club I see. Your loved one will have to get her annulment sorted out in the Philippines, it is time consuming and a little pricy. My now wife was working in Dubai for years when she started annulment proceedings, I know she managed to do quite a lot using instant messaging to contact her solicitor in the Philippines whilst she was away and contacted her solicitor when she went back home to visit her family. @bigmac is our most recent chap here at British Filipino to go through the annulment process, I'm sure he will post here and give you some pointers. And before you ask how expensive and how long the annulment takes I can tell you now that there is no set timeframe and the cost is variable just like a divorce here in the UK. One thing, don't let it get you down, I'm sure she is worth waiting for.
Thanks for the quick response Timmers. My Girlfriend has today spoke to her parents in PI and we will hopefully start the ball rolling in regards to her finding a solicitor in Dumaguete City and hopefully getting the annulment process underway. How did you go about getting youre wife here into the UK at first? or did you move back here after the annulment and marriage?
I brought her here to the UK a few years after the annulment was finalised, she was working overseas to fund her kids university educations so she was not in a position to come here until her kids had graduated. I had a long courtship of seven years, I used to commute to Dubai and Manila for a few years. You will only be able to bring your loved one here to the UK on a visit visa (6 months duration), and I can tell you now that they are difficult to get, my wife was refused twice but that's a different story. When your annulment is sorted out you will be able to bring her to the UK on a settlement visa Fiance or Spouse visa. All the information you require is contained within this forum, good to see you've started the ball rolling with the annulment, if her ex is out of the picture then that could make things a little easier.
Yeah Timmers.......her ex is 6 years out of the picture, and has a child with another girlfriend so there should be no problems getting him to agree to the annulment hopefully..... Does anyone know or have a rough ballpark figure for the cost of annulment in the Philippines??
The problem with a Filipino ex is that £ signs may appear in his eyes when he knows his ex wife is wanting an annulment to marry her British lover, just be careful about this, try to keep it low key with you on the outside. Regarding the cost of the annulment I will let @bigmac tell you about what he paid and how long it took as his case is more up to date, but it will be ball park figures in both cases as two annulment cases and two annulment lawyers are not going to be the same so be warned. We have a saying on the forum "long nose tax" that's what we sometimes have to pay in the Philippines when someone realizes you are a westerner, they think we are all rich, if only that was the case
hi pudzee. whatever your g/f does with regard to an annulment.---she must not let on that your in the picture. all the costs will skyrocket. the annulment process is a meal ticket for all involved. does your g/f know a lawyer she can trust ? my g/f ( that is--me ) paid 2 grand to her family lawyer to get the job done. it took 15 months alltold. apparently a higher fee could have reduced the legal process. so--you pays your money etc. so--you have to factor in that cost together with the £5000 plus for visa fees--on top of flights etc---oh and the latest £1000 to the NHS she also has to pay. also--her ex. if he gets wind of you--the going rate for his complicity is a million pp. are you aware of the usual grounds for annulment ? his current family situation has no relevance whatsoever. i know this sounds like i just chucked a barrel of freezing water over your love plans---but i think its only fair you have a bit of forwarning. i didnt get any.
Sorry there is not much good news to be had regarding the annulment situation, at the end of the day it is best that you know what you are faced with. But remember, love conquers all and you will get through it, we did
Ah my apologies I just refused a member from the Maldives can you ask her to register again, the Maldives seemed an unlikely signup location and there were some black marks against the IP address, again my apologies, I was just being careful and trying to avoid spammers, and a bit late but welcome to the forum.
Ok Many thanks for the Information..... I have sent this to my GF and she is on the case big time.... and im now in hiding lol.
There have been a lot of hackers using VPN's to appear as if they were in various locations, Pakistan, India, parts of the western coast of the USA, you can usually tell that they are dodgy the Maldives is such a tiny place and such a remote location that I kind of instinctively grouped it with the hackers and spammers
Don't worry... I have forwarded the message and she will re register tomorrow..... many thanks everyone for the information so far.
Jim, can you tell me which country I'm posting now, I'v using a free VPN not for hacking, just for hiding my IP from you tube and BBC etc
UK, London Oh and the IP they have assigned to you has two spam monitoring sites reporting possible spam We only do these checks on signups Jim it is just to filter out the obvious spammers and hackers, once a member demonstrates by their posts that they are genuine we would not check the IP often if at all. For me I would maybe check it if a post was totally out of character for a particular member which might indicate a compromised account. I too use a VPN when I am abroad, a private VPN one which would not be seen by the likes of Netflix and the Beeb and thankfully it works nice watching the odd Doctor Who episode in Manila I saw the first episode in November 1963 and am still a fan
Thanks Jim, I'm back in Bolton but when I sent the Post I noticed afterwards it had the Union flag on, I thought I switched to a USA. So it should work over in Philippines. Dr who's good, but I like to watch match of the day
Many thanks, this will help tremendously for her to research while she is working in the Maldives, as she is finding it hard to get any information while she is there.
Quick update....... My GF spoke with 2 lawyers, 1st one came up with £2200 but 3-5 years time frame with no guarantee of even getting the annulment, and possible additional fees for sorting out some papers that my GF cant arrange while she is living out of the country, 2nd lawyer is a friend of a friend of hers who is a specialist annulment lawyer with a husband who is also a lawyer with some connections..... guaranteed annulment in 6-9 mths but at £3500 all in with no extra costs!!! So its not going to be cheap, but at least 6-9 mths with guaranteed results sounds much better than 3-5 years with none!!!
