Revokable Divorce

[Happyhippo]

Hello all,
I have some concerns I am hoping that I can be helped with. My husband and I have been married one year. We applied for citizenship and when we did, the guy said he is surprised they took his divorce papers from his previous wife. That made me curious so I started looking into it. He has a revocable divorce. I asked him why he didn't get the irrevocable divorce and he said he had to get that one before he could get the irrevocable. I've googled and googled and can't find anything that says that.

A little about him, he has 2 kids, he came over here a few months after the youngest was born. He got the divorce from his wife while he was here. He had his brother do it for him.

I have been starting to think maybe he married me just for citizenship. He says his kids stay with his mom, and that his ex wife lives with her parents. I read online, with the type of divorce he has, she has to live in his old house or with his family.


Can someone please help me understand what is going on.

[rayb]

Please forgive if this seems "out of line," but all references I can find to this issue suggest that it is a "Muslim" type of divorce, not entirely understood (or recognized) in U.S. legal practice. It is routine for
Immigration interviewers to take copies of civil documents at interviews, but this issue of "revocable divorce" may result in further attention before the Naturalization is completed.

--Ray B

Hello all,
I have some concerns I am hoping that I can be helped with. My husband and I have been married one year. We applied for citizenship and when we did, the guy said he is surprised they took his divorce papers from his previous wife. That made me curious so I started looking into it. He has a revocable divorce. I asked him why he didn't get the irrevocable divorce and he said he had to get that one before he could get the irrevocable. I've googled and googled and can't find anything that says that.

A little about him, he has 2 kids, he came over here a few months after the youngest was born. He got the divorce from his wife while he was here. He had his brother do it for him.

I have been starting to think maybe he married me just for citizenship. He says his kids stay with his mom, and that his ex wife lives with her parents. I read online, with the type of divorce he has, she has to live in his old house or with his family.


Can someone please help me understand what is going on.

[Happyhippo]

Yes, thank you, it is a Muslim marriage. In your personal opinon, do you think this is something I should be concerned about? I have asked him to show me her ******** page because I couldn't find it on my own and a lot of women over there go by **** names on ********. He refuses to though.
Is there anything at all I can do to find out if they are still together and he is just using me to get what he needs?
He already has his work card, social security number and green card now.

Please tell me there is something I can do, I am very distraught.
The whole getting divorced here just seems weird to me, especially since he chose a revocable divorce. Did he have a choice in that? Could he have chosen the irrevocable?

[rayb]

The "revocable" divorce probably won't cause any legal problems, but such divorce types, which vary by different Muslim world countries, may not be easily understood by your average USCIS reviewer. They might move the document to a qualified reviewer. I once worked with an Afghan friend in Connecticut whose marriage documents had mixed Arabic and Pashto pages (completed in Pakistan) and an English translation, and when they applied in the U.S. for an SSN or something similar, the SSA person suggested they just remarry in Connecticut, which worked out just fine.

In your case, the "test" you might consider is to have your husband obtain a divorce here from his foreign "ex" wife, with the rationale that you expect his foreign divorce to encounter legal obstacles in the future. If he refuses to do this for you, it might be time for marriage counselling.

A lot of U.S. divorces are not completed properly and often go undiscovered as incomplete until something like this, an immigration procedure, requires completion documents (final decree, etc.). So your goal to redo the divorce to "get it right" is not unusual.

--Ray B

Yes, thank you, it is a Muslim marriage. In your personal opinon, do you think this is something I should be concerned about? I have asked him to show me her ******** page because I couldn't find it on my own and a lot of women over there go by **** names on ********. He refuses to though.
Is there anything at all I can do to find out if they are still together and he is just using me to get what he needs?
He already has his work card, social security number and green card now.

Please tell me there is something I can do, I am very distraught.
The whole getting divorced here just seems weird to me, especially since he chose a revocable divorce. Did he have a choice in that? Could he have chosen the irrevocable?