Can we get married ? foreign divorce certificate & papers lost ?

fairenough786

Can we get married in UK ??

Hi all...

Seeking advise please ....

I am a Muslim British man 44 in Southampton and my partner 53 yrs old. We met on a dating site and have been together since 2 & Half years. She lived 200 miles away and moved in with me since almost 2 years. The flat i rent is on my name.

Our issue is that : She has been married twice before and her latter marriage was 21 yrs back (approx 1998 to 2011) with a Tunisian man. She lived with him in UK. She got married in Tunisia and also got divorced in Tunisia after about 12 yrs of marriage. She took over his surname which she still uses. When they got married in Tunisia she had her marriage certificate translated, though they were never married in the UK registry office.

Now, we are planning to get married in the UK registry office but she has lost/misplaced all her Tunisian marriage, divorce and the translation papers and we cannot locate them anywhere. She uses her Tunisian surname still and she wishes to have my surname in future. Most Importantly : We are religiously married in the UK mosque 4 months back and we DO have a marriage certificate which is in Urdu language (which mentions her current Tunisian surname). In other words there is no such evidence for us to provide anyone how she acquired her current Tunisian surname as its all lost/misplaced.

Please could you advise us Is there any obstacle in our marriage ? though after calling the local registry office 1 month back they did say they wanted to see her divorce certificate, which is No way obtainable as she don't even know which part of the world her ex might be on nor does she have his contact details ?

Can you please advise how we can proceed with our marriage in the registry office ? will it ever be possible ? We both are so so frustrated and have no way to move a step forward in our relationship. How about deed poll and she change her name to my name 1st ? Kindly advise.

I thank you so much in advance.

Kind Regards

theoretica

Can't she get a duplicate of the divorce certificate from the court or whatever it was in Tunisia?

TonyMMM

You can't get married without giving "notice to marry" to the registrar, part of that is confirming that you are both free to marry and you will be expected to provide documents confirming that any divorce took place legally (and translations if required).

There are processes for registrars to to refer cases of missing documents to the General Register Office for advice/decision .... all you can do is find ANY evidence you can, make an appointment to give notice, and explain the situation.

Names are irrelevant - anyone can choose to change their name on marriage (or not), or for any other (legal) reason. She can just start using your name now if she wishes, a deed poll isn't required although it may make getting the change accepted by some official organisations more straightforward.

Voyager2002

The simplest solution would be to obtain a duplicate divorce certificate from the authorities in Tunisia (as already suggested).


There are also procedures in place for dealing with missing documents: this is something to discuss with a solicitor.

silvercar

The officiants at the Mosque may be able to help. They may have obtained the paperwork from Tunis. Would they have married you if they thought she was still married?