Declaring divorce for 2nd marriage

Liquid78

15 years ago I was married and then divorced 2 years later. I do not have my original copies of the divorce paperwork, they are somewhere in storage and I have no one to look for me. I want to get married during my R&R from my deployment but do not have enough time to fly to America and then back to Thailand where my family is to get married. Would it be a big deal if I just said I was never married before?

kimplus8

Yes it would be a ‘big deal’ as it is fraud and invalidates your marriage.

Liquid78

How would they know? If they have the ability to look up the records then why do I need to provide the original document?

Keep_pedalling

kimplus8 wrote: »

Yes it would be a ‘big deal’ as it is fraud and invalidates your marriage.

Unless you are an expert in Thai law, how do you know that? It would not invalidate a UK wedding, only being a bigamist would do that.

Unless the OP is a Thai citizen they do not actually have to show documentary evidence of the divorce, but as with any foreigner getting married in Thailand they need to provide an affidavit regarding the marital status of the person from the respective embassy.

Full details can be found here.

https://www.thaiembassy.com/marriage/marriage.php

TonyMMM

In the UK it would be perjury and that would include lying to the registrar if you need to get a certificate of no impediment to take to Thailand with you .

MovingForwards

Can you not obtain a replacement? It may be quicker and cheaper.

tyllwyd

I think there isn't enough information here to go on - if the OP is on deployment in the UK, and the original paperwork is in the US and family is in Thailand, is the OP a US citizen perhaps, who was previously married and divorced in the US? And the OP intends to marry in Thailand - to someone who is currently a Thai citizen? - and then live in what country? What ever the situation, if immigration is involved, being found out to have lied on official documents wouldn't be a good thing.

kimplus8

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

Unless you are an expert in Thai law, how do you know that? It would not invalidate a UK wedding, only being a bigamist would do that.

https://www.thaiembassy.com/marriage/marriage.php

because he would still have to make a statement to the registrar stating if he had been previously married and if he says no that is a lie and would therefor make the marriage invalid.

TBagpuss

kimplus8 wrote: »

because he would still have to make a statement to the registrar stating if he had been previously married and if he says no that is a lie and would therefor make the marriage invalid.

No, it wouldn't.
Lies don't automatically make a marriage invalid.
There might be other consequences, due to making false statements , and if the lie extended to the new spouse it might cause marital strife, too, but it wouldn't mean the marriage itself was invalid at least not in the UK.

OP , can you arrange for anyone else to obtain duplicate documents for you to prove your earlier divorce? You may even be able to apply online. Which country were you divorced in? In the UK, you can apply to the central registry of the high court to obtain a duplicate of your decree absolute, and there may well be similar provisions in the court system in the USA if you were divorced there