Hi all , I got married in England in 2007 to a taiwanese girl, came to taiwan in 2011 and got divorced in taiwan in 2014.
My taiwan divorce was notarized in 2014
I contacted England’s “ General Register Office At the time and they said following the taiwan divorce, the UK would not consider that I am still married to my ex wife.
So although they may legally recognize it I did not finalize a formal divorce process as I was no longer a resident in UK.
However, recently I have intention to marry another Taiwanese girl and the household registry said I need a “singleness” proof certificate. But this is very difficult as I am not longer residing in the uk.
I contacted British council office in Taipei but they have no idea.
Surely it can’t be that difficult to get married again in taiwan when my previous divorce is “registered” here in taiwan?
Thanks for your feedback.
Currently I’m not even sure I need to submit this to.
Seems that finding a lawyer, either in taiwan or UK may be best bet (ideally taiwan lawyer who understands UK practices regarding divorce). Trying to speak with uk govt may not be so straightforward
My understanding is that it’s not the divorcing that is the issue. It’s the Taiwanese government’s insistence on the “Certificate of no Impediment” when the UK government won’t give this certificate to people living abroad. When I got married in 2019, I got the “Letter of no Trace”, the document that the UK will issue to overseas citizens, and then my wife and I managed to argue our way into the HHR accepting this. It’s a gamble though, I’ve heard of others using this method getting rejected, and I count myself lucky (sometimes) that my wife can be like a dog with a bone. Good luck!
This is exactly my issue.
I’m basically chasing a never ending tail.
I can’t get married because I can’t legally prove I am single because I don’t live in the country that can provide such evidence.
I even have evidence of divorce in taiwan because I registered it in my local household registration office in taipei !
But thanks for this info. I’ll check the no trace route and try to use this method. We need to get the British office involved if this method works, because there is no info. Out there at all.
If Ok, can I ask more details on this as the process goes along so we can see if this is a good route to go ?
But even to issue the letter of no trace, they need to have evidence of a divorce. And tbh, that end of the line is not exactly tied up either as the GRO just told me it’s valid , and that’s it
If they still do it, I had a British friend marry his Taiwanese wife online in Utah, and then they registered this at the HHR. I would recommend going this route if it’s still an option. It’s an absolute joke that this is even considered a fix for this situation, but there you go. When we first went to the HHR they recommended that we just go to Hong Kong and get married there. A permanent resident and a citizen being told that to legally get married in their country the best option was to go to another different country. Stupid rules that don’t impact enough people for anyone in power to give a shit.
Actually the lady at the HHR mentioned that to me yesterday. I do have HK PR though, my guess is you do too ?
Your friend married online in UTAH, but your friend didn’t have the issue of not finalising of a divorce in UK, right ?
Right now, I’m unsure how to finalize a UK divorce cos initially I was informed that taiwan divorce certificate is VALID in the UK.
Btw, for the no trace, does the document state your marital status e.g currently divorced or single , and then trace to no activity. Or it just traces that no marriage took place over a certain period ?
Do you get to define the period of the trace ?
I didn’t read anyone else’s reply above my message, but from experience, if you are a Brit wanting to get married to a Taiwanese, you either have to go to a country with a UK mission that can issue the single certificate and get married there, or if you want to get married in Taiwan, you need to go back to the UK, wait 30 days, get the certificate, have it legalized by the FCDO, then verified by the Taiwan rep office in the UK before returning to Taiwan and actually getting married. I think it might need to be translated to Chinese and notarized in Taiwan too but I’m misty on that part. This is how it was about 5 years ago, I doubt things have changed.
I think nowadays it’s possible to use a no trace LNT than a certificate of no impediment (CNI).
My issue is that I was once married in uk, moved and resides in taiwan and got divorced in taiwan, but never had a formal process to “divorce” in UK, although I was informed by GRO that my taiwan divorce is recognized.
Now that I would like to settle down, this is now coming back to bite me in the butt
Not in contact since around 7 yrs ago.
She remarried in taiwan, but it’s easier because she can use her taiwanese ID card which shows that she is divorced because we did that procedure here in taiwan
I have evidence of divorce in taiwan, but I don’t have evidence of divorce in uk other than the taiwan divorce certificate.
I’m afraid I don’t recall, and I’m not sure where the letter is now. I’ll have a look for it when I have the time, but I don’t think you define the period, only that there’s a sentence stating that it’s only valid up until 6 months before the letter is issued. This is the part that the HHR had an issue with.
As I said, I think this is a risky manoeuvre. I’ve seen people more recently trying to use the letter of no trace getting rejected, and it’s not cheap to get it all stamped up and certified by the relevant authorities, at least a couple of hundred quid from what I remember.
In terms of the getting married in Utah method, here’s a blogpost about the whole process, note the woman who did it is also divorced:
I need to go through a lawyer to get this done ? Seems limited information on how to apply for this ?
I assume that the taiwan divorce certificate can be used as proof of divorce and that a lawyer can help to finalize the process (not sure if to look for a uk or taiwan based - any recommendations would be appreciated !)
Thanks for the sharing, I contacted the original poster to get more info as the link is quite buggy.
Appreciate you bringing this into my awareness. Desperate times calls for desperate measures.
At this point, I still have little idea on what is the right way to proceed until I get professional or legal advice, it’s just all stabs in the dark !
