I am trying to obtain a document from TECO or at least gain some insight.
I am a US citizen and married my husband in the 2000s. My husband is US citizen, and always has been.
In the 1990s he lived in Taiwan and married a Taiwanese national. They moved to the United States, where she had obtained a social security number and was listed as his wife on tax documents. It didn’t work out, and they agreed to part ways. She went back to Taiwan in 1992.
Before she left for Taiwan, they went to TECO where he signed documents in Mandarin. He believes this granted a divorce. He does not have a copy.
I thought that TECO can only authenticate documents like divorce decrees, not create them. They never filed for divorce in the United States. He continued to list her as his wife on taxes for a few years, and then stopped. I’m imagining the document was more like something that takes him off her household registration?
How can I get a copy of that TECO document or find out what happened? He wants to forget the whole thing, but I think he may not really be divorced and therefore we may not be married.
Agree. Lots of wishful thinking during Tax season? He believed the marriage was valid for tax purposes, and then acted like it wasn’t valid for divorce. He probably thought since she and her social security number were moving back to Taiwan the IRS wouldn’t find out. Beyond statute of limitations now, I think. He was making so little money it probably only saved a couple of hundred too.
hi! Thanks for your response.
TECO doesn’t have records from then, they said.
Beyond statute of limitations for tax fraud I think.
But the bigamist part…
So from what I can read you really can’t ever get married or divorced at an embassy / consulate or TECO. It seems like in every country your marriage or divorce follows the local laws, and then you can have the documents apostilled at the consulate but never can you create the marriage or divorce at that consulate.
I this what others understand?
So then unless things were drastically different in the early 1990s I don’t see how they could have originated a divorce.
BUT… Maybe she took a paper they signed and brought it back to Taiwan, and she divorced him there using the paper. They can’t divorce in California without filing for divorce with the state, but maybe she could divorce him in absentia essentially back in Taiwan.
Anyways, I think I need a lawyer in Taipei who can find out if she filed for divorce there. IF she ever remarried, she would have had to do that. When we got married in the US my husband just said on the application that he was never married-- or he would have had to produce a divorce decree, I think.
For the last part-- I only know about the household registry from these forums, and it makes logical sense.
or to be more specific, you can’t create a divorce decree in a consulate, just apostille it. But it the household registry in Taiwan recognizes her as divorced than she must have followed the legal proceeding to be divorced, and therefore he is?
Any way to check public records in the state where he lived/supposedly divorced his other wife to see if there’s any status to it? Try online, might have to pay a small fee.
If you mean in the United States- yes, I checked the superior court records in all the counties it could have possibly happened in. I have the prior addresses. I found his parents’ divorce from the 1970s but nothing for my spouse. He also doesn’t think that he filed for divorce in the United States. He thinks that whatever paper he signed at TECO counts. " As far as the US is concerned, I was never married"… except she came on a marriage visa, had a social security number and he kept filing taxes with he listed her spouse.
At this point we have assets that I want to leave to our kids without any interference.
I think he signed our marriage certificate application with " single, never before married" because he knew what a headache this would be and didn’t want to deal.
for sure. I’m trying to figure out if it’s possible we aren’t married so that we don’t accidentally create a will that could be invalidated because she may have a claim to his share of property, which is mixed in with mine as joint property in the US. No idea. In the US, you could have a wife show up and lay claim to pension, social security, 1/2 the assets because she is actually his wife. Doubt it would happen but trying to clear it up. This partly came up because we need to write a will and create a trust.
Really think I need an attorney to figure out if there was anything at TECO or whats up in Taiwan.
Since your husband and his previous wife were married in Taiwan it’s possible that they did indeed get a divorce through the TECO in the early nineties. Policies and procedures were very different and it’s hard to know. I’d get your husband to try applying for an original copy of his divorce certificate which may necessitate a trip to Taiwan. If the application is refused and your husband provided all correct details and necessary materials (ID etc) you’ll know that he is not divorced.
Well you didn’t say that he is American. You said he wasn’t born in Taiwan. Someone could be American and have been born in Taiwan. And someone could very easily not be born in Taiwan and not be American either.
Hi- yes, my husband was born in the United States, was in Taiwan for seven years, and came back to the United States with an wife around 1990.
He has zero interest in settling this. Is he the only one that can verify or be issued the household registration papers , or can I hire a lawyer in Taipei that can do it?
For TECO, could the New York office see the papers evenif they were filed in California? I ran into a dead end with them on the phone. NYC is close so I might have more luck if I have to go in person. Is it only my husband that could get papers?
Do you have his “ex” wife’s full name, ID number and DOB? It should be relatively straight forward to find out if she is married, although not necessarily to who, in Taiwan. I presume you’ve already exhausted Google etc? @Marco has provided a contact card for a firm of lawyers in Taiwan many times, perhaps do a search and give them a call.