What to do when spouse does not provide documents?

Hello,

I am writing in this very interesting forum to ask for some advice.
I myself don’t live in Taiwan and have been there on holiday just a couple of times. The problematic situation is related to a very good Korean friend of mine.

She has been married with a Taiwanese man for many years now although they have not been living together much at all since he has been travelling and living abroad a lot for work and she preferred to be in Korea near her parents.
They have a 8 year old girl together and he has just been sending little money to pay for the daughter’s expenses. Basically they have been living almost as a divorced couple and he has never been very interested in their child.

Recently she was contacted by a Vietnamese lady (he has been in Vietnam for the past year for work) who sent her pictures of herself together with her husband and audio recordings of him saying that he will tell his wife he wants to split up (basically good proof of adultery), asking her to let him go.
My friend then contacted her husband for clarification and he said that it was all true and that he wants to split up but not divorce (?!)

She went to a Korean lawyer to ask for advice and he said that the easiest way is to do the divorce in Korea so that the finalized divorce papers can then be sent to Taiwan as well. The problem is that in order to do so, she needs to get a copy of his documents (his passport and his family certificate) but he is not willing to provide them and even his relatives in Taiwan (he is now in Vietnam) are not very ready to help plus they would need an affidavit from him anyway.

He also said that he won’t be sending in any more money for their child.

I was wondering if you could give some advice to solve this mess and also suggest a good lawyer (based in Taiwan who deals with foreigners?) to try to be more “convincing” and perhaps have him to try to contact the husband through his Taiwanese company, since he is going off the radar in Vietnam.

Just to summarize, she needs:

  1. to get the papers for the divorce from him
  2. to get some sort alimony for their child.

Thank you

Hard to get divorced without both parties willing

She can sue him for adultery
That may force him to sign papers

She goes Taiwan and gets household registry papers. She must have something. Marriage license?

Does it really matter if she divorces in Korea, but not in Taiwan? As long as Korea accepts it, wouldn’t that be the main point in her life?
Did they get married in Taiwan or Korea? If Korea, I would think it easier to claim abandonment.

Also, I doubt that a Taiwanese court would try to enforce child support for someone living in Korea who is not Taiwanese.

Dear all,

thank you for your replies.
There is an update, she also has a recording in which the Vietnamese lady tells the guy to tell his wife about about their soon to be born baby.
Perhaps it is just a sham originally intended to convince my friend to let her husband go, but now it is also one more proof of adultery.

The option of suing him in order to convince him to sign is quite interesting but can she do it even if she is not a Taiwan resident?
I am sure she would be willing to go to Taiwan just to do it, since he now just disappeared and does not answer calls and emails.

As far as Taiwanese papers are concerned, she only has the marriage certificate, but she needs his family certificate and a copy of his passport in order to complete the procedure in Korea.

They married in Taiwan, but stayed there very little.

Her primary concern is to get a divorce which is accepted in Korea, but the question of child benefit is also relevant, so perhaps the threat of jail time might convince him to be more “diligent”.
Does anyone know if there are trustworthy lawyers or law firms that could handle the case?

my angry wife wouldn t provide any documents nor help in order for me to get my arc and passport renewal. any idea?

Update and new question.

The Vietnamese woman is indeed pregnant with my friend’s husbands child.
He wants to stay with the new family, abandoning the previous one (my friend and their son), but doesn’t want to take any responsibility (no divorce papers, no child support).

The problem is that he “disappeared” and is not reachable at all.
Given the emergency situation, my friend asked the company he is working for (which is Taiwanese) for information about how to contact him but they said they cannot do much because of the Taiwanese Personal Information Protection Act.
law.moj.gov.tw/Eng/LawClass/LawA … e=I0050021
Clearly they are using the law as an excuse, since it states that it doesn’t apply if it is related to major interests of a third party (divorce and child support are quite big things!).

According to Taiwanese Law, are they breaking any law by not providing information in such a situation?

My friend is ready to report him missing both to Taiwanese and Vietnamese authorities, given that she has no news about her husband and cannot reach him.

Can someone advise a good lawyer to help my friend get the divorce?

She is also planning to report his adultery, of which now she has irrefutable evidence. How do things work in this regard
Thank you

To sue for adultery, the perpetrator has to be caught in the act, with witnesses and the police. As you can see, this is somewhat difficult.

I would extrongly advice against using the reocrding, as it can be proven she did this illegally, without the parties involved consent, and then SHE is the one going to jail. Yes, not fair, but that is the way the cookie crumbles.

The company is correct in the sense that they cannot provide such information. They are not supposed to.

There is also no provision in the law for child support. If she pushes this matter, he will take her child away and, yes, get away with it, even though he has not been responsible in any sense, economically or otherwise. But the law in Taiwan will side with the ROC citizen and that ain’t her.

As you can see, he wouldn’t be such a chump if he wasn’t sitting on the catbird seat. He’s got al the advantages. She cannot force him to divorce, as the law is on his side.

Heck, we’ve got cases the Taiwanese man deserted his family and took the foreigners’ mom and kids passports with him, sleaving them stranded economically and literally as they cannot leave the Island nor apply for any help.

Tell her never to come to Taiwan with her child. She can come on her own for any legal proceedings, but never bring the kid nor allow the father to see her without supervison. This is the first and most important issue: to protect her child.

Second, she needs to make a clean cut with this guy. Diovorce and hopefully anulment will be very difficult. She needs to understand that. She needs a fierce lawyer, as she is dealing with a shameless man. At first glance, she already qualifies for statutory divorce, but all she will gain from this is her freedom and to hold to her child. Anything else she pushes for will be used against her. She might win, but those cases are very rare.

[quote]1. Bigamy.
2. Adultery.
3. One spouse ill-treats the other so as to render living together intolerable.
4. One spouse humiliates the linear ascendants of the other spouse such that living together becomes intolerable.
5. One spouse deserts the other spouse in bad faith.
6. One spouse has a loathsome incurable disease.
7. One spouse has an incurable serious mental disease.
8. One spouse has made an attempt to end the life of the other.
9. One spouse is uncertain for a period in excess of three years as to whether the other spouse is alive or dead.
10. One spouse has been sentenced to imprisonment for not less than three years.[/quote]

As said, adultery is really hard to prove -and her “evidence” will be used against her, so it doesn’t exist, OK? Unless the guy himself posts a FB video with the new wife doing it… Desertion might be easier to prove, as if no money has been received from him and she is running with all the expenses for her kid. If all fails, just wait the mandatory 3 years and hope for the best to prove he’s dissappeared from their lives.

Best of luck.

[quote=“Icon”]
Adultery is really hard to prove[/quote]

[quote=“nathaniel62”]
The Vietnamese woman is indeed pregnant with my friend’s husbands child.[/quote]

Isn’t that enough proof?

[quote=“Ricarte”][quote=“Icon”]
Adultery is really hard to prove[/quote]

[quote=“nathaniel62”]
The Vietnamese woman is indeed pregnant with my friend’s husbands child.[/quote]

Isn’t that enough proof?[/quote]

Unless they are caught in the act of making such child… or they can get a DNA sample from all parties involved. And this last one is a maybe as in maybe it will be accepted by the dinosaur judges.

Thank you all for the very useful information.

I would like to ask one more question: given that the company is not providing any information and that the person is not reachable in any way, what would happen if my friend reports to the authorities (both in Taiwan and Vietnam) her husband as missing? She doesn’t know where he is, what he is doing (and for that matter, even if he still works at the company) and she doesn’t even know if he is still alive!

[quote=“Icon”]I would extrongly advice against using the reocrding, as it can be proven she did this illegally, without the parties involved consent, and then SHE is the one going to jail. Yes, not fair, but that is the way the cookie crumbles.

The company is correct in the sense that they cannot provide such information. They are not supposed to.[/quote]
Criminal Code Article 315-1
An offense with one of the following circumstances shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than three years, short-term imprisonment, or a fine of not more than three hundred thousand yuan:

  1. Uses instruments or equipment without reason to peep at or eavesdrop on other’s non-public activities, speeches, talks, or the private part of the body
  2. Uses audio recording, photographic, visual-taping, or electromagnetic means without reason to record other’s non-public activities, speeches, talks, or the private bodily part

Art. 12 to 24 also provide for reduced or zero culpability in some situations such as defense of life, property, etc.

The PIPA has conditions and exceptions, so whether or not the company would get in trouble depends on the circumstances, but I don’t see how their refusal to provide information could get them in trouble, unless it can be proven that they have an obligation to provide the information.

1 Like