my partner married a brazilian lady in Brazil and they came to live in uk, he is English and after 11 months she left him and went back to live in Brazil, now 6.5 years later he wants a divorce but she refuses to even speak to him, although she sent divorce papers from Brazil for him to sign and she says they are divorced but refuses to send any papers to confirm this. We have contacted everybody we think would be able to help but reach no results. Where does he stand, we want to get married but do not want to break any laws.

November 27, 2008 by Anonymous

Providing that you have an address for this Brazilian lady there should be no particular problems. The important thing is service of the divorce papers on her as it is a basic rule that parties should know whether or not they are married.

Your Partner is entitled to issue a divorce petition based upon five years separation. The other parties consent is not required. Therefore if you are able to establish service of the petition upon her in Brazil the lady need play no further part than and the marriage will be dissolved with out difficulty. This will of course involve you in the expense of employing a process server in Brazil to serve the petition and provide a sworn affidavit of service.

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