You might have read my profile and/or said to yourself "Ol' Michael's been around for a long time, CLAIMING to be engaged, but it seems he never says anything about the progress of his lady's K-1 or talks about making arrangements to marry her in Colombia or whatever....why doesn't he get off the fence?" (Then again, maybe the thought never struck you, or you just don't care, hee hee hee). Well, anyway, here's the scoop:
Anybody know the difference between the Colombian documents "Seperacion de Cuerpos" and "Cesacion de los Efectos Civiles del Matrimonio Catolico"? Just in case you don't (and to be honest, I didn't until I found out the hard way), the differences are:
1. From a translation standpoint: "Seperacion..." literaly translates "Seperation of bodies" and basicaly means "legal seperation", "Cesacion..." literaly translates "Cesation of the civil effects of the Catholic marriage" and actualy means "DIVORCE".
2. From an immigration standpoint: INS will NOT accept "Seperacion" as evidence that a previous marriage has terminated. They will accept "Cesacion". (I don't know if they make such a distinction in Colombia. Probably they do, otherwise why would they have two different documents?)
3. From a personal situation standpoint: Martha already HAD a "Seperacion" paper from her lasted less than 6 months 1976 marriage to Jose what's his name when she was just a teenager. Cost me $1000 in "legal fees" (using the term loosley, if you catch my drift) to GET her the "Cesacion".
Well, the "Cesacion" is final now (and I've actualy got a certified copy of in my hot little hands), so Monday I will put it to good use, i.e. we're FINALLY going to file for her K-1!!!
-------reflections:
Would I have taken up with her had I known from the start that was going to be a problem? Probably not. But by the time we found out that INS wouldn't accept her paperwork, we were already committed to each other. Now it's a done deal, we've finally got 'good papers'. OK, took a little longer, cost a little more....is she worth it? YES!
Are there plenty of women in Colombia WITHOUT ex-husbands, kids and legal problems? Yes, of course, and I'm sure most of them are very nice, in fact I was involved with one of them before M., it "just didn't work out". Then I found M., who it just happens DOES have these problems. Yes, M. has 3 kids also, but not from that marriage, from a 20year plus "union libre" AFTER the marriage ended (thank God we didn't need paperwork on THAT one also!). Two of the children are adults, and we'll be getting a K-2 (and hopefully 'employment authorized', hey, I am NOT a millionare, ha ha) for the 17yo. We also hope to get a student visa for the 24yo sometime next year, she's just finished a master degree in engineering and is working on her PHD, when she finishes it would be great for her to come here and learn English. (From the age of the kids, you can see that neither of us are "spring chickens", I have a 20yo and a 16yo from my 16 year (divorced 5 years now) marriage with a Costa Rican)
Wow, this turned into a pretty long post...OK, tell me I'm the fool or tell me congradulations...which ever you think is appropriate.
