This theme seems to recur in many posts but I would appreciate input from those who have a similar experience. Details are as follows:

1. My Thai girlfriend, a nurse in Bangkok, married in Hackney in the UK in October 2007 with a UK resident. We have a copy of the marriage certificate I retrieved from the Hackney Registry Office.

2. They parted company soon afterwards and she returned to Thailand in February 2008 and they have had no contact subsequently.

3. The marriage was never registered with the Thai Embassy in London nor locally at an ampher here in Thailand.

4. She now wishes to formalise the divorce in the UK and/or Thailand in order to marry again.

5. There are no assets or claims on estate involved and no children as a result of the original marriage.

My reading of the situation is that it is complicated by the lack of registration of the marriage in Thailand originally and thus is not regarded as a legal marriage here in Thailand.

We can initiate divorce on her behalf in the UK, where it will either be on ground of unreasonable behaviour (under five years) or in eighteen months we can apply for divorce by separation (five years).

For personal reasons - including my ability to stay in Thailand via a Non-immigrant (Marriage) visa - we would like to marry in advance of the UK divorce process, which can be protracted.

Q1: Is such a marriage legal under Thai law and would it thus allow me to enter under the Marriage visa status?

Q2: What likely implication if any would this 'new' marriage have on a future application for her to visit - but not stay permanently - the UK once the UK divorce is granted

Q3: If there would be an issue to Q2, would marrying, divorcing and re-marrying - which is permissible under Thai law - resolve this anomaly for UK visa purposes?

All inputs welcomed, thanks in advance.

A marriage legally contracted in the UK is legally valid in Thailand and vice versa. Therefore, your girlfriend is married in the eyes of both Thai and UK law and were she to marry you without first divorcing him then under both Thai and UK law she would be a bigamist.

So:

Q1. She cannot legally marry you until she has divorced him. She cannot apply to settle in the UK as your spouse until she has married you.

However, how long have you been living together? If you can show that you have been living together in a relationship akin to marriage for at least the last two years then she can apply for settlement as your unmarried partner.

Q2 & 3. If she satisfies the requirements for a visit visa, she will get one; married or not.

As for the best way to divorce; a post or a search of 'Divorce' in the Families and children forum will probably elicit you more useful information on that subject than you'll get here in the Visas forum.