Divorce of UK couple in Thailand

[boilface]

I was married in England. When I came to Thailand I got divored from my wife around 9 years ago. I did this through a lawyer at great expense. I have both Thai and English translations of all documents. They told me to take it to the embassy, which I didn't get round to. I have just done this today.

They basically said, "why have you brought it here?" I asked if it was recognized in the UK and they replied they don't have lawyers there and cannot give legal advice.

Now I am worried the divorce is not recognized in England.

Has anyone been through this before? Do I have to do something in England?

[boilface]

I have an update for anyone interested. The process seems to be:

1) Have the Thai divorce papers translated into English. They should be signed and stamped by the translator.

2) Take the original Thai court issued divorce papers, together with the translated version, to the Thailand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and have them stamp the document. They will put a seal on these papers so that no other pages can be added to it.

3) Go to a British Embassy in Thailand and have them legalize the document. This verifies the stamp from step 2 is correct.

That's as far as my research has got me. Although still not 'officially' divorced after this, I presume these documents can be used to that end in England.

[boilface]

I maybe talking to myself here, but I ain't got nothing better to do!

Just got a reply from my local Register Office in the UK...

"Once you have been legally divorced in another Country you do not need to register the divorce here in the UK."

This doesn't make sense to me. How does the UK know I am divorced? There must be some database somewhere.

[briley]

Believe it or not they trust you not to lie in the UK.

[howerde]

They will know you are divorced, as you have the papers to show it. which you will need if you want to marry in uk.

Of course if you lie by saying you are not married at a registers office, you might think you have got away with it, but it will catch up with you sometime(might be a few years), as there is bound to be record somewhere.