Quote Originally Posted by IainBusby View Post
If you can't speak to the monkey then try to speak to the organ grinder, contact the UKBA here in the UK, point out that the embassy in Phils is refusing to give advice on the matter and that it is not the sort of thing that their agents, VFS Global could give you an answer about, because only an ECO could give you accurate advice about this sort of thing.

If you can't get anywhere with them then get your MP to write to them....... They will give him or her a definitive answer.

You may think that your situation is absolutely unique, but given that Philippines law is (because of religion) so out of step with the rest world in only recognising divorces if the Filipino party involved did not instigate the divorce, I'm sure this situation has come up before from time to time and I'm sure that UKBA can give you an answer based on previous similar applications or maybe even based on previous appeal outcomes.

Iain.
Yes contacting the UKBA directly sounds like a good idea, but I will wait a few weeks longer as Ana has already filed her divorce paper at the Philippine embassy in Seoul and they said that takes a little while to process, I think it is possible that she will then get her annotated marriage certificate from the NSO and that might be enough for her annullment to finally get processed although that may take time. It is my understanding that she would be able to get her Philippine passport at that point as well, the odd thing is that may might imply acceptance of of the foreign divorce without further processing not sure about that though.

Our lawyer in Manila can advise us on that as I think (hope) they may already be treating her divorce as instigated by the husband, our current lawyer in Manila is a good friend, he is the guy that helped fix Ana's Korean nationality and her Philippine repatriation a couple of years back, young chap very motivated and very knowledgeable.

I do understand that our situation is very likely far from unique, it's just the finding advice in the UK that has been my problem recently as we have been so focused on getting advice in Manila for the last few years, as Ana had so many damn problems, it was just all a bit of a nightmare

It would have been less of a nightmare if we had not had a crap lawyer for the first two to three years but you live and learn

I wish I had found this site a long time ago, I got confused when I first signed in as it seemed like I had already registered a while back but I suspect I was either tired or had too many beers last Friday night

Again, to everyone, thanks so much for all the advice, even in these short few days it has been a great help, it's always good to talk as they say