Hi Mick, have been watching this thread, I have noticed you are concerned about any claims for maintenance from this woman who seems to have been very well maintained going by the figures you quoted.

Firstly, maintenance agreements cannot be forthcoming unless they form part of a divorce agreement, i.e. a financial directions hearing has taken place at a family court in front of a sitting county court recorder or district Judge.

I assume that has not happened as yet, firstly, maintenance is based on the circumstances of the marriage, i.e. how long did the petitioner and the respondent live together, has the petitioner, assuming she would be able to launch divorce proceedings against you, which I find very hard to believe and has to be said is 99 per cent unlikely considering you tell us she has high tailed it back ti Pinas.

If she is living in Pinas now, what maintenance can she claim ? she could only do so if she visited a UK Solicitor and just by some stroke of miracle tried to actually launch a divorce case against you, but if she did, what would be the grounds ? divorce cases involving marriages where there are no children are generally quick and easy to settle, and in such circumstances as yours, where the marriage has not subsisted longer than a few months, with an affidavit from yourself detailing the following points, would almost likely be resolved by a dismissal of the claim for maintenance and a decision to grant a no fault divorce in your favour.

You married in 2008, you funded the marriage, and visa application, she was out of communicado for 4 months, made no attempt to contact you, is in itself, in the UK courts, grounds for divorce, under 'Unreasonable behaviour' it appears to me, you would be the petitioner in this matter.

The above would show very clearly to any district judge or court recorder that in fact your wife of very few months has indeed contracted marriage with a view to extort money, there have actually been several cases in the UK i have researched where foreigners from mainly Thailand, Philippines and also funnily enough India and Pakistan, where British citizens have contracted marriage thinking that their relationships would subsist and be genuine, where courts have thrown out the cases, where maintenance and or cash lump sum payments have been requested, on the grounds, that the petitioners are gold diggers.

There are precedents, in the UK Mick for this sort of behaviour, I think you will find that judges sitting in county courts are pretty good at smelling these cases, and seem to react very strongly in favour of the respondent if they think an injustice is taking place, also this woman has gone back to Philippines, she was also here in the UK on a temporary visa, subject to strict immigration control.

She is not as yet classed as a full UK resident, nor should she think that she is, she is at best a temporary resident, and the marriage with you must subsist at least for 24 months before any applications for further leave to remain or indefinate leave to remain may be considered.

My advice to you, along with the advices given by others regarding her visa, is at first point, to get the address for the Nationality and Immigration service, address a full detailed letter to the them, and state that as of the date she left, that you are no longer living together as man and wife, I would not elaborate on your story too much.

You should simply state, that under the terms of the marriage visa, that is for 24 months, your wife has decided to return to the Philippines indefinately, and that she is not expected to return, you must state in your letter that your wife has told you that she does not intend to live in the United Kingdom with you at any time, now or in the future.

Now doing this, will then alert the UKVisas to your case, who will then no doubt over course of a few weeks, seek to either put restrictions on your wife's visa should she attempt to re-enter the UK, i.e. finding another Filipino family to live with, or as is common these days, a.n.other group of Filipino workers, do not be surprised if that happens, and she is living somewhere else with others.

At least even if she was in UK, her chances of getting permanent residence would be blocked.

That might take care of the visa situation, but it would not take care of the marriage, after all, one must remember, the marriage is not linked technically to living as man and wife in the UK, it may be that the alternative, was that you lived with her in Philippines.

If you are not going to re-marry again, then you might not wish to bother with instigating a divorce petition in the UK court, since she is in the Philippines, its very hard to serve someone, I can think of a few people on this forum, who would love to track her down in Pinas and serve her with your petition personally, however I am not sure about the legality of serving someone in a foreign country.

No it seems to me, she is back in Philippines, she cannot launch any requests for maintenance from there, since Philippines has no jurisdiction in UK law, she is not likely to do that.

Are you in any danger from her requests for money, I think not, she has had the best out of you, but I would say this Mick, some people say love is blind and the signs are not there, I have to be hard here and say, you did see the signs.

The signs were always there, that she was a gold digger and just out for your money, when she disappeared for 4 months, that was evidenciary in itself that she was just up to the same.

Why did you go ahead and bring her to UK, you new back then she could not be trusted, if you ask any happily married guy here at the forum what he would have done in such circumstance they would have told you end it there and then.

And to say you admit to giving her close to £19,000 is quite frankly absolutely scandalous and fool hardy, and your state that made love only once, ?????? ONCE ??????? INCREDIBLE !!!!

And this is the BEST BIT FOR ME ! She gets into bed fully clothed, that in itself in UK courts is actually unreasonable behaviour in any event, yes all the signs were there, refusal to make love for me only comes in marriages that are well along in years, well not refusal to make love.

Avoiding sex by complaining they have headaches, tired, worked hard that day, not feeling well, and a host of other well known complaints.

No I think you could see all the signs were there, but you chose to continue on in any event, you knew back then she was no good, but you thought maybe she would change, but they rarely do you know, does a Leopard change its spots, nope, its in her nature I am afraid to say, but as for maintenance, stop worrying, its not going to happen.