Hi all,
I really need your advice before I make my next decision.
As you may or may not know from my previous posts I have met a wonderful woman named Alou, who is married and has two children who attend a private school. We were planning to get an annulment, get married in the Philippines and then bring her and her children to live with me in the UK.
From what I have been told, her husband only sees his children roughly twice a year in small, fleeting visits, although he does pay for their private education. He lives, and has children from, another woman he left Alou for.
Alou asked her husband for an annulment about 3 weeks ago and he has refused on the grounds that the school her children go to is a Roman Catholic school and they would not accept pupils from divorced parents.
Me and Alou discussed this and we decided that she would seek a good lawyer who would advise her on whether she would be able to get an annulment without her husbands blessing.
Alou told me yesterday that she has been speaking to a lawyer who has advised her that she can go ahead without her husbands permission, but the lawyer has quoted 300,000 pesos and said it may cost more than that overall. When I asked Alou why she has been quoted such a high figure (the lawyer does not know about me, and just thinks Alou wants an annulment so the price has not increased because of a "westerner" being involved) Alou said that it is because she does not want her or her children to appear in court and the extra cost is to prevent her attending court.
At no stage has Alou asked me for money, not before, during or after my visit to see her a month ago, and she would not even let me pay for her taxi's to and from my hotel. She has said that she will use her savings and childrens emergency fund to pay for the annulment, I totally trust Alou and I do not think that this is a scheme to got money from me.
I have advised Alou to speak to another couple of lawyers first to get a second and third opinion and see if she can get this annulment done for less.
My questions are these...
1). Can she really pay extra not to appear in court or is this lawyer just trying to get extra money?
2). If this is possible, is the amount she is being qouted realistic?
3). Is it worth Alou getting an annulment at all? I know without asking that she would not come to the UK unless her children could come with her. If Alou did get an annulment and we got married, would we have major problems trying to get visa's for her children?
I do not mind paying the 300,000 pesos (gulp!) if I knew it would allow me and Alou to have the future together we both want, but I just want to make sure that we are doing the right thing first and that her lawyer is not conning Alou, as I cannot afford to do this twice!
Yours comments and help would be most appreciated
Dave.
