How can I find out if someone was previously married?

Family, Education, Health and Pets
21
Well, you are from a developed country which is able and willing to produce this document. Other countries don't. So depending on where the OPs husband is originally from, he might have only produced a certified testimony of himself that he was not married before. My wife did so...

22
Chop their head off and count the rings?

(Have I gotten that the wrong way around with the rings...?)

23
Can anyone suggest a private investigator in Switzerland that's monetarily reasonable?

I reached out to the Infostar but they do not deal with individuals. They put me in touch with lawyer so I'm awaiting responses from them.

We got married in India and I have since come to find out that Indian laws do not support women's rights.

He said he lived in Geneva last prior to that I don't know. He was there for almost 10 years I think.

My next step is to go to all the embassies involved....Swiss, Indian...and find out if they can find/give me any information.

I just want to say thank you to everyone who's posted and responded so quickly to my request. I am humbled by your kindness.

24
Can you get an annulment? You say you can't divorce based on speculations, but you don't seem to have one of the most important bases for a relationship ... trust. If you can't rely on him to relate his current marital status at the time of your marriage, I can't see how you could ever trust him in the future.

25
Is your Indian marriage a "real" marriage? Accepted in Europe? I ask this because a friend of mine was married in Thailand and that marriage is not recognised here. He and his wife know this, they just did the ceremony to keep her family happy and have a great party!!

26
Under which regime did you get married in India, the civil courts, temple, church, mosque?

27
This certificate exists in many countries, but not in the UK. I know, because I had to produce one to get married in France -- and the UK embassy could only supply a letter which basically said 'this doesn't exist in the UK'.

To get married in the UK, you only need to show proof of address, proof of nationality, and proof of your date-of-birth. If you've been married before, you need to show evidence that you've been divorced (or the marriage annulled) but if you've never been married, they accept a sworn statement.

If the OP's husband lied about having never been married, there's nothing to stop the registry office conducting the marriage, none-the-wiser. It's a criminal offence to give false information, but if the previous marriage happened abroad, it's very difficult to verify.

I can't offer any advice to the original poster, but I can understand how situations like this can happen. Actually, with the UK's lax documentation requirements, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

28
Marriage aside, there could be other reasons that he cannot return to Switzerland. Reading between the lines, it sounds like your husband was an Indian national who lived in Switzerland for 10 years. Without drawing any conclusions, there are a number of scenarios which could prevent him from returning: overstaying a visa, criminal offences, unpaid debts, or a deportation order, to name just a few.

It's also important to remember that his family here may or may not have been the result of a marriage. It's possible to have children without being legally married!

Your decision about whether to stay with your husband or not boils down to one of trust: if he can't give you honest answers about his history, can you really form a strong relationship together?

Should you eventually decide to divorce, the question of an existing (rather than previous) marriage becomes more important. Obviously, there's no legal requirement for him to declare a previous marriage to you (although he should have disclosed it when you registered to be married). But if he married you under false pretenses when he was already married, that's a very different situation.

29
Hope this helps.

Indian Embassy, Switzerland

Kirchenfeldstrasse 28

Berne

Switzerland

3000

Phone:

+41-31 350 11 30

+41-31 350 11 39

Fax:

+41-031 351 15 57

Email:

[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

Indian Consulate, Switzerland

9, rue de Valais

Geneva

Switzerland

CH-1202

Phone:

+41-22-906-8686

Fax:

+41-22-906-8676

Email:

[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

http://www.indembassybern.ch/officer.html

30
Waoh! sad story and a truly frustrating one.

Whilst waiting for official responses, i would suggest maybe looking through the link below and hopefully you could work your way to something...

www.123people.com

if he registered on any social sites, etc...you may be able to find something about him here...also try his nicknames

Good Luck.

31
Just a question: isn't it possible to just separate? Cause I guess a total lack of trust in a marriage must be reason enough?

32
Can you try to contact the civil authorities where your partner lived in Switzerland? Provide proof that you are next of kin and ask them to confirm if your partner was in fact listed as married and if so to who.

33
she does'nt seem to know where or when he lived in Switzerland.

I'm sorry, but from what she has said she knew nothing about this man when she "married" him.

She said herself that she met him "on a trip", so basically he used her for a passport or a visa.

I had a friend of a friend of a friend who called me to marry a guy for 10.000 francs luckily i said no (three times, with lots of aggression on their side)

34
church and then had to register with the office of registry

35
ReMedy - I hope you have had some luck with your enquiries since you started this thread.

I can see it's a few months old but I also wanted to correct Villageidiot's comment about a Certificate of No Impediment not existing in the UK - they do. I don't know when they came into existence but when my husband and I (both British) got married in Indonesia in 2008 we had to obtain a CNI before we travelled, it was a fairly simple administrative process.

36
But this will still not establish whether one was previously married - only that there are currently no objections to one's proposed marriage, as far as UK authorities are concerned