Divorce decrees are easier to procure in foreign jurisdictions than an annulment decree in the Philippines.

Say, you are a Filipino. You are married to a foreign spouse. Your spouse decided to divorce you.

If your spouse's country of citizenship allows for divorce, he or she will file for divorce in his or her home country. As for you, according to the Family Code:

Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner is validly celebrated and a divorce is thereafter validly obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry, the Filipino spouse shall have capacity to remarry under Philippine law. (2nd Par. Art. 26)

Once your spouse gets the divorce decree, you may file for recognition of the decree before the Regional Trial Court. The trial court judgment will be used to request the National Statistics Office (NSO) to change your marital status. Once done, you can re-marry.

This is a less cumbersome route compared to the long and uncertain nullification procedure in the Philippines, a procedure that may take years; especially, the government's current policy is to elevate annulment and nullification cases all the way to the Supreme Court.

Respicio & Co. Law Firm can handle your case. We collaborate with foreign lawyers in securing the divorce decree. You yourself do not have to engage a foreign lawyer. We will take care of everything, from procuring the divorce decree from the foreign country to changing your marital status with the NSO.