Canadian Citizen Marrying a Divorcee

[peter1979]

Person1: Canadian citizen got divorced in Ontario and have all the final judgement & certificate related to it.

Person2: Indian Citizen, got divorced in India and have all the paper work as per Indian law (the final judgment).

We plan to marry in Ontario. To get marraige license, we need to submit our divorce papers.

My questions:

• Does Person2 Indian divorce papers acceptable in Canada? We can get the original paper notarized in Canada or it needs get court certificted copy from India?

• Does Person2 need to get any more paper from her home country India.

• Does Person 1 (Canadian Citizen, Ontario Divorce) needs to get any approval from Ministry of Government and Consumer Services.

• Legal opinion letter do we still need to get? Person 1 divorce happened in Canada and Person 2 happened in India.
  Thank you in advance.

[SettlementOrgMod]

Hello,

Thank you for sharing your situation and question with us.

We can appreciate that you would be interested in this type of information.

You can find some detailed information on the Ontario.ca website in the Getting married - Remarry after a divorce section.

Here is an excerpt,

Remarry after a divorce

Divorced in Canada

You will need to bring official proof of the divorce with you when you apply for a marriage licence. This can be the original or a court-certified copy of one of three documents:

• the final decree- the final judgment- a certificate of divorce
  Out-of-country divorces

If you were divorced outside of Canada, you will need to provide certain documents to prove that you are no longer married. The government needs to validate these documents. This process can take up to 4 weeks.

You will need to send the following documents to ServiceOntario:

• marriage licence application form: completed and signed- statement of sole responsibility: for each divorce (signed by both people who are planning to get married and a witness)- legal opinion letter: from an Ontario lawyer, addressed to both people who plan to get married, giving reasons why the divorce or annulment should be recognized in Ontario- divorce decree or annulment: an original or court-certified copy in English or French. If the decree is in another language, you will need to include a translated copy and an affidavit sworn by a certified translator

Note: Completed Foreign Divorce Authorizations are sent to applicants by courier. It is important that your full mailing address including suite/unit/apartment and buzzer number is included on the marriage licence application form, or the courier package cannot be delivered and returned to ServiceOntario.

Get a marriage licence application form

Get a statement of sole responsibility form

Please mail these documents directly to:

ServiceOntario
Marriage Office
PO Box 4600
189 Red River Road
Thunder Bay ON P7B 6L8

You can also contact this office to have a sample legal opinion letter faxed to your lawyer.

For more information: call 1-800-461-2156 (toll-free).

I hope this information is helpful. Please let us know if you have further questions and if there is any follow up to your question/situation.

=====
Anna
Settlement.Org Content and Information/Referral Specialist, CIRS
Settlement.Org