Divorce in Canada by filing in U.S.?

[Caelum]

I am a U.S. citizen. In 2003, I fell in love with a Canadian man, via the Internet. We met that same year, and in 2004, I moved to Ontario to live with him and his parents. In Sept. of 2004, we were pressured into getting married, although we both were unready.

In Jan. of 2005, we separated and in Feb. of 2005, I moved back to the U.S. My marriage was never recognised in the U.S. and I never changed my name. As far as anyone in the U.S. knows (employers, schools, etc.) I have never been married. My former spouse agreed with me that he wanted a divorce, so it is uncontested. We have no property, no children, and no assets or anything to divide.

The summer of 2005, I hired a U.S. lawyer to start the divorce paperwork. The lawyer basically swindled me, but I did get to the final stages of the paperwork. I have the final divorce decree, and as far as I've been told, all I need to do is get my former spouse to sign it and send it back to me, and then I can file the paperwork for free here at my local court. (I couldn't find my former spouse to contact him until recently, thus the long gap between 2005 and now.)

My confusion is this: Since there is no record of my marriage in the U.S., will filing the divorce paperwork in the U.S. have any effect? Can I then contact the Ontario court system and send them a copy or something to have my divorce finalised in Canada?

Although I'm supposedly single in the U.S., I would like to be able to travel to Canada and not be married there; I would like to put this to rest.

Since I've already spent hundreds of dollars on the aforementioned lawyer, I'm trying to avoid having to spend even more money to file in Ontario, especially since I can file for free here in the U.S. Also, if I have to file in Ontario, I would have to rely on my former spouse to handle the technicalities (he has already made it very clear that I will have to pay for everything because he is quite content to be indefinitely separated) and I'm not sure he would do it, since he seems unmotivated to pursue the divorce.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[SarniaGrl]

If you were married in Ontario, what I would do is call the county courthouse (family div.) of your residence there and ask to speak with Duty Counsel. You can search online for the different courts and get the contact info. They are good at offering info and should be able to answer your questions. I'm not sure what the decree cost is in Ontario right now, but they can let you know what you need to do to take care of things.

[Reba]

Regardless if you ever changed your name on your US documents, you are still legally married, no matter where that marriage took place. Canadian marriage ceremonies are recognized as legal in the US, so yes, you are in fact married according to US law.

Check this website, it may be helpful http://www.ontariodivorce.ca/

[Caelum]

Thank you for the advice and for the link. I did follow the link, but it is a service for a charge.

If my marriage is already recognised in the U.S., and I am legally married here, then I should be able to get legally divorced here. It would be silly for my marriage to be recognised in the U.S. and yet still require me to file in Canada.

I suppose I will have to try to find a free legal help line with a U.S. lawyer who can tell me if I can file in the U.S. The link was interesting, but it didn't answer my question.