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After being legally married for over a decade, a permanent resident and his girlfriend went to the state of California and obtained a confidential marriage certificate and got married (though he never legally divorced). How would the injured spouse obtain a copy of that certificate (lives in Utah)? Is this a deportable offense?
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She can obtain the marriage certificate from the county recorder's office of the county where they were married in California.
However, if he was never legally divorced, the marriage was void ab initio, which means it had no effect, no marriage.
Is it a deportable offense? She may want to report it to the authorities. Whether it is a deportable offense or not, I would need to research it. I know that it is not indicative of good moral character and could bar him from U.S. citizenship if it happened within the five years prior to his naturalization application; it may also be taken into consideration even beyond the five years.
Answered on Aug 05th, 2013 at 11:02 PM