Q. I am in the process of getting a green card and so is my ex-husband.  When we first came here, we were married.  He stayed in Massachusetts, but I moved to Maine for work. The distance drove us apart and we got divorced in Brazil and moved on.  The process was easier in Brazil and we were worried about our green card applications here so we divorced there even though we were living here at the time.

I live in northern Maine, am re-married and expecting a baby with my husband.  I am now being told that my Brazilian divorce decree is not sufficient for immigration purposes and that I need to get divorced here to get my green card.  I don’t understand how I can get divorced twice and if this impacts my current marriage.  What should I do?

A. While I am not an immigration lawyer, I have heard of this situation playing out. Registering your Brazilian divorce decree in the court here,  as I understand it, is insufficient for immigration purposes because lawyers are permitted to stand in for their clients during the divorce process in Brazil in a way that is not permitted here.

I recommend you and your ex-husband file a joint petition for divorce in Massachusetts where you last lived together, sign a very simple separation agreement allowing you to dissolve your marriage and live apart going forward and file it with the court here along with your respective court form financial statements. You may have to explain to the judge at the time of the hearing why each of you is retaining all of your own bank accounts and other assets and waiving support.

If you want to move this along quickly, I suggest you hire a lawyer to prepare the forms for you so that they are done correctly, and hand deliver all of the signed documents to the court and ask for a hearing.  You should also make a motion to have the hearing over Zoom so you do not have to come back from Maine in the winter while pregnant.  Your Massachusetts divorce will be granted 30 days after the hearing but it will not become final and absolute for another 90 days after that.

I recommend, after your Massachusetts divorce is final, you get married to your current husband again in Maine.  In this way there can be no question your current marriage is valid.

Email questions to whickey@brickjones.com