In his book, The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli famously said that justice cannot be had without money.
The same can be said about Attorney Mario and the legal system that he navigates. Pesos (expended by me) yields progress.
The annulment process for my girlfriend has finally taken a leap forward as measured by every metric that I can find on the subject. Her ex-husband lives outside the country and to check the attempted notification box once and for all, we had to pay for publication of a public notice in a Philippine-based newspaper with an international circulation. This is a statutory requirement under their law. Yes, the law requires an old-school, dead tree variety, newspaper notice. The text and the pricing were provided by the courts.
Contrary to some claims, I’m not made of money. Said money tree in Elk Grove died about 20 years ago. Oh, to be fair, it was really called “the money tree” because it was the smallest tree in the yard (an apricot or peach tree if you need to ask) and our debt at the time was like the largest tree on the property (a lemon tree).
The text that the court wanted published for the public notice was about a 25-page MS Word document saved as a PDF file. The court wanted the notice published twice, once a week, for two weeks. The court provided one bid for the Philippine Star to publish this wonderful document. $2,550. Yep. That’s United States dollars not pesos. I about wet my boxers. I responded “Heck no! That’s way too much.” I asked for other options.
The court then provided two more choices, both for much less money. The next one was about $1,800 and the third was about $1,125. Reluctantly, I paid the money for choice number 3. Western Union put a 4 day hold on the transaction, but it finally went through. Mario was given the money and then for two and a half weeks, nothing but crickets. Early today, Mario responded that the public notice would be run on August 17 and 24th.
I found a thumbnail of the pages of the August 17th newspaper online. The public notice took up one entire page. Yep, we paid for two full page ads to blast out the legalese required by the court.
Once the notice runs the second time, the newspaper provides the court with copies of both ads and an affidavit attesting under penalty of perjury that they ran the ads as instructed.
Then the court has two internal boxes to check and then we finally get a court date.
Per the search engine of my choice, the projected timeline for the rest of this legal process is about 8 weeks or roughly the end of October. It is alleged by Attorney Mario that the judge is a stickler and if everything is in order, that the court process will be brief and swift. That would be a refreshing change of pace, if true.
Lastly, I have an agreement to be reimbursed for the annulment process after it is concluded. Gladly, there is little else that requires payment. The witness fees are part of the court process, but I hope at least a few of the scheduled witnesses can be skipped since this is an undisputed proceeding.
Once the annulment process is concluded, then the U.S. immigration process can begin. Option A is about ten months, and Option B is about 16 months. There are pluses and minuses for each. Of course, the choice with the shorter timeline is about $1,000 more and lots more paperwork.
The fourth quarter of 2026 looks to be very interesting.