H4 visa after re-marriage - Previous Spouse name Passport

Hi,
I am currently on H1B in the US and got divorced in India recently. My ex-wife never traveled to the US and had no H4 visa stamped on her passport. Now I am planning to travel to India and get married again. My would be wife will be applying for H4 visa after our marriage. I wanted to know, whether removing earlier spouse name from my passport is mandatory or can my would be wife go for her H4 visa with my existing passport copy.?

P.S : Both of us our divorcees and have our legal documentation in place for our divorces.

Any pointers would be really helpful.

Although divorce documentation should be sufficient to carry to US consulate, I am not comfortable with the fact that your present fiancee/wife should apply for visa using a document (your passport) that has somebody else’s name identified as spouse. Also, this is less of a problem at US embassy, they can sort this out easily including if your ex-wife ever applied for a visa. The real problem is the India Emmigration / Exit point where you will be considered in violation of Hindu Marriage Act 1955 because a third party is identified as your current wife. This checkpoint is not qualified to examine divorce documents and they will have problem with the passport data. I advice changing it before you make travel plans around it.

Dr. Sandeep Shankar
www.hopeforhumanityglobal.org

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