Civil code states that marriage cannot be cancelled if cohabitation lasted for at least one year (from the day violence, fear, threatens are over). The dramatic situation this girl was living through has been over for two year and the so-called husband and wife have never lived together. The question asks whether this girl can apply to have marriage cancelled despite the fact that two years passed by or she will need to start separation proceedings off.
We were then asked whether this person should keep marriage valid to apply to naturalisation.
This aspect is rather risky: if marriage is not real applying to naturalisation may have the interested person risk to be charged of a crime and then if naturalisation happens it may be taken away.
On the other hand since Bossi-Fini law enactment marriages between Italians and foreigners are much more evaluated to see whether marriage is simulated or not.
This person’s problem is to know if she can have marriage cancelled.
Of coarse this marriage is clearly simulated, the two did not have common interests everything was simply fake.
Law anyway provides for that marriage can be cancelled in case of threatens, violence or simulation – if both “husband” and “wife” agree on this point. In fact if one of the two say that marriage was real, at least to him/her, cancellation cannot happen.
In this case simulation was bilateral.
Civil code and law state that annulment can occur in case of violence and threatens, and someone cannot at first declare that there was violence and then say that marriage was agreed upon and simulated.
Simulation is in our case so evident that there is no need in proving eventual violence and threaten by the person that organised marriage. From a strictly practical point of view asking for marriage cancellation on such basis should easily accepted.
Asking for cancellation after one year of marriage is to be respected only if the two lived together, which is not the case.
Asking for normal separation would in this case be absurd, first of all because it would take much longer than annulment: divorce comes only after three years in fact. On the other hand we suggest this girl not to apply to naturalisation on basis of marriage, we suggest her not to fake that marriage is true in order to obtain citizenship because it may cause juridical problems. The only thing to do is apply to the cancellation of marriage via showing circumstancies.