Sealing Cancellation & waiting period?


alexnt
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My girlfriend had been married for 4 years before her ex asked her for a divorce. She just started the process to cancel her temple sealing so that we may be married (hopefully in June).

I've read several accounts online of this process, and it sounds like the First Presidency occasionally requires a year after the legal divorce date before they will allow a person to be sealed again. I haven't, however, seen much indication between the various accounts for what warrants this waiting period. I'm sure that this is a matter of prayer and revelation for them to know what might help the applicant's situation, but I'm curious what differentiates one couple from being able to be sealed together as soon as the paperwork goes through, versus another couple that would have to wait.

Does anyone have any experience with this and can shed some light on what we might be able to expect?

Please and Thank you!

Edited by alexnt
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I'm afraid my own experience won't be very useful, but I'll tell you what I know.

My first wife and I had been sealed.  After the divorce, we both went inactive for a long time. 

Fast forward a bunch of years and I wanted to be sealed to my current family.  I was given the option to either request to be un-sealed from my ex so that I could be sealed to my current wife, or to have clearance to just get sealed again.  After discussing that with my ex, I requested the un-sealing first.  Authorization to be sealed to my current wife came just a couple weeks later.  

The thing is, my civil divorce was a long time before that, so I don't think it would apply to your situation.

I don't think there's a hard rule on the time period,  though I'm sure there are guidelines.  In my experience, stuff like that usually follows a standard time period but with the flexibility to take longer or less, as the Spirit directs.

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Thanks for the reply.

After a few hours looking around, I think the most in-depth explanation for this process may be on this blog:
http://brettsbigbadblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/lds-temple-cancellation-and-clearance.html

It sounds like the ones who probably have the most say in what should happen (waiting a year or not for the sealing) is our bishops and stake presidents.

Probably (as mentioned in the article) has something to do with the results of studies like this:

"Statistics show that in the U.S., 50% percent of first marriages, 67% of second, and 74% of third marriages end in divorce. Second marriages have difficulty for a number of reasons. First, once a person discovers that he or she can manage a divorce, they are less scared of going through the process again." (https://www.wevorce.com/blog/why-do-second-marriages-fail/)

So I think it's largely based on the impressions our bishops and stake presidents get from our interviews with them to determine whether or not we have the maturity and understanding to value the sealing and work through difficulties together or not.

Also, this article is about two people who were both married before and both had been divorced. The fact that it was the second “try” (that doesn’t seem like the right word…) for both of them, and also that they had both canceled a sealing before, may have been a factor in the decision that waiting a year to be sealed would give them a better opportunity to value the sealing or to decide their marriage wasn’t heading the right way and that they should pursue a divorce again (Not saying that is what would happen to them, but that it could be the intent of the First Presidency to give couples the chance to really decide if they want to be sealed, and not let it be a heat-of-the-moment experience).

Anyway, reading the post from "Brett's Big Bad Blog" above helped answer this for me. I would love to hear if anyone's experience seems to agree with this.

 

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What unixknight said is correct - there is no set "time limit". I know one couple who waited around 3 years for one of them to be given approval for cancellation of sealing and clearance for a new sealing...it just wasn't right at the time. But, I also know another couple who heard back in about a month or two with approval after their request. The First Presidency prays about each request, and the time can differ from member to member for various reasons, both temporal and spiritual. They also take into consideration remarks from local leaders and the reason for the cancellation...these are decisions not to be taken lightly.

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