I have had a decree nisi for about 7 years now. Till date, never felt the need to make this decree - Absolute. However, Now I need some advice. Can I have a live in relationship (partner/girlfriend) after decree nisi, without getting into legal problems with my x wife. In other words, can I have a affair without any legal consequences? Secondly, Can I still apply for decree absolute easily?
Please advice... someone.
HRH

A decree nisi (non-absolute ruling) is a ruling by a court that does not have any force until such time that a particular condition is met. Once the condition is met the ruling becomes decree absolute and is binding. Typically, the condition is that no new evidence or further petitions with a bearing on the case are introduced to the court.

This form of ruling has become a rarity in recent times, with one exception—in some jurisdictions it is still a standard stage of divorce proceedings. This allows time for any party who objects to the divorce to come forward with those objections. It is also at times termed as rule nisi.

IUS This article is a stub about a Latin phrase with a legal meaning.

I will assume you are in England, since in the US it is normally called interlocutory decree.

So what was the issue not settled, in general it means that the divorce is not final until certain things or requireements are meet. Have these been meet. I would say you should have your attorney either check to see if a final divorce decree was issued, or if a motion needs to be made to finalise the original proceedings if some issue covered by the NISI is not completed.

So first unless there is a final ruling on the divorce they are not your "X" wife, they are your wife as noted in the term affair.

After 7 years, I would say a final ruling needs to be done if it has not.