Divorce from a foreigner without his presence and consent

How to divorce a foreigner in Russia Divorce from a foreigner without his presence in Russia Divorce from a foreigner in court If a foreign spouse agrees to a divorce If a foreign spouse does not give written consent to a divorce Jurisdiction of cases on divorce from a foreigner Can a plaintiff file a claim for divorce? divorce in court at your place of residence Divorce from a foreigner in the registry office

Nowadays, marriages with foreign citizens are not uncommon, but unfortunately, any marriage is not immune from breakup. In families where one of the spouses is a representative of another country, another culture, with its own mentality and traditions, the risk of divorce increases.

How to divorce a foreigner in Russia

When dissolving a marriage between a Russian citizen and a foreigner on the territory of the Russian Federation, the courts are guided by the national family and procedural legislation of Russia.

The divorce process itself in our country, from the point of view of family law, is not particularly difficult, even if it is burdened by the division of the spouses’ property or a dispute about children. If, together with the dissolution of marriage, other demands are made in the claim, at the request of the other party or at the discretion of the court, the demand for divorce may be separated and considered in separate proceedings, which will provide a shorter time frame for resolving this issue.

Even if one of the spouses does not agree to divorce, the court will decide the case in favor of the plaintiff spouse, and the maximum that the disagreeing spouse can count on is a period for reconciliation of up to 3 months. However, if after the end of such a period the second spouse continues to insist on divorce, the court will certainly satisfy his claim. Divorce with a foreigner is no exception.

Lawyer for divorces (family issues) in St. Petersburg. Tel.+7 (812) 989-47-47 Telephone consultation

If one of the spouses is a foreigner, and both spouses have a place of residence in Russia and at the time of consideration of the case both live in the country, then no problems with the dissolution of their marriage will arise.

Divorce with a foreigner through the registry office is possible if the spouses mutually agree to divorce and they do not have common minor children.

Divorce with a foreigner through the court is carried out in the following cases:

• One of the spouses does not agree to divorce
• Spouses have a minor child(ren)
• One of the spouses avoids submitting an application for divorce to the registry office

There is one limitation - the husband does not have the right to apply to the court for a divorce during his wife’s pregnancy and within one year after the birth of the child.

Legal issues

How does a divorce from a foreigner go in Russia if you have children?

If a married couple has minor children together, then a divorce can only be filed through the court.
The exception is situations when one of the spouses is declared missing, incompetent, or sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 3 years or more. During the divorce process, spouses must decide: - with whom the child will live; — how the child will communicate with a parent living separately; — how the second parent will pay child support.

Spouses can resolve these issues by agreement or through court.

Is it possible to divorce a foreigner unilaterally?

It is possible to unilaterally dissolve a marriage with a foreigner if the spouse is outside the Russian Federation and cannot or does not want to come for the divorce.
In this case, the procedure can be completed in the following ways: 1. The foreigner fills out an application in Form No. 10, has it certified by a notary or at the consulate and sends it to the second spouse living in Russia. If the application is drawn up in a foreign language, then before applying to the registry office you will need to have it translated and certified with an apostille. 2. A Russian spouse can file an application for divorce at the Russian consulate or embassy on the territory of the state of which his spouse is a citizen.

Such options are possible if the spouses agree to divorce and they do not have minor children. If one of the spouses is against it or they have minor children, then a divorce can only be filed through the court.

In this case, you will have to apply to the magistrate or district court at the last known place of residence of the foreigner’s spouse in the Russian Federation.

How are international family disputes resolved?

If spouses divorce on the territory of the Russian Federation, then the divorce is carried out according to the laws of Russia.
If spouses have disputes regarding joint minor children, they are resolved in accordance with the following laws: 1. Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction of October 25, 1980. 2. Federal Law of May 31, 2011 No. 102-FZ “On the accession of the Russian Federation to the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.” 3. Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 22, 2011 No. 1097 “On the central authority discharging the duties assigned to it by the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.”

If there is a dispute between spouses about the division of property, then it is resolved according to the laws of the country in whose territory they had their last joint place of residence. If the spouses have concluded a marriage contract, then in it they must indicate in accordance with what legislation disputes about property will be resolved.

If the spouses do not have a common place of residence and have not drawn up a marriage contract, then the dispute over property will be resolved in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.

If the spouses have entered into an agreement on the payment of alimony, then the agreement must indicate in accordance with the legislation of which country disputes regarding alimony will be resolved.

How to determine the place of residence of a child when divorcing a foreigner?

If spouses have minor children, then they can determine their place of residence:
1. By agreement. In this case, the parents themselves decide which of them the child will live with. The process takes place without the intervention of third parties. The agreement does not need to be certified by a notary, and there is no need to involve educational psychologists.

2. In court. If the mother and father cannot agree on the child’s place of residence peacefully, then the issue must be resolved in court.

As judicial practice shows, when making a decision on determining the order of residence of a child, if one of the parents is a foreigner, Russian courts make a decision in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. That is, a child can be separated from his mother only if she is sick or leads an antisocial lifestyle.

As an example, we can consider the decision of the Vidnovsky City Court of the Moscow Region dated October 18, 2021 in case number 2-2657/2018.

The Russian citizen asked to dissolve her marriage with a citizen of the Czech Republic and to collect from the man alimony for her maintenance, the maintenance of the child and to determine the place of residence of the child with her. The man did not want the child to live with his mother. He believed that his conditions were more suitable for raising a minor. However, the court decided in favor of the mother, since there were no grounds for separating the child from the mother.

How much does it cost to divorce a foreigner?

The cost of divorce from a foreign citizen in Russia is: when filing an application through the registry office - 650 rubles each.
from each of the spouses; when submitting an application through State Services - 455 rubles. from each of the spouses; when filing an application with the court – 600 rubles. as a state fee for divorce through the court, 650 rubles each. from each spouse for registering the divorce in the registry office. Note! If a divorce from a foreigner is filed through the consulate of the Russian Federation, then the applicant must pay a state fee in accordance with the laws of Russia.

How is property divided with a foreign spouse if the property is abroad?

The procedure for dividing property located on the territory of another state depends on where the spouses permanently resided: 1. If the spouses lived in Russia, then they can enter into an agreement on the division of property, a marriage contract, or go to court under the laws of the Russian Federation.
Note! In accordance with the position of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the joint property of spouses living in Russia is divided according to the laws of the Russian Federation, even if one of the spouses is a citizen of another state.

2. If the spouses lived in the territory of another state, then when dividing property it is necessary to be guided by the laws of that state.

Divorce from a foreigner without his presence in Russia

If a spouse living outside of Russia agrees to a divorce, his absence from the country will not particularly complicate the divorce procedure, either through the registry office or in court.

To do this, you will need to obtain properly executed documents from the absent spouse.

If divorce is possible through the registry office:

• A foreign spouse can file an application for divorce with the competent authorities of his country. The application must be translated into Russian, notarized and sent to the registry office, where the state registration of divorce will be carried out
• A marriage can be dissolved at diplomatic missions or consular offices of Russia

In cases where a foreign citizen does not give his written consent to divorce, only the court can resolve this issue.

Arbitrage practice

As an example, consider the circumstances of the following case.

A Russian citizen married a German citizen and went abroad. Less than 1 year later, she realized that she could not continue to live with her husband, since life together had failed. However, the husband did not want to give his consent to terminate the marriage relationship.

In order to divorce him, the wife returned to Russia and submitted the required package of documents to the state registry office, since the marriage partners did not have any children together. Due to the fact that the German husband did not put his signature on the application, which, among other things, had to be notarized, and did not provide a copy of his documents, the registry office refused to begin the divorce procedure, because there was no consent from the husband to terminate the marriage.

The wife was forced to submit documents to the magistrate, who divorced the spouses without the presence of her husband. The ex-wife submitted the judge’s decision to the German consulate and after 30 days received confirmation of the divorce. However, as a result of living together with her German husband, she was not provided with alimony, since the Russian woman lived with him for less than the 3 years required by German law.

Divorce with a foreigner in court

According to Article 160 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, divorce proceedings with a foreigner are regulated by general rules - Articles 21-25 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation.

A claim for divorce is filed with a magistrate at the defendant’s place of residence, except for cases where the claim for divorce is associated with the division of property of the spouses if the cost of the claim exceeds 50,000 rubles, or a dispute about children. In these cases, the case will be within the jurisdiction of the district court.

When filing a claim, a state fee of 650 rubles is paid.

The following must be attached to the claim:

• Receipt for payment of state duty
• A copy of the claim for the defendant
• Original marriage certificate
• Certificate of registration of the plaintiff at the place of residence
• Copies of children's certificates (if available)

Lawyer for divorces (family issues) in St. Petersburg. Tel.+7 (812) 989-47-47 Telephone consultation

Features of determining the place of residence of joint minor children

According to the laws of the Russian Federation, after a divorce, the overwhelming majority of children remain with their mother. But this rule only applies if the child is a citizen of Russia.

There are widely known stories about how, after marrying a foreigner abroad and having children there, a woman could not take them with her to Russia, since they had received citizenship of other states. Similar cases are often found in America and Muslim countries, where, by law, children after divorce remain in the father's family.

If the parents have signed a settlement agreement on the residence of their common child, the court will make a decision, referring to the agreement between the father and mother.

If the foreign spouse agrees to divorce

Let's consider a situation where a foreign spouse living in another country agrees to a divorce, but there are children together, and only a court can dissolve the marriage. In this case, the spouse can draw up a written consent to divorce, translate and notarize it, and send it to the Russian court. If such a document is available, the court will be able to easily dissolve the marriage in the absence of the defendant.

As we can see, with the mutual consent of the spouses, dissolution of a marriage with a foreigner in Russia is not difficult, even if one of the spouses is absent from the country.

Through State Services

The legislation of the Russian Federation provides the opportunity to file a divorce from a foreigner through the State Services portal. To use the portal, the foreign spouse must:

1. Get SNILS.
2. Register on the State Services portal as a foreign citizen.
3. Fill out the user profile and initiate the data verification procedure. To do this, you will need SNILS and a foreigner’s personal document.

After the profile is confirmed, the spouses can apply for divorce or registration of divorce using the State Services portal.

If the foreign spouse does not give written consent to the divorce

The procedure for judicial divorce can take place without the presence and consent of a foreigner for divorce; Russian procedural legislation allows such consideration of the case, subject to compliance with all procedural subtleties associated with notifying the person of the presence of a case in court proceedings, as well as the time and place of the trial. In other words, the procedural rights of the absent party in the process must be respected impeccably.

The case will be resolved in accordance with Articles 21, 22 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, and if a corresponding petition is received from the defendant, the court may give the spouses a period for reconciliation, and if this does not happen, the marriage will be dissolved even in the absence of the consent of the foreign spouse.

District registry office

If the couple has all the conditions for an administrative divorce, the procedure will not take extra time. The process will differ little from the standard one.

Dissolution of a union through the district registry office is possible if there is an application for divorce filled out by a foreigner and certified by a notary.

The document can be sent to the organization by mail, transmitted through a second spouse or a proxy.

A resident of the Russian Federation fills out a second application on his own behalf and attaches all the necessary information to it.

After 30 days, he must appear before a specialist at the regional registry office to register the divorce.

Related articles:

• We changed our minds about getting a divorce, but the decision has already been made. What to do?
• Is it possible to get a divorce in the registry office and divide the property through the court?

Jurisdiction of cases of divorce with a foreigner

The rules of jurisdiction of Russian courts for cases involving foreign citizens are regulated by Article 402 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, according to which the jurisdiction of such cases is determined according to the rules of Chapter 3 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation.

In the event that a foreign citizen does not have registration in Russia or the plaintiff does not know the place of his new registration in Russia , then a claim in accordance with Part 1 of Article 29 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation can be filed in court at his last known place of residence , and if he has at property rights in Russia (apartment, house) - then to the court at the location of this property.

Possible difficulties in the absence of the defendant at the divorce hearing

The judge cannot begin proceedings on the merits of the divorce action until he receives information that the foreign defendant has been notified. Otherwise, the court hearing must be postponed.

If the foreign spouse who is the defendant was notified in a legal way, but he did not appear at the meeting and did not state the reasons for his absence, then the Russian court has the right to file a divorce without his personal presence. In addition, situations sometimes arise when a foreign defendant does not receive subpoenas that were sent to all known addresses of his residence, and they are returned back to the court because their storage period has expired. In this case, the courts are usually guided by the fact that, without receiving a summons, the defendant clearly expressed his desire not to attend the trial and refused to participate in the divorce proceedings. Therefore, the case must be resolved without the personal presence of the foreign spouse.

Can a plaintiff file a claim for divorce in the court at his place of residence?

The rules of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation on alternative jurisdiction, which allow filing a claim in court at the plaintiff’s place of residence, are applicable in cases of divorce if the plaintiff has a minor child with him or the plaintiff for health reasons, cannot travel to the defendant’s place of residence.

In addition, Part 3 of Article 402 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation provides for the right of Russian courts to accept and consider cases involving foreigners, if in a divorce case:

• At least one of the spouses is a Russian citizen
• The plaintiff is registered in Russia

Regulatory framework

Divorce from a foreigner in the registry office

Divorce through the registry office from a foreigner is carried out according to the general rules - both spouses must apply to the registry office at the place of marriage or at the place of registration of one of the spouses, or through the MFC at the place of residence of one of the spouses, with a joint application for divorce. Spouses only need to fill out and sign a standard application form; the form can be obtained directly from the registry office or the MFC.

The main condition is that the application for divorce must be signed by both spouses personally; the law does not allow even a representative by proxy to do this. However, if one of the spouses cannot appear at the registry office and submit an application in person, a representative by proxy can do this for him, but in this case a separate application for divorce is drawn up and the signature of this spouse is notarized.

Lawyer for divorces (family issues) in St. Petersburg. Tel.+7 (812) 989-47-47 Telephone consultation

List of documents when filing a divorce through the registry office:

• Passports of both spouses
• Application for divorce
• Marriage certificate
• Receipts for payment of state duty - 650 rubles for each spouse

State registration of divorce is carried out one month from the date of filing the application .
Accordingly, the civil registry office employee will set a day on which the spouses must appear to receive a divorce certificate. Attention: if both spouses do not appear at the registry office at the appointed time, the marriage will not be dissolved and the submitted application will be cancelled.
Our family law lawyers will provide the following services:

• Free legal consultation by phone
• Drawing up any procedural documents: claims, reviews, statements, complaints, petitions, etc.
• Filing a claim in court
• Full support of the case at all stages of legal proceedings
• Representation of interests in civil registry offices

Consultation with a lawyer is carried out by appointment at the company’s office located in the center of St. Petersburg.

Option No. 2: get a divorce abroad through the Russian consulate

If you live outside the Russian Federation and you have the right to divorce a foreigner in the registry office under the legislation of the Russian Federation, then you have the right to contact the consular office of the Russian Federation or the diplomatic mission of the Russian Federation in the country of residence . The procedure is the same as through the registry office.

But instead of the state fee, you will need to pay a consular fee. As a general rule, the consular fee is $280 for each spouse. A month after submitting documents to the registry office, the consular office or diplomatic mission must issue you a certificate of divorce.

Legal support of divorce proceedings

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When a union is considered terminated in the Russian Federation and a foreign country

If the divorce took place on the territory of the Russian Federation, then the union is considered dissolved from the moment the entry is made in the regional registry office.

Therefore, upon receiving a court decision or a writ of execution for divorce, a resident of the country must contact the registry office for subsequent paperwork. The final stage is to receive a certificate and mark it in your passport.

For a foreigner, the fact of dissolution of the union will be formalized after the transfer of the court decision to the spouse’s state of residence.

The divorce is considered registered after information is entered into the documents of the foreign state.

When dissolving a marriage concluded abroad, it is important to check the presence of all the papers and the correctness of their execution, so that when they are presented to the regional registry office of the Russian Federation, there will be no problems with recognizing the divorce as valid.

Divorce from a citizen of another state is a more complex process. To avoid any difficulties, you can enlist the help of a specialist. A competent lawyer will help in drawing up documents and represent the interests of a Russian citizen in court.

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