How to pick up a divorce certificate (court decision)

The divorce process is full of legal intricacies that make this already unpleasant and complex process even more confusing and stressful. Therefore, if you have to go through this difficult test, then it is worth finding out as many details about it as possible in advance. Let's look in detail at how to pick up a divorce certificate after a divorce, which organization issues it, what this document is, how long the procedure for obtaining it will take, and how much money you will have to pay for it. It’s also worth finding out where you need to pick up your divorce certificate after the trial.

General information about the certificate

A divorce certificate is the only document certifying the fact of termination of a marriage relationship. According to Art. 8 of the Law “On Acts of Civil Status”, it must be executed on a strict reporting form and, regardless of the reasons and procedure for divorce, contain the following information:

full names (full name) of former spouses;
citizenship of the parties (if former citizens of the USSR are getting divorced, then the nationality from their Soviet passport may also be indicated);
place of birth of both ex-spouses;
the day the marriage ends;
reasons for making a decision;
the day of registration of the divorce decision in the registry office;
new surname of the former participants in the marriage (in case the ex-wife changes her surname back to her maiden name);
signature of the registry office director and seal;
information about the registry office that issued the document.

This paper is issued in 2 copies so that each of the ex-spouses can receive their own copy. In the future, the certificate is used for:

consideration of issues related to child custody or alimony payments;
obtaining loans;
registration of inheritance;
resolving property issues (including real estate transactions);
obtaining visas of foreign countries;
creating a new family (when applying to register a new marriage, you may need a certificate of termination of the old ones).

Please note that although after a divorce a note about this is put in the passports of the parties, in all of the listed cases, employees of government and commercial organizations have the right to demand from you a certificate of divorce.

If one of the ex-spouses loses their copy, then a duplicate of the certificate can be issued. To do this, you will need to contact the registry office with the appropriate application and again pay the fee for the restoration of this paper. To do this, you do not have to come to the same place where you went to get this document last time - all registry offices of the Russian Federation have the right to issue duplicates.

Let's find out where you need to pick up the completed divorce documents.

Divorce procedure by mutual consent

Russian legislation gives the right to conduct divorce proceedings to only two bodies: the registry office and the court. In the first case, those divorcing do not have minor children and disputes regarding joint property. If there are children under 18 years of age and/or financial claims, the court will deal with the divorce.

Through the registry office

The procedure for divorce by mutual consent in the registry office is simple and happens quite quickly. It boils down to filing a joint application of the established form in form No. 9, 10 or 11.

Purpose of each divorce application form:

Form No. 9 is submitted jointly by both spouses who agree to divorce when they have no children under the age of 18 and no property disputes;
Form No. 10 is filled out under the conditions corresponding to Form No. 9, but one of the spouses cannot be present when submitting the application;
Form No. 11 is provided for cases when there is a court decision regarding the second spouse declaring him missing, incompetent or imprisoned for a period of 3 years.

The presence or absence of children under 18 years of age does not matter.

An application for divorce by mutual consent of a spouse without children (or in Form No. 11) is submitted to the registry office at the place of residence - both of them or one of the parties, or to the authority that registered the marriage.

Through the court

When a married couple decides to finally separate by mutual consent, they are often faced with the question of whether a judicial divorce is necessary. The legislation establishes the need for divorce through the court when there are minor children in the family.

Important! The court allows divorce of spouses with children under the age of 1 year or if the woman is pregnant only with her written consent or on her initiative.

A statement of claim for divorce is usually filed with the judicial authority at the defendant’s place of residence. But sometimes the defendant lives in another city, then in some cases the plaintiff has the right to go to court at his place of residence.

Grounds for filing a claim at the plaintiff’s place of residence:

Due to health reasons, he (she) is unable to travel to the defendant’s place of residence and has the appropriate medical certificates.
He (she) is raising minor children. Confirmation is provided by birth certificates and the established fact of their cohabitation with the plaintiff.

Divorce proceedings for spouses with children are conducted by a magistrate or a district (city) court. The first option is preferable, since it assumes that the divorcees have agreed on everything related to the upbringing and maintenance of children, and have also resolved all material issues (for example, who will own the apartment and who will own the dacha, etc.).

What issues regarding children need to be resolved?:

which parent they stay with;
the amount of alimony and additional financial support;
regulations for meetings of children with the second parent and his relatives.

If agreement on these issues is not reached, the claim for divorce is filed in the district or city court.

Frequent situations within the jurisdiction of the court:

The amount of alimony, in what ratio additional expenses will be divided (payment for sports clubs, additional education, vacation trips, etc.)
The order of communication between children and the other parent, when and how many days they will be together.
Issues of paying for a mortgage or other outstanding loans taken out for joint needs.
Who will end up with expensive property (car, dacha, etc.)
How to divide money that was donated or given by relatives for large purchases, including the purchase or renovation of a home.

In general, the divorce procedure in court consists of several stages. First, a divorce petition and all the necessary documents are submitted. When the documents are verified and accepted, the court sets a hearing date. If there are a lot of unresolved issues, there may be several meetings, but sometimes everything is resolved on the very first day. The next, final stage is obtaining a court decision. The document comes into force in a month, and then the spouses, who are already ex-wife, apply to the registry office for a certificate of divorce.

Through MFC

The Family Code of the Russian Federation does not grant the MFC the right to conduct divorce proceedings. However, you can use the services of the center to file a divorce application under certain conditions.

Mandatory conditions for accepting an application for divorce at the multifunctional center:

mutual desire of the spouses for divorce;
absence of minor children.

These conditions must be met simultaneously.

The procedure for divorce by mutual consent through the MFC takes place in a certain order.

Procedure for divorce through the MFC:

Pre-registration for an appointment.
Collection of documents necessary for registering divorce.
Payment of state duty.
Visit to the MFC at the appointed time.
Receiving a receipt for the receipt of documents, which will also indicate when and to which civil registry office you need to come.

Thus, the MFC only serves as an intermediary between citizens divorcing a marriage and the authorities authorized to carry out this act.

Through "State Services"

The Gosuslugi portal, like the MFC, is an intermediary between citizens and official state and municipal bodies, so it is impossible to carry out the procedure for divorce by mutual consent through the site. But filing an application for divorce through a web resource saves time and money.

Submitting an application through the portal is more difficult than through the MFC, since there are more mandatory conditions in this case.

Simultaneously fulfilled conditions for filing an application for divorce through “State Services”:

mutual consent of the spouses;
absence of minor children;
presence of an enhanced qualified electronic signature for both spouses;
both husband and wife have confirmed personal accounts on the portal.

If these requirements are met, it is much easier for spouses to complete the preparatory activities. In this case, their location at the time of filing the application does not matter. You can choose a conveniently located registry office and the time to visit it. The state duty is paid directly on the website with a reduction factor of 0.7.

These conveniences come at the cost of a more complex procedure for filing an application for divorce.

The procedure for submitting an application through “Gosuslugi”:

Obtaining an enhanced qualified electronic signature.
Collection of documents necessary for divorce. Their scans will be attached to the application.
Filling out an application form in the personal account of one of the spouses.
Sending notice to the second spouse.
Filling out the form by the second spouse.
Payment of the state duty by each spouse in their personal account.
Choosing a registry office for divorce.
Sending an application to the selected authority.
Visit the selected registry office at the appointed time.

Each couple decides independently which procedure for filing an application for divorce by mutual consent, based on their specific situation.

Methods of divorce

The Family Code of the Russian Federation (FC RF) provides for two ways to terminate the existence of family relationships:

directly at the registry office;
through the court.

According to Art. 19, part 1 of the RF IC, only families without joint children, in which both spouses are satisfied with the termination of the marriage, can divorce in the registry office. The same article provides for an accelerated unilateral divorce procedure through the registry office, even for couples with children. This is possible in cases where one of the spouses:

incapacitated;
missing;
is serving a sentence of 3 years in prison.

If only one of the parties wants a divorce or the couple has common minor children, the divorce must be carried out through a magistrate or district court (this is required by Article 21, Part 1 of the RF IC).

Let's consider how and when you can pick up a divorce certificate from the registry office in the event of a divorce without trial.

How can I get a divorce certificate through the registry office?

To receive a certificate, you need to come to the registry office on the day appointed by its employees. If the divorce took place by mutual consent of the parties, then you need to take the originals of the following documents with you:

passport;
Marriage certificate;
application for divorce;
receipt of payment of state duty.

The absence of at least one document from the list leads to the possibility of refusal to issue a certificate. In cases of unilateral divorce, you will additionally need a court decision confirming the grounds for such a procedure (a copy of the conviction of the former spouse or a certificate declaring him incompetent/missing).

If your document is not yet ready on the appointed date, you will need to be given a date when you can pick up your divorce certificate from the same registry office.

Let's consider where you can pick up a certificate of divorce that took place through the court.

Restoring a lost certificate

If the divorce document has been lost or damaged, it can be restored. To obtain a duplicate certificate, you need to contact the registry office, provide them with a passport with a divorce stamp and a receipt for payment of the state fee in the amount of 350 rubles.

But sometimes non-standard situations happen:

There is no stamp in the passport, in this case you should:

Contact the civil registry office where the certificate was issued.
Tell the employees of the authorized body the date of divorce.
Pay the state fee in the amount of 350 rubles.

You need to get a duplicate at your current place of residence, but the divorce took place in another city. The way out of the situation is as follows:

Contact the nearest civil registry office.
Send a request to the authorized body where the divorce was filed to receive a copy of the document.
Pay the state fee - 350 rubles.
Wait for a response from the registry office staff.

Obtaining a certificate for judicial divorce

If your divorce took place with the involvement of Themis, then you will still pick up the finished certificate about it at the registry office.
In addition to the list of documents above, you will need an original or copy of the court's decision to dissolve your marriage. Let's look at how to take back a court decision on divorce. To do this, you need to wait for the court to make a decision, and then wait another 30 days for it to enter into legal force. After this, you must come to the office of the court that considered your case with your passport. If the decision is already ready, you will be able to get your own copy, regardless of whether your ex-spouse has already received it. If there is no ready-made solution yet, they will tell you the day when you can get it.

How long will it take to receive the document?

The timing of paperwork, like other nuances, depends on the method of divorce. If this was done directly through the registry office, then usually the certificate can be collected approximately a month after the start of the procedure. The registry office employees report the specific date immediately upon filing an application for divorce.

The question of when you can withdraw a divorce decree is somewhat more complicated. In this case, everything depends on the day of receipt of the relevant court decision, without which it is impossible to issue a certificate. The duration of the judicial divorce process usually ranges from 1 month (if the parties have no mutual claims and there is no need to resolve issues about the division of joint property) to six months. After hearing the case, if one of the parties disagrees or there are children, the judge may suspend the process for 90 days to give the couple one last chance to reconcile. After the decision is made, you will need to wait another 30 days for it to enter into legal force. Only after this will you be able to come to the court office and pick up the court order, which is necessary to obtain documents from the registry office. Thus, obtaining a certificate in the event of a divorce through the court will take at least 2 months, and in some cases it may take 7-8 months.

Amount and payment of state duty

According to Art. 336 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the amount of state duty in divorce proceedings is:

650 rubles for each spouse if they are divorced by agreement of the parties.
350 rubles per applicant for unilateral divorce.
600 rubles for divorce through court. After the court decision is made, in order to receive an official document, the spouses need to pay 650 rubles each.

If during the divorce process it becomes necessary to resolve property disputes or determine the order of residence and maintenance of minor children, the cost of the state fee may increase.

How much will you have to pay

To obtain a completed divorce certificate, you need to pay a state fee. Its value is determined by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation in Art. 333.26 and depends on how exactly the divorce took place:

In case of divorce under a unilateral accelerated procedure at the registry office (in the event of one of the spouses going missing, being incapacitated, or having served a long prison sentence), the fee for the certificate will be 350 rubles.
If the procedure took place at the registry office by mutual consent of a childless couple, then each of the former spouses will pay 650 rubles to receive their copy of the document.
In case of divorce in court, the ex-husband and wife will also pay 650 rubles. state fees each. Before this, the plaintiff will have to pay another fee when filing a statement of claim, the amount of which is 600 rubles. Thus, the full price of the certificate for him will be 1250 rubles.

The fee is paid:

using the State Services portal (in 2021, when paying any fee using this method, there is a 30% discount, so the certificate will cost you from 245 to 875 rubles);
in the State Services terminal (they can be found in any government organization);
through your bank's online banking system;
at the cash desk of any bank.

At what point does a marriage officially end?

Until 03/01/1996, according to the RF IC, the day of termination of the marital relationship was taken to be the day when the first of the former spouses received their own copy of the divorce certificate.
This created legal confusion and even gave scope for legal conflicts. So, if none of the spouses applied for a document, then legally their marriage continued to exist despite the complete procedure for its termination. De jure, if none of the former spouses in a marriage that was dissolved before March 1, 1996, received a copy of the certificate, then such a marriage still exists. This means that all subsequent marriages concluded by former partners are illegal, and all their mutual property rights are still valid. To avoid similar situations in the future, the State Duma introduced amendments to Article 25 of the RF IC, according to which the date of the end of the marriage depends on how exactly the divorce took place:

If the process took place only through the registry office, then the day of dissolution of the marriage relationship is considered the moment of making an entry about this in the register and civil registry.
If the couple divorced in court, then the legal moment of the end of the marriage is considered the day the corresponding court decision entered into force. Art. 321 of the Civil Procedure Code indicates that any court decision comes into force exactly 30 days from the date of its adoption.

Procedure for issuing a document

To obtain a divorce certificate from the registry office, you must go through certain steps:

An application and a package of documents are submitted to the authorized body.
The materials are reviewed and if no contradictions are identified, they are taken into consideration.
The divorce is registered.
Two identical copies of the divorce document are drawn up.
Certificates are issued to former spouses.
A stamp is placed in the passport of the husband and wife, which confirms the dissolution of the marriage.

The entire divorce procedure takes a month from the date of filing the application with the registry office. During this time, the spouses may change their minds and withdraw their application.