How to obtain a divorce certificate after a court decision

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The very fact that both spouses appear in court to terminate family relations, as well as the subsequent issuance of a decision, does not constitute the end of the divorce process. After all, confirmation of a divorce, first of all, is not only a court decision, but a certificate issued by the registry office. Let's look at how to obtain a divorce certificate after a court decision.

Important! In a judicial divorce, the date of divorce will be the date the court decision comes into force, and the main supporting document will be the divorce certificate.

Where can I get a divorce certificate after a court decision?

According to the provisions of the RF IC, divorce is possible in two ways, namely:

• through the registry office in the event that the couple does not have minor children, as well as any claims against each other;
• through the court, which, along with the termination of family relationships, can also consider property disputes, regulates, and disagreements between the parties about children.

Expert opinion

Stanislav Evseev

Lawyer. Experience 12 years. Specialization: civil, family, inheritance law.

However, no matter how the former married couple ends their marriage, the divorce certificate is issued only at the registry office, given that this body is given the right to register almost all acts indicating civil status, which also includes divorce.

Copy of the decision

If a court decision is lost, you must obtain a duplicate. To obtain a copy, you must contact the court that issued the divorce decree. The document is prepared individually.

The copy is a complete duplicate of the court decision. The sheets must be stitched, numbered and sealed. The only difference from the original is the presence of the inscription: “Copy”. The issuance period is 5 working days. A copy is provided free of charge.

A sample application for a copy of a court decision can be downloaded here

Receipt procedure

In accordance with Article 31 of Federal Law No. 143 “On Acts of Civil Status” (hereinafter referred to as Federal Law No. 143), the basis for making an entry in the registration book at the civil registry office is a court decision that has entered into force on the termination of family relations, as well as a certain package of documents approved by law , not to mention submitting an application in the prescribed form.

The decision is considered to have entered into force only after thirty days from the date of adoption, and even then on the condition that one of the spouses does not want to protest it. If a complaint against the decision is nevertheless filed, then challenging the court decision may take from 30 days to a couple of months.

It is worth noting that, according to Article 35 of Federal Law No. 143, in order to obtain a marriage certificate, spouses must present at least an extract from the court decision, but the application can be submitted both in writing and electronically through the same government service website.

Where to contact?

As a rule, even before the dissolution of family relationships, many couples stop living together, which does not mean the possibility of submitting an application to any registry office.

So, within the framework of Article 32 of Federal Law No. 143, it is possible to issue a divorce certificate:

• in the civil registry office at the place of permanent or temporary registration of the former spouses;
• in the registry office, where the marriage was originally formalized.

That is, any civil registry office, despite its fairly broad powers, will not be suitable and a spouse interested in obtaining a document must contact only the institutions, taking into account the rules specified in Article 32 of Federal Law No. 143.

This is due to the fact that archival records of the former registration are stored only at the place of marriage or can only be requested from there.

In which registry office can you obtain a divorce certificate?

A certificate of divorce is obtained exclusively from the civil registry office that executed the court decision on divorce or independently dissolved the marriage of the spouses.

To obtain a divorce, spouses apply to the civil registry office at their place of residence or place of marriage.

But applying for a divorce and obtaining a divorce document are two different things.

A marriage certificate is issued by the civil registry office:

• at the place of divorce through this institution;
• at the place of registration of the divorce based on a court decision.

There are some nuances to applying for a certificate depending on the circumstances.

In another city

If you live in another city, and the divorce was registered by another registry office, then you can obtain the corresponding divorce certificate from another city.

The main problem is the need to personally obtain a certificate and confirm the identity of the person applying for the application.

To obtain a divorce certificate in another city, you can use several options:

1. Issue a power of attorney to the representative to obtain a divorce certificate. But the representative can only receive the document; it is impossible to send a representative to participate in the divorce process at the registry office!
2. Prepare a notarized application for the issuance of a certificate and send it by mail, indicating the address where the registry office should send the document.
3. Submit an application through Gosuslugi, but for its unconditional execution without your presence, it must be certified by a qualified digital signature.

Important! The administrative regulations of the civil registry office do not contain any reference to the authority’s obligation to send the certificate by mail. In cases 1 and 2, everything depends on the internal instructions of the particular civil registry office. It is impossible to oblige them to send a document by mail - they do not have such an obligation.

The most reliable way is to send a corresponding application for the issuance of a document through State Services and appear in person on the appointed day (you will know it in advance) to receive it.

Unfortunately, if your place of residence is very far from the desired registry office, it is not always possible to arrive there in person.

Find out more information in the publication “Divorce not at the place of registration.”

If several years have passed

The same as in the general order. There are no special nuances in obtaining a divorce certificate several years after the divorce.

The situation is complicated by the fact that the former spouse who wants to receive a certificate does not have information about his details.

The period for issuing a document usually does not exceed a working day, that is, on the day of application you can leave the institution with a certificate in hand.

It is not prepared in advance upon the application of the first spouse, but awaits the expression of will from the second participant in the former union.

If you are not in a hurry, you can submit an application through State Services or through the MFC. In such a situation, the document will be prepared within 30 days. And you need to receive it either at the civil registry office of your choice or at the MFC.

If lost

Losing a divorce certificate is a common occurrence for many citizens. Fire, negligence, theft of documents - dozens of reasons why a certificate may be lost.

This does not bring any consequences or sanctions for the owner of the document, except for the additional hassle of restoring it.

You can receive a duplicate certificate after loss an unlimited number of times.

To obtain a duplicate divorce certificate you must:

1. Determine the registry office where you need to contact - this should be the institution that issued the lost certificate.
2. Pay the fee for issuing a duplicate divorce certificate: 350 rubles.
3. Apply to the registry office. A sample application can be obtained on site; the Civil Registry Office staff will help you fill it out correctly.
4. Wait for the document to be issued.

The document is issued either on the day of application or no later than 5 days from the date of submission of the application. This depends on the workload of the registry office at the place of application.

You can also order a duplicate by mail, through the MFC or through State Services.

A note is made on the new certificate issued that it is a duplicate, but this does not cancel the validity of the previous document.

In fact, the duplicate does not provide any other rights; the divorce certificate simply confirms the fact of divorce. Even if the ex-spouse finds the lost certificate, there is no need to submit it anywhere or contact the registry office.

Sample divorce certificate

The divorce certificate is executed on a state-issued form printed in the Goznak printing house.

The document is executed on a printer, which prints the necessary data into the columns of the form. It is certified by the signature of a civil registry office employee and the seal of the institution.

The form is presented below for reference; however, as changes are made, it may change slightly due to the addition of new levels of protection and changes in watermarks.

The graphs and content remain unchanged.

Dissolution of marriage

The procedure for dissolving a marriage depends on a number of reasons. The bodies authorized to file a divorce are:

• municipal civil registry office;
• magistrate, district or city court.

To dissolve a marriage administratively (through the municipal registry office), mutual consent of the parties and the absence of joint minor children are required. The parties draw up a general application and after 30 days apply to register the divorce.

A married couple raising children together needs to contact a judicial authority. The parties can independently resolve the following issues:

• about the place of residence of minor children;
• on the division of joint property;
• on the payment of financial support for a minor child and a disabled spouse.

The agreements reached are drawn up in writing and attached to the application to the magistrate's court.

Important! In the absence of an agreement, controversial issues can be resolved in court. In this case, the claim for divorce is sent to the district or city court.

Who can apply?

By virtue of Article 35 of Federal Law No. 143, any of the former spouses can apply to the registry office to make a record of divorce and subsequently receive a divorce certificate, and not necessarily together or even on the same day.

That is, if a woman and a man live in different cities, they only need to visit the registry office in their locality at a time convenient for them during the corresponding opening hours of the specified institution.

At the same time, on the basis of this norm, other persons may apply for the issuance of a certificate. In particular:

• guardian of an incapacitated person if the marriage is dissolved unilaterally in the cases specified in Art. 34 Federal Law No. 143;
• an authorized representative of the former spouses in accordance with a legally issued power of attorney to represent their interests.

What is a certificate?

So, why do you need a divorce certificate? Firstly, to confirm your marital status at various levels. Secondly, in the absence of such a document, it is impossible to remarry, as this would be illegal. A divorce certificate looks like a marriage certificate. It is produced on a special form with watermarks and its counterfeiting is a criminal offense.

Blank certificate form

The blank form includes the following information:

• surname, name and patronymic of both spouses;
• citizenship and nationality (this column is filled in when they were indicated at the time of marriage);
• place of birth of both spouses;
• the date, month and year of termination of the marriage and on what basis it was terminated;
• the date when the entry about this event was made in the registry office;
• information about the assigned surname after divorce;
• where, when and by whom the certificate was issued;
• signature of the head of the civil registry office.

This certificate is made in two copies for each spouse.

What is the deadline to apply?

The law does not establish a deadline for filing an application, which does not mean that the law can be ignored and that the absence of information about the divorce in the registry office is completely harmless for former spouses.

So, by virtue of Art. 25 of the RF IC, the court decision becomes valid after thirty days, then over the next 3 days, an extract from the decision is sent to the registry office at the place of initial registration of the marriage.

There is no specific deadline for appearing for a divorce certificate. But according to Part 3 of Art. 25 of the RF IC, former spouses will not be able to remarry without properly issuing a divorce certificate, not to mention other restrictions determined by law.

In addition, without a divorce certificate, former spouses will not be able to:

• buy real estate or other expensive property;
• take out a large loan or mortgage;
• replace the passport, excluding the marriage record.

That is why, in order to simply deprive your ex-spouse of registration in the house or enter into a remarriage, you will still have to visit the registry office.

Required documents

After the month allocated to the spouses for reconciliation, the procedure for dissolution of the marriage union (if the spouses were unable to resolve the problems within the period allocated to them for this). After this, each party takes their certificate.
Not everyone knows that certain documentation must be prepared for this. What documents are needed to obtain a divorce certificate? In the case where the entire divorce process took place in the registry office (without going to court), you can pick up a copy after providing:

• ID cards;
• receipts (state duty).

A passport can be used as an identification document, proving that the document was issued to the person who came to pick it up. If an authorized representative applies to the registry office, he must have a power of attorney with him.

Important! The power of attorney must be certified by a notary. Otherwise, it has no legal force.

The citizen must also have a receipt received after paying the state duty. Where can I get a certificate of divorce by court decision? In such cases, the registry office is also responsible for issuing papers. The citizen will additionally need to have with him a copy of the court decision, in accordance with which the marriage is terminated.

Application for issue

Within the framework of Article 35 of Federal Law No. 143, one of the mandatory conditions for making an entry in the registration journal at the Civil Registry Office and the subsequent issuance of a certificate is the submission of an application in Form No. 12, approved by Order of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation of 2021 No. 201.

In this case, the citizen must attach to this document:

• original identity card (passport);
• an extract from the court decision or a copy thereof;
• a copy of the marriage certificate;
• government payment receipt duties.

The passport is subsequently returned to the applicant after reviewing his identity data and entering it into the computer.

Sample application

Below is a sample application for registration of divorce based on a court decision.

You can fill it out yourself, but the slightest mistake will result in its return and refusal to issue a certificate.

Most civil registry offices currently independently enter all the data into the program, print out the already completed application, and only offer the applicant to sign it.

State duty

Considering that the termination of family relations is a legally significant action carried out only by government bodies, this service requires payment of a state fee.

So, by virtue of Article 333.26 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, each of the couple will have to pay 650 rubles for registration and issuance of a certificate.

Moreover, if the divorce is formalized unilaterally and through the registry office on the basis of a court decision declaring the husband or wife incompetent or missing, and possibly imprisoned for a period of more than three years, the fee will be only 350 rubles.

State duty

The state fee for the certificate is paid by each party separately. In case of divorce through the registry office, payment is made at the time of filing the application and there is no need to provide a receipt upon receipt.

Sample receipt

When dissolving a marriage through the court, before receiving the document, each party must pay a fee of 650 rubles. The price indicated is average and can vary both up and down, depending on the region.

Payment of the state duty can be made at a specialized terminal at a government agency, at a bank branch or online, using specialized services.