How to dissolve a marriage with a foreigner in Ukraine?

Transnational marriages are far from being unusual today. People meet each other, get married, move to another countries. But sometimes they need to dissolve their marriage.

So the question arises, Does the procedure for dissolution of marriage concluded between citizens of different countries (one of which is a Ukrainian) have any peculiarities? Many people believe that this process is much more complicated than the divorce between Ukrainians.

The procedure for getting a divorce from a foreign national is almost the same as the standard divorce procedure in Ukraine. In fact, the objective of both processes is to end a marriage.

Therefore, we will elaborate on the following issues: 

• How to divorce a person out of Ukraine?
• How to determine which law should apply to divorce proceedings?

Which law should apply to cross-border divorces?

This may be the divorce laws of:

• the country the spouses are nationals of;
• the country where the spouses lived;
• the country with which the spouses have close ties - e.g., the home country of one of the spouses, the country of residence of the spouse’s parents, etc.

If Ukraine falls under at least one of the above points, then you can freely complete the divorce in Ukraine.

What law should apply to a divorce in Ukraine?

If one of the spouses is a foreign national, it is necessary to apply the private international law provisions. Family law will not help in this case, Ukraine has a special law, which regulates this issue.

As it was already mentioned above, married persons, if one of them - a citizen of Ukraine, are entitled to apply the Ukrainian regulations to the divorce. 

What are the advantages of getting a divorce in Ukraine?

Saving of time. In our country this process will take 3-4 months.

When getting a divorce abroad (depending on the country), the process can take at least a year.

Saving of money. As for money expenditures, it is much cheaper to get divorced in Ukraine - in terms of court fees, divorce application fee, etc.

What is the divorce process in Ukraine for citizens of another country?

Dissolution of marriage between a Ukrainian citizen and  a foreign national is performed in accordance with the same procedure as the divorce of Ukrainian spouses.

In case of a divorce by mutual consent with no claims relating to marital property division and minor children in the family, you can apply for a divorce to the civil registry office. However, as evidenced in practice, most people must go through divorce court proceedings.

The relevant law, namely the Code of Civil Procedure of Ukraine, will help you understand which court you should apply to.

To initiate the process, you need to make a divorce petition, properly develop all the documents and file them to the court. Our lawyers can help you with this.

You can divorce a foreign national without his/her presence.

The Ukrainian court shall send a court order to the defendant’s country of residence. If you know the place where the foreign defendant lived or lives, you can indicate this address in the divorce petition.

If the defendant does not appear at the hearing or he/she is not found at the address, the local court will search for the defendant.

If the defendant’s place of residence hasn’t been determined and he/she hasn’t been served the summons, the divorce is carried out without the defendant’s presence.

How to get a divorce with minor children?

Just as with the standard process, you can receive child support payments. Of course, this decision shall be made by the court.

The enforcement of the judgment is carried out as follows: the court decision is sent to the country where the child support payer lives and the relevant local authority collects child support. 

What is the evidence of the dissolution of the marriage with a foreign national?

Not all countries accept documents issued by the civil registry office as evidence of the dissolution of a marriage. But a divorce decree is an official document that can confirm the divorce. Therefore, it is better to dissolve a marriage with a foreigner through the judicial authorities.

The dissolution of a transnational marriage is a process that requires to know laws and regulations of different countries, as well as to be well-versed in the provisions of the civil and international law.

If you want to get divorced as quickly and easily as possible, without wasting a lot of time digging through the laws, just give us a call. We will help you minimize the divorce stress scale associated with the legal aspect of the issue.