Marriage Dissolution Online

Divorce can be a difficult and emotionally draining process, but with the development of digital technologies in Russia, an opportunity has now surfaced to simplify this procedure. Let’s take a look at how that can be done.

Spouses who don't have any minor children together can file a joint petition via the unified state services portal gosuslugi.ru under the condition that both spouses have an enhanced qualified electronic signature (EQES). The electronic petition must be signed with each filer's electronic signature.

The petition can be filed via gosuslugi.ru if the grounds for the marriage's termination is a court ruling to terminate the marriage which has entered into legal force.

An EQES certificate can be obtained:

• For free on the “Gosklyuch” app. Requirement: both have a new style international passport and NFC functions on their smartphones.
• For payment at an accredited certification center (CC).

Thus, the divorce petition must be signed with an EQES via Gosklyuch or with an EQES obtained at the CC and filed via the gosuslugi.ru portal.

If both spouses sign the petition via Gosklyuch:

• The first spouse is to fill out the petition and send it for approval to the second spouse (https://www.gosuslugi.ru/600706/1/form)
• The second spouse receives the notification and fills out their part of the petition.
• The petition, now confirmed by both spouses, is sent to “Gosklyuch” for both filers to sign it with their EQESs.
• Each of the spouses must launch Gosklyuch on their smartphones, select the divorce petition, and sign it with their EQESs within 24 hours. If either spouse didn't manage to do so within the indicated time frame, a petition will have to be sent over again to Gosklyuch for signing.
• After they've jointly signed the petition in Gosklyuch, the first filer receives a notification and selects the place, date, and time for the marriage dissolution to be registered as well as indicating either jointly or separately the receipt of a divorce certificate.  After that, a state fee of 650 RUB will have to be paid.
• After the state fee is paid by the first spouse, the petition is sent to the second one for them to confirm the place, date, and time of registration that the first spouse selected in the event that both spouses will be present. The second spouse must also pay the state fee of 650 RUB.
• After the state fee is paid by both spouses, the petition will be sent to the government agency.
• At the selected time, no sooner than one month of the filing of the petition, one of the spouses will be required to appear at the Civil Registry Office or a Multifunctional Public Services Center to officially register the divorce and for a divorce certificate to be issued.

IMPORTANT NOTE!

A petition thus sent to the Civil Registry Office via the Gosuslugi portal cannot be withdrawn.

If both spouses do not appear to register the dissolution of the marriage after a period of a month, the marriage will not be dissolved. If at least one of the spouses does come, however, the divorce will be registered. In that case, a certificate will be issued to the spouse while the second, now former, spouse will be able to pick up their divorce certificate at any time convenient to them.

The user support center on filing for divorces online is: 8-800-100-70-10, or, if calling in from a cell phone – 115 (free Russia-wide call).

In summary, it can be said that dissolving a marriage via the government services portal gosuslugi.ru entails a convenient, modern method of ending the relationship, will save time and effort, allowing the spouses to file a petition, coordinate it, sign it electronically, choose the date and location of the divorce, and obtain a divorce certificate.

This method won't work for the spouses if:

• the spouses have minor children;
• if the spouses don't have an enhanced qualified electronic signature (and aren't able to set one up);
• the spouses have property claims against each other and they want to resolve those issues as well at the same time that the marriage is being dissolved;
• they don't have the time or the desire to figure out new-fashion procedures (a notarial or consular power of attorney can always be processed for a representative to address a court);
• the spouses have no ability to appear to receive the divorce certificate (a certificate can only be obtained if one of the spouses appears while one can be obtained for the second spouse by a representative via a power of attorney). In other words, at least one of the spouses must come and obtain their divorce certificate in person (if just a representative of one of the spouses comes to the Civil Registry Office, the marriage will not be dissolved and no certificate will be issued).

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