Divorcing a Citizen of the Russian Federation

The procedure for filing for divorce in Russia is much quicker than in many European countries (including Italy) and takes an average of 3-4 months in the case that it is the divorce alone that the court is to preside over and there are no disputes as to how property is to be divided up and who is going to have custody of the children, or in the case that the spouses would like to deal with those issues in a separate court process.

Consequently, if a foreigner needs to file for divorce with a Russian citizen, it’s much quicker to do so in a Russian court. Meanwhile, the foreign national need not come to Russia to complete this process. We can handle all of it for them by way of a power of attorney.

Filing for divorce in Russia requires the following documents to be prepared:

1. The marriage certificate: if the marriage was consummated in Italy, the certificate will need to be apostilled. It’s best to have the translation into Russian done while still in Russia!

IMPORTANT NOTE! The original marriage certificate will have to be submitted to the court and the original marriage certificate will not be returned afterward.

2. A receipt confirming that the government fee has been paid: as of the end of 2024, the government fee for filing for divorce is 5,000 roubles.

3. The statement of case requesting a divorce based on the provisions of the Family Code of the Russian Federation.

4. A document confirming that a copy of the statement of case has been sent to the spouse who is a citizen of the Russian Federation.

5. A notarial or consular power of attorney to represent the interests of the spouse who is a foreign national.

The statement of case must be submitted at the proper location based on the spouse's registration who is a citizen of Russia. To accelerate the divorce procedure, if there are no objections from the other spouse, the other spouse can be asked for a notarized agreement to the divorce and then their agreement can be attached to the statement of case.

Even under such a simple algorithm of steps, there are still mistakes that can be made, which, in order to be corrected, will cause the divorce process to drag on. Our firm professionally accommodates the divorce process for foreigners in Russia.

We will be able to:

• prepare all the necessary documents and submit them to a court;
• obtain the court's ruling on the divorce and have it apostilled;
• obtain a divorce certificate and have it apostilled;
• pay all necessary government fees and mailing expenses;
• complete all necessary translations into Russian;
• prepare a translation into Italian with the help of our accredited translators and have the correctness of the translation verified at the Italian Consulate in Moscow if you are an Italian citizen;
• send out the ready documents to any location in the world.

We have been working with foreign citizens for many years, first and foremost, with Italians. Our legal support will render the divorce process in Russia as quick and painless as possible.

Still have questions? Send us a message or give us a call today!