Filing for Divorce with Foreign Nationals

It’s a well-known phenomenon that many of our compatriots, particularly females, decide to tie the knot with foreign citizens. Logically, not all of those marriages make it “‘til death do us part”.

In this situation, there are two questions that come up:

• “Can one file for divorce with a foreign national in Russia?”
• “Does the location where the consummation of the marriage took place play any type of a role?”

Citizens of the Russian Federation have the right to divorce a foreign national both on the territory of Russia and in an authorized government agency of the other nation. The location of the marriage’s consummation is no deterrent.

Divorce can also be filed for with a foreign national at a diplomatic representative office or a consular institution of the Russian Federation abroad – in the case that such a divorce can be filed via a Civil Registry Office (that is – the spouses do not have any minor children together, both agree to the divorce, and both appear at the consular institution).

Provided below is a list of the consular fees of the Consular Department of the Embassy of Russia in Rome, Italy. Here, you can also take a look at the list of consular activities which duplicate the actions of Civil Registry Offices within the country.

In the case that after the spouses have filed for divorce, the foreigner continues to live abroad while the Russian spouse returns back to Russia, the divorce can be filed in a court of the Russian Federation. This procedure usually takes about 4 months (this is the time frame to file for the divorce, which does not include examination of property division or child custody disputes). This is much quicker that divorce can be filed for in some countries, where it may drag on for years and is burdened by significant legal counsel expenses.

The following is required to file for divorce in court with a foreign national:

• payment of a government fee of 600 RUB;
• preparation of the lawsuit;
• sending an email of a copy of the lawsuit to the foreign national spouse;
• submitting a lawsuit with all the necessary attachments to the court with jurisdiction in one's place of residence;

The lawsuit must have the original marriage certificate attached to it. If the marriage was formalized abroad, the issued certificate must be certified in the country where the document was issued, after which in Russia, you will need to obtain a notarized translation of it into Russian. You must indicate that you do not need a settlement period.

Usually after two or three court hearings, a divorce with a foreigner will be complete. The ruling will enter into legal force in a month. After that, you can obtain a statement containing the ruling and then subsequently receive the divorce certificate. If necessary, both documents are certified for the country where the marriage was registered.

As easy as it may seem, court procedures are not so simple and they must indeed be handled by lawyers, not random people or the filers themselves. We have worked with foreigners for over 15 years and have a good command of the court intricacies and bureaucratic procedures involving foreign nationals.

If you are currently abroad, do not entrust your court case to a relative or close one (neighbor, friend, or colleague) who don’t know the first thing about the law. You are much better off entrusting your case to professional lawyers.