When you apply for a divorce in a country other than where you are living, or where your permanent home is, this is known as an international divorce. This might happen because you live abroad for work, or because you and your ex end up living in different countries or because you have different nationalities.

If your situation involves two or more countries you need to consider or get advice on  the following:

• Which countries you can get a divorce in, and
• If you have a choice of more than one country, which one is likely to give you the best outcome.

The law around divorce varies a lot from country to country. So, if you are thinking about getting divorced abroad it is really important you get legal advice from a lawyer who is an expert in divorce law in that country. This will mean you are well informed from the start about what it involves. In some countries for example you can’t apply for a divorce yourself – a lawyer has to do it. In other countries you may well find that if you want to end a civil partnership entered into in England for example, you can’t because it is not recognised.

You don’t have to get divorced in the country that you were married in, or where you were living when you or your ex decided to end your marriage or civil partnership. In many countries, but not all, you can get divorced in the country in which either of you are settled now, as long as it recognises that you were married in the first place. So, many couples will find that they can get divorced in more than one country.

Where you can divorce will depend on whether the court in the country you want to divorce in has the right and power to deal with your case. At the moment, different rules about ‘jurisdiction’ apply depending on whether you are applying for a divorce inside or outside the European Union.

1. Being a ‘national’ of that country
2. Being ‘habitually resident’ in that country,
3. Being ‘domiciled’ in that country (only in the UK or Ireland)

To be a national means you have the official right to be a member of a nation state. You can acquire nationality by birth, the nationality of your parents, adoption, or marriage (the rules vary from country to country).

‘Habitual residence’ means that you live somewhere regularly. To prove habitual residence, you have to show that you are settled in the country or that you are planning to stay there for a while, even if it is not your permanent home.

How to show you are habitually resident varies from country to country.

For example, in England and Wales the kind of factors that are often taken into account when deciding if you can show habitual residence include: where you usually or always live, work, study, and/or enjoy your leisure time, where you have property, even if rented out, and where you keep your furniture, where your car is registered, your mailing address, where you are registered with a doctor, dentist and where your financial arrangements are based, for example, your bank accounts, your tax status, where you pay National Insurance (NI) contributions.

Different countries have different rules about what being domiciled means. So, again, if you plan to rely on this rule to show you are connected to a country you need to get legal advice from a lawyer who is an expert in divorce law in the country where you are thinking about getting a divorce.

In England and Wales ‘domicile’ is where your permanent home is. This doesn’t have to be a permanent address. For example, you can live abroad for work but not plan to stay in that country permanently and as such your birth country remains where you are ‘domiciled’. You will be able to get a divorce in a country if it is your permanent home. It can be the country that you were born in, or a country that you have moved to, if you have made it your permanent home.

It is very important to take the right decision in relation to divorce proceedings as the  law on divorce varies a lot from country to country. Where you divorce can have an impact on a number of very important things, such as:

• the types of financial orders the court is likely to make in your favour,
• the costs involved,
• the length of time it takes to get divorced and settle finances and arrangements for your children (if you have any),
• how you sort out arrangements for your children,
• how easy it is to enforce orders made by the court, in that country or another country.

You may find that getting divorced in one country will financially benefit you more than getting divorced somewhere else. Some countries may favour men over women in the way their court deals with divorce cases. It may be more expensive or take a lot longer to get divorced in one country than in another. So, if you have a choice of countries when it comes to starting your divorce it is important to work out which country will bring you the best outcome.

You also need to think about if it is practical for you to get a divorce in a different country. Divorce is often a very stressful and upsetting process so it is important to think about things such as the length of divorce proceedings in the country that you are considering applying for a divorce in, if you speak the language, and the costs of divorcing overseas.

It is important that you speak to an international family law solicitor or a lawyer in each of the countries you might want to divorce in, before you apply for a divorce to get an idea of how much divorcing abroad will cost, and if it would really benefit you to get a divorce there.