Divorce in Russia

Family matters are one of the main areas of our legal practice. Often, such cases are complicated by the fact that one of the spouses is a foreigner, or a dispute has arisen between the spouses over children or property located abroad.

In this category of cases, we provide our clients, citizens of various countries, a wide range of legal services, ranging from advising on:

- dissolution of marriage;
- collection of alimony;
- division of property;
- determination of the child's place of residence with one of the parents;
- custody over children;
- on other issues;

Finishing with direct representation of the interests of our clients in court up to a point when the client receives a positive result.

In this article, we decided to share our experience with our readers, and tell how foreign citizens can get a divorce in Russia.

Dissolution of marriage with Russian citizens.

One of the most frequently asked questions for us is how to get a divorce?
This issue is brought up not only by foreigners who have married a citizen of the Russian Federation, but also by couples of foreign citizens temporarily staying in Russia.

In both cases, it is safe to say that divorce in Russia is possible and, moreover, has a number of significant advantages over similar procedures abroad.

First, in our country, divorce is a much cheaper procedure compared to many other countries.
In particular, state fees for the divorce are:
- extrajudicially, you will have to pay a state fee in the amount of 650 rubles or 8.29 USD (at the USD exchange rate as of 06.10.2020);
- in case of going to court, the state fee will be 600 rubles or 7.65 USD (at the USD exchange rate as of 06.10.2020).

In addition to the government fee, you will also likely face the cost of a professional attorney or lawyer. However, the cost of such divorce procedures in Russia, even taking into account the costs of an advocate or a lawyer, will in any case be several times lower than in most Western countries.
Secondly, divorce in Russia is a much simpler procedure than in some other countries.

In our country, a marriage may be dissolved outside of court by agreement of the spouses, if they do not have underage children. In this case, the spouses must submit a joint application to the Civil Status Registration Authority (registry office) and attach the necessary documents to it.
If the spouses have underage children or one of them does not agree to divorce or evades it, you will have to go to court.

At the same time, the obligatory presence of an advocate or lawyer is not required in the court in your case. That is, you yourself can apply to the court and ask to dissolve the marriage. It is important to note that in order to satisfy your claims in court, no additional conditions are required (in Germany, for example, one of such conditions is separate living of spouses during a year) except for the statement of one of the spouses that further joint family life is impossible and his demand to dissolve the marriage.

For foreign citizens wishing to dissolve a marriage with a Russian citizen, we provide services for the full legal l support of the divorce procedure, division of property, as well as the collection of alimony or child’s custody.

The dissolution of marriage itself will be slightly different for persons who are married on the territory of the Russian Federation or abroad.

If you married in Russia.

In this case, the procedure will be carried out in a usual manner, and the documents that you need include only originals or duly certified copies of certificates of marriage and birth of children.

If your marriage was concluded outside of Russia.

As a general rule, marriages between citizens of the Russian Federation and foreign citizens, concluded in another state in compliance with its legislation, are recognized as valid in the Russian Federation. But you may need to legalize documents confirming the marriage.

Simplified legalization is used to legalize documents confirming a marriage concluded in countries that have joined the Hague Convention abolishing the requirement for the legalization of foreign official documents (concluded in The Hague dated 05.10.1961).

In this case, it will be enough for the official body of the state in which the marriage was concluded to affix the «apostille» stamp on such a document. After that, marriage documents will be valid on the territory of Russia.

If documents on marriage with a foreigner were issued by a country that has not joined the Hague Convention, then in order to legalize the document, you will need to contact the consular office of Russia located on the territory of the country that issued the marriage documents.

If you have these documents, you can go to court with an application for divorce in Russia.

Also we can help? if you need: 
divorce lawyer, family lawyer, paternity lawyer, paternity attorney, child support lawyer, alimony lawyer, marriage contract, property division lawyer, international marriage lawyer.

Tel: +7 909 961-19-09
Email: legalsolutions@inbox.ru
Visit us: Moscow, Zubovskiy bulvar, building 4, room 308