Divorce

Divorce is the legal end of a marriage. A divorce in one country might require extra steps for another country to recognize it.

The process of divorce may address legal matters tied to the marriage, including:

• parenting of children
• financial support
• division of property

If you are considering divorce, you are encouraged to speak with an attorney familiar with local family law.  U.S. embassies and consulates for your destination maintain lists of attorneys on their websites who have identified themselves as willing to assist U.S. citizen clients.

Other countries may recognize a judgment of divorce from a U.S. state court. Talk to a lawyer in the foreign country to find out if they recognize your U.S. divorce. 

Marriage and divorce are matters of U.S. state law and laws are different from state to state.   Whether a U.S. state recognizes a foreign divorce will depend on the law of the U.S. state and what process happened abroad.  

• The United States has no treaty with any country regarding foreign divorces.  
• States may check if both parties knew about the divorce. They may also want to know if both parties could share their views during the process. 
• States may decide that a foreign divorce is not valid if neither party was living in the foreign place at the time. 

For questions about foreign divorces, contact the Attorney General's Office in your state. A private attorney in that state may also be able to help.

To get your foreign divorce recognized in the United States or elsewhere, you may need these documents:

• Certified, authenticated, or translated copies of your foreign marriage certificates. You can get these from the civil registrar or court in the country where the marriage or divorce took place. 
• Certified, authenticated, or translated copies of your divorce decrees. 
• Information about foreign divorce laws. You can get this information from the attorney who managed the divorce. This is likely the easiest to get at the time of the divorce. 

Contact the embassy or consulate of the foreign country in the United States for help on getting copies of foreign public documents. Foreign embassies may need written requests in their language. Include copies of important documents in your request. 

An authenticated document is one that a government authority has certified as genuine. For foreign documents, you can authenticate them in two ways: 

• If the country is part of the Apostille Convention, get an Apostille.  
• Otherwise, have the local U.S. embassy or consulate authenticate the document. This is not a form of registration. It’s just the U.S. embassy or consulate's seal placed over the foreign court's seal.  Check the U.S. embassy’s website in that country to schedule an appointment for this service.

Divorce impacts eligibility for and distribution of federal benefits.  

Contact the U.S. Social Security Administration, Veterans Administration, and Internal Revenue Service to learn about required documentation of divorce.