dmu

@britishlondon - this confirms the rules applicable in France. I haven't read the text, but here's the official link for info:
https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/...hild-abduction
Your sons are too young to have a say in the matter if you divorce and you demand custody, and it will be the Judge of the Family Affairs Court who'll make a decision in the best interests of the children, hence the need for a solid brief in your favour which only a lawyer could provide.
So sorry that you're in this position. As suggested, best to discuss with your husband and hope to come to an amicable agreement (written), to avoid coming before the Court and all that that entails....
HTH

dougal03

I was married in UK but divorced in Spain.I imagined it was better to go via English law but my Spanish lawyer suggested I do this under Spanish law.It went through smoothly & this was many years ago.

christmasoompa

I wouldn’t use that ‘recommendation’ personally - AdventureAbroad works for the company. If they have to pretend to be a customer and sneakily spam like that, they’re probably not all that great.

DLC

You are married in Spain as well, but you need to get the certificate stamped with the Hague Apostille by sending it to the FCO and then get a translation from an official translator (click on "Lista actualizada a 18 febrero 2021.pdf​").

There are also companies in the UK which will obtain a copy of your marriage certificate on your behalf, get it stamped at the FCO and send it out to you, just search for "UK Hague Apostille" or something and you'll get a few on the first page.

You're all resident in Spain, one of the parents is Spanish and there are Spanish children involved so it's the Spanish court which must decide over the divorce, there's nothing special about the marriage because you married in the UK apart from the bureaucracy above to get the certificate recognised in Spain. In any case since the 2005 divorce law (ley divorcio express), no fault divorces are accepted.

One parent can't take their children out of Spain when the children are travelling with their DNIs. They can when the children are travelling with their Spanish passports but both parents have to be present when applying for them at the police station. It's also allowed with British passports. But if you did disappear from Spain with the kids your husband could report you and then that would cause a whole heap of trouble for your divorce case, so I don't think that'd be the way to go about things.

Espana

Apostle is required if OP wants to register her marriage in Spain, which she isn't going to do.
For divorce proceedings it may not necessarily be needed. Only a translation accompanying the marriage certificate. If her husband petitions, then it'll be him to provide the marriage certificate and, if requested, an apostile.
I'm not saying that Apostile will definitely not be needed, considering how beautocratic spanish system is, but an apostile can be provided if the court requests or returns the petition.
UK courts often accept whatever marriage certificates are filed from whichever country of origin without any additional formalities.

FCO apostile works online. There's no need to involve a business to do it for you. It cost £30 or so plus courier postage of £6 to the UK, £14 to an European address. Exact prices are on the Web site, these are what I remember...

SanNico

If your ex is in agreement then you could go to the UK and ask him to divorce you in the UK after 6 months of residency. My case was pretty similar, but my marriage was registered in UK and Italy. My ex went to the UK with the kids and after 6 months I was able to file for divorce in the UK online for about 550GBP. No lawyers, no mediators, not even a phone call required. For this to work you need to be semi amicable and have separate agreements drawn up for custody, maintenance and financial separation.

DLC

I need to get some other certificates and I've been told I need each certificate with one on it. My guess is it's probably due to the UK not being an EU country any more so the legal framework which allows it to be accepted is not there any more, and of course the UK also stopped generating multilingual certificates at the end of last year.

I mentioned the option as the post can be unreliable these days, so instead of having to send the certificate on a return trip, getting one of these businesses to do it for you means it's just a one-way trip and if anything goes wrong you've still got your original. But yes, it'll cost more.