sammyjo2983

Hi all,
My name is Samantha. I was married in Feb. 05' to a british citizen and i have come to the conclusion that this was a HUGE mistake to marry him! We have no debt, no kids, no property.. just married in name only. I was suppose to put the visa in for him to move as of this month, but haven't. So, how do i go about serving him with divorce papers considering i live in the U.S. and he still lives in London??? I would appreciate any help anyone could possibly offer me. Thank you for your time.

Samantha

Noorah101

Hi Samantha,

If you retain a divorce attorney, he will take care of sending the papers to him in the UK. I did a similar thing once, I was in the USA and my alien husband was in Saudi Arabia (Canadian citizen), and we got divorced with no problems. My attorney sent the papers to him in SA, he signed them and sent them back, and that was it.

Rene

Folinskyinla

Hi:

Under US law, the "res" of the marriage is where EITHER spouse resides. You do NOT need "in personam" jurisidiction on the other spouse. That said, there will have to be some type of "service of process" on him. The procedures for this vary from state to state. Also, the Haque Convention on service applies -- I have no idea what the UK subsribes or doesn't subscribe to in the Convention. However, I know that Germany has opted out of part of the Convention and this has lead to some interesting case law again German auto manufacturers where the US attorneys screwed up service of process.

It will probably be fairly easy, but there are possible land mines there.

CaliforniaBride

Just looking through your last posts and I wanted to ask are you ok? I can't give you any advice but wish you the best and hope that you're sure about taking this step.

sammyjo2983

Thank you for all your posts... yes, i'm fine. Thank you for your concern. It's big mess, but yes i'm most certain that i'm wanting a divorce. So, it's state to state, and i should retain a lawyer? Just any divorce lawyer, or should it be and international law lawyer?? Someone told me that i could send him a certified letter in the mail, and post it in the newspaper that i'm wanting a divorce? Is that correct? I'm not familiar with any of these laws. I hope it's fairly quickly.. bc i'm wanting to start back at university this jan. and i can't do that without being 'married' for financial reasons. Thank you all again for your help. i appreciate it.

Samantha

Noorah101

Hi Samantha,

Although my marriage was international, I retained a divorce attorney I found in the yellow pages. A couple of visits to his office to draw up the papers, about $600 expense (the ex paid for it), and we were finished. Here in Arizona, it took about 3 months for the divorce to actually be final, but the process was very easy.

Just so you know, we had no children, and no joint assets. He did not contest the divorce.

Actually, I didn't care for the attorney's attitude towards foreigners, but he got the job done quickly and efficiently, just as he was paid to do.

Best Wishes,
Rene

Folinskyinla

Hi:

I don't know what an "international divorce" lawyer is. A divorce is a divorce is a divorce.

The procedures for a divorce vary from state to state. For example, Rene stated it took 3 months where she lived. In California, "divorce" was abolished in 1969 and replaced with "no fault" "dissolution of marriage" -- and it takes six months for it to be effective.

The problem may or may not be in "proof of servce." For example, I know that registered mail service of the summons and petition to Korea is just fine and dandy. But it will NOT work to P.R. China.

As I mentioned, "subject matter" jurisdiction is easy -- the "res" of your marriage is where YOU live and where HE lives. You don't have to worry about "in personam" jurisdiction if there are no issues of support or property division [that CAN be tricky]. However, he IS entitled to "notice" as a matter of due process.

BTW, other than the general legal education knowledge, the reason I know something about this is because I was the plaintiff some years back on an "interpleader" action on a large sum of money in my attorney trust account. Three of the five "defendants" were in the PR China. [I put "defendants" in quotes because I had to sue my own clients -- technically required, but bothersome to me].

The problem was this -- China had opted out of mail service under the Hague Convention. The Convention trumped California law and required service via the "Agent For Service" designated by the Chinese Gov't. -- their Ministry of Justice! However, MY duty of confidentialy of client secrets required that I NOT disclose my client's movements of funds to the Chinese Government.

So the law required that I interplead the funds, the law required that I inform the Chinese Government and the law required that I NOT inform the Chinese Government.

My lawyer finally worked it out by petitioning the court for an order of publication. Technically speaking, those will NOT be granted if you know where the defendant is -- and we knew. However, we asserted that the court's jurisdiction was "in rem" rather than "in personam" -- the "res" being the interpleaded funds on deposit with the court and that we lacked "constructive knowledge" of defendants whereabouts. Court allowed publication as legal service but required that I be a nice guy and send a "courtesy" notice by registered mail to cients in China.

Upshot -- no one made a claim on the money. It will escheat to the state of California in a few years and I have been discharged from any responsiblity for the money.

CaliforniaBride

Here's a link that might help:

http://www.divorcenet.com/states/ill..._and_procedure

Lot's of really useful info pertaining to Illinois divorce laws.

Hope things go well for you.