Up until 1 January 2014, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office provided a service whereby foreign marriage certificates could be deposited with the General Register Office in the UK; however this service has now been discontinued. Even if you are able to divorce in England therefore you do need to consider the other implications which might be involved in starting the divorce proceedings in England.Under Article 3 of Brussels II the English court has jurisdiction if, for the day that the petition is issued, any of the following applies:-Domicile and habitual residence are complex legal concepts and it is correct to say that many cases do depend entirely upon their own individual set of facts.English courts have jurisdiction to hear a divorce petition if either of the following applies:1. For country-specific information, consult our Travel Advice and Advisories, the destination country’s embassy or consulate in Canada or Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and two-spirit Canadians abroad.
However, this presumption can be overturned if there is enough evidence to show that the marriage is not legal. This would be a surprising U-turn by the government which was criticised for its tribunal fee structure which was introduced in 2013. England has been dubbed the “divorce capital of Europe” because of the wide ranging discretionary powers that the English court has and it is well known that the English courts can be very generous to wives who are pursuing financial claims.5. Under UK family law there are minimum conditions that have to be met, whether the marriage took place on UK territory or abroad. They will then translate the certificate, possibly subject to a fee. This is following section 14, Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 whereby the Court can overlook a flawed marriage process for the purposes of financial orders.
It is therefore important that the parties to the marriage take steps to store their original marriage certificate in a safe place, as it may not be a simple task to get a certified copy of the marriage certificate at a later date.It is also important to have evidence of the marriage, which will generally be the original marriage certificate. Although you must meet the legal requirements of the country in which you are marrying, you are still bound by the laws of …
In turn, there is then an increasing relevance in UK family law of marriages obtained abroad. If the marriage certificate is not in English, then a certified translation of the marriage certificate will need to be obtained.Given the multi-cultural society that we live in, it is becoming a regular occurrence to see clients who have married abroad.