If you are considering divorce or believe your spouse may seek a divorce in the near future, you may wonder whether there is anything you can do. Waiting for something to happen is never easy, particularly when it comes to emotional matters, and it is likely you are impatient to take action and get things moving.
When there is an international element to your marriage, getting divorced may be slightly more complicated. However, this means there are several things you may wish to do before you begin divorce proceedings to ensure you are prepared and in the best position to begin the process. In this article, we take you through some actions you may wish to take and some things to consider before you begin international divorce proceedings.
Analyse and interrogate the financial picture
We would recommend that clients do this even where their divorce will be straightforward, but it is particularly important for our international clients. You should take an inventory of all of your assets, as well as your assets overseas. If you instruct a solicitor at this early stage, they will be able to advise you as to whether these assets are likely to be regarded as ‘matrimonial property’ in the UK, and how they will be treated in divorce. This may give you an opportunity to protect certain assets.
Understand what you want out of the divorce
Whether it was your decision or not to bring your marriage to an end, you should consider what you would like the practical and financial outcome to be. Do you wish to maintain a good relationship with your partner for the sake of your children or a business you own together? Do you want to protect your wealth as much as possible? Do you want custody of your children or take them to live with you overseas? Understanding your goals and explaining them clearly to your lawyer can help them build a strategy and represent you in a way aligned with what you wish the outcome to be.
Find out where you can get divorced and analyse the law
You may need a solicitor to help you with this task, but it is important to understand how much of an impact where you choose to divorce could have on the outcome of the proceedings. If you and your spouse live in the UK but have substantial connections to other jurisdictions, you may have the option of getting divorced in the UK or in the other jurisdiction. Your solicitor will be able to advise you of any jurisdiction you may qualify for. The reasons you may wish to choose another jurisdiction include:
Child custody matters and the jurisdiction’s treatment of children in divorce matters
What is regarded as matrimonial property
The method of asset division used by the courts
Grounds for divorce – for example, England & Wales now has ‘no fault divorce’ which means no grounds for divorce are necessary.
Rules about spousal maintenance
Do you have a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement?
If you and your spouse have a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement, you may wish to look at the details of this with a solicitor. Such an agreement may also affect which jurisdiction you decide to get divorced in, as some jurisdictions may not recognise such agreements between spouses.
Consider the future of your family
We understand that untangling a relationship and in many cases, your interconnected lives can seem complicated and overwhelming. It is important to consider how you see your future and your family’s future to guide you through the divorce process. Think about where you want to live, do you want to sell the family home? Should your spouse live there with your children, or do you wish to remain there? How often do you want to see your children? Do you want them to live with you? What assets are you willing to part with if you need to? Do you need to make arrangements for any business you own together?
Contact IMD – International Family Law Solicitors
In this difficult time, our specialist multi-cultural team of international family solicitors can offer you expert advice and representation in all aspects of divorce, separation, finances and issues relating to children. For an initial consultation, call the International Family Solicitors at IMD Solicitors on 0330 107 0107 or request a call back.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Please note that the law may have changed since this article was published.
F v F - Acted for a German husband in a complex financial remedy matter. He decided to instruct IMD Solicitors after he had lost trust in his previously instructed solicitors and feared that he would not achieve a favourable outcome from the proceedings. The relevant assets were spread across the globe with some located in the UK (including a multi-million pound business), Gibraltar, Spain, Dubai, and Poland. The overall value of assets exceeded £24 million. The husband had been cut off from the matrimonial assets and excluded from control of the business that had been established by his family. The case involved the instruction of numerous experts, for business valuations, Capital Gains Tax reports, and opinions on the enforcement of orders in foreign jurisdictions, and dealing with several applications, including applications for orders to freeze assets, prevent the disposition of assets, for the joinder of parties, and to litigate conduct issues. The final result exceeded the client’s expectations.
L v L - We were instructed by a mother in a complex international children matter. She was required by orders of the UK courts to return the child to the UK from Poland. She had travelled with the child to Poland but, following unsuccessful application to extend her stay there in August 2017, she decided not to return to the UK because the child disclosed sexual abuse by a member of the paternal family and the father. In September 2018, the Polish court dismissed the father’s Hague Convention application for the child's return on the basis of Article 13(b), a decision which the father appealed. In March 2019, the father applied to the UK High Court for an order for the child’s return pursuant to the procedure set out in Article 11(6) – (8) of the Brussels IIA Regulation. Despite the father's unsuccessful Hague Convention application in Poland, the UK court ordered the return of the child. Article 11 does not allow the court of the returning country much discretion. After all of this, the mother instructed IMD Solicitors to apply to discharge the orders of the UK Court for the return of the child. Even in the face of the fact that most applications to discharge such return orders fail, we succeeded. We are currently awaiting a decision in the UK courts on a further application for the transfer of jurisdiction to the Polish courts where the mother resides with the child.
G v P - We represent a Spanish mother in respect of an urgent application for a Child Arrangements Order and Specific Issue Order in the UK seeking the relocation of the child to Spain. This was after the return of the child to the UK under Hague Convection proceedings which this mother lost in Spain.
She was asking for an order for the relocation of the child back to Spain and an urgent interim Child Arrangements Order to allow her to see the child pending the final outcome of the UK proceedings. IMD successfully argued that, regardless of the return of the child to the UK under the Hague Convention, the mother should be allowed unsupervised overnight contact with the child. We were delighted to be able to secure her contact with the child for Christmas and she said that it was the best Christmas gift she could have wished for. The outcome of the application for the relocation is pending.
S v V - We currently represent the father in Child Arrangements Order proceedings issued by the mother in relation to variation of a UK order made in the face of numerous other international proceedings. He is an Italian National who has been living in France for the last 20 years and the mother is a Lithuanian national. The child is now 11 years old and proceedings concerning the child have been ongoing in various jurisdictions for the majority of the child`s life. Contested divorce proceedings including child arrangements took place in Monaco. The French Court and authorities were also involved, and various proceedings had been ongoing between parties since 2013 in France and Monaco.
The parties’ divorce was pronounced in Monaco. Thereafter, in December 2020, the mother submitted an application to relocate to England with the child, and the relocation took place in June 2021. Upon relocation, the she lodged a child arrangement order application, seeking to register a judgment made in Monaco and to vary the same in respect of the contact arrangements between the father and the child. The father seeks for the child’s return to Monaco.
Due to the parties’ mutual allegations and the associated international elements, various authorities and courts that have been involved in the case, the local authority has become involved with the family and a guardian has been instructed to represent the child in the UK proceedings. At present, these proceedings in England are ongoing and the outcome of the professional reports regarding the family are awaited.
P v P - We have acted for the Respondent Husband in relation to the financial remedy proceedings in the UK. The parties had various assets in the UK and Romania consisting mainly of the portfolio of properties but conduct issues were raised by the Wife due to a business of the Husband over which she had lost control and her allegations of dissipation of assets. The value of assets excluding the business were in a region of £3 million.
K v K - We act in financial remedy proceedings for a wife who is a Polish national. The matter's complexity mainly comes from a dispute between the parties around land in Poland. Its value was initially in dispute but was then assessed by a joint expert to be in the region of half a million pounds. The total assets in this case are estimated to be worth over £1 million. The land in Poland is a subject to contract with a third party and is being leased as a photovoltaic (solar) farm. The division of the land to achieve an equal share of the assets is complicated due to the contract in place and plans for the future use of the land. Currently the parties are awaiting a final hearing but efforts are being made to reach a settlement with the aid of alternative dispute resolution and in order to save the parties money and avoid further delays.
R v O - We acted pro bono and worked together with a law firm in Poland to ensure that the Costa Rican Mother regains access to her child. The Mother's only child was abducted from the UK in 2014. The Mother was successful with the abduction case and the UK family courts ordered the return of the child. The orders were recognised in Poland but unfortunately due to various issues with the Mother's immigration status and court's delays in Poland, the orders were never enforced. The Mother was facing removal from the UK and prospects of never seeing her child again. We have corresponded with various courts in Poland dealing with international abduction matters and we decided that an application for contact should be issued rather than any proceedings for further enforcement of the orders, as the Mother had not seen the child for around 7 years. At the same we secured the Mother's stay in the UK making successful outside of immigration rules application to extend her stay. We now receive regular photos from the Mother with her daughter, as face to face contact is taking place. We helped to secure an order of the Polish courts for the Mother to see the child regularly in person, whilst when she instructed us she was facing a prospect of never seeing her child again and being deported to Costa Rica.
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