Married in Canada - how to get divorced

LegacyUser

Hello,

I married in Canada 6 years ago and am now looking to get divorced. Do I have to go through the Canadian system or Irish system. Any advice would be great.

Wurly

As far as I am aware, either of the spouses have to be domiciled in the Republic of Ireland on the date of the commencement of Divorce proceedings, or either of the spouses have lived in the Republic of Ireland for a year before commencing Divorce proceedings.

If the above is not the case, then you need to go through the Canadian system.

You are going to need legal advice on this matter anyway. So get yourself set up with a solicitor and go through all of your queries with them.

Best of luck.

King of Kings

it seemed weird but i got married in south africa and when we were separating the government depart (can't rem which ) said that the state would not recognise a south african divorce here...pity cos that would have taken 5 mins as opposed to the 4 years separation here.

I think you'll have to do it here - or at least that's what they told me.

CDfm

Trí wrote: »

As far as I am aware, either of the spouses have to be domiciled in the Republic of Ireland on the date of the commencement of Divorce proceedings, or either of the spouses have lived in the Republic of Ireland for a year before commencing Divorce proceedings.

If the above is not the case, then you need to go through the Canadian system.

You are going to need legal advice on this matter anyway. So get yourself set up with a solicitor and go through all of your queries with them.

Best of luck.

I think habitually resident here is better term as domicile means something else and here it means habitually resident( with the intention of staying there) in a country at the time of the Divorce . So you can obtain an Irish divorce even if you were married elsewhere provided that you normally live in Ireland.

Ireland recognises foreign divorces where either party is resident in the Country where the divorce is granted. If a couple who both live in Ireland Divorce in a foreign country then Ireland will not recognise the Divorce -if one of them lives in the country (say Canada) and the Divorce is recognised as legal in that Canada for the purposes of remarrying then yes.

So the short answer is yes a Canadian Divorce will be recognised provided one of the parties is living there when the Divorce is granted. If neither party to the divorce is living there then the divorce will not be recognised in Ireland.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

LegacyUser

Hi Sorry,

I should have elaborated - we are both Irish, eloped to Canada (Thought it was romantic !!) - but both living in Ireland - We are both Irish.

Thanks

CDfm

Unregistered wrote: »

Hi Sorry,

I should have elaborated - we are both Irish, eloped to Canada (Thought it was romantic !!) - but both living in Ireland - We are both Irish.

Thanks

So its an Irish divorce then and provided you have lived apart for 4 years either of you can apply and get a divorce in a few months.

If there are no kids or financial issues it can be quite quick and painless and you can do it yourself or some divorce services charge under 1000 euro.

i wonder if you could get the marriage annuled if it was something like a drunken mistake - an annulment means cancelled as if it never existed . Annulments are rare but are sometimes given for marriages of short duration where there was no intentioin to marry - subsequent behaviour like living together would not wash.

How long were you together etc.

LegacyUser

We were together two years.

It will be messy, we have 2 kids, a house, land etc.

BraziliaNZ

weird, i got married in canada 8 years ago this July. Was enquiring with the ex recently what the story was with the divorce, i mean i dont really care about the status of it, but she says she's waiting on a new marriage cert (as she lost the old one) and then she can get it underway. I'm sure you could just ignore it if you're both irish, they'd never know over here, that was my plan until she told me she was going to get the divorce, but she's canadian so she needs it more than me.

Unregistered

Unregistered wrote: »

We were together two years.

It will be messy, we have 2 kids, a house, land etc.

I would assume that divorces generally are messy.

CDfm

Unregistered wrote: »

We were together two years.

It will be messy, we have 2 kids, a house, land etc.

Family Law is messy which is why solicitors shouldnt be left near it as they make it more adversorial.

Mediation is better if thats the plan and check out this site

http://www.fsa.ie/familymediation/index.html

(I know one woman who recently nearly had to beat her solicitor over the head with a big stick to stick to the mediation route)

As a guy you might want to speak to other guys who have gone thru it and you have some mens groups like www.amen.ie tel 046 9023718 and www.usfi.ie being the moderate ones and they may put you in touch with guys that were in similar situations to yours and discuss what you need and who would be a good solicitor.

There is no such thing as a clean break divorce in Ireland so you will need a solicitor especially with child issues.

If you were buying a house you would get a survey done so if I were you I would make it my business to prepare for this.