Divorce from a foreigner

It can be difficult for two people to find mutual understanding in a family, even when they profess the same faith and are citizens of the same state.
It is even more difficult for a man and a woman to build a family when they are from different countries. Divorce is always difficult, entails certain consequences, and has difficulties in the procedure itself. Divorce of a marriage with a foreigner is complicated by certain features that may arise in connection with the laws of the foreign state whose citizenship the second spouse has. If a man and woman got married on the territory of a foreign country, then the spouses can divorce in the same country.
Such a divorce will have the same legal consequences in Russia. Guided by the provisions of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, spouses can apply to the registry office for divorce if they do not have a property dispute and they do not have minor children together.
If the spouses or one of the spouses lives in another country, then he has the right to apply to the consulate or representative office of the Russian Federation with a corresponding application for divorce, if there is appropriate permission from the civil registry office of the Russian Federation.
When applying to the consulate, you will need to pay a consular fee instead of the usual state fee and pay the costs of providing public services.
The standard consular fee is 280 US dollars. According to the administrative regulations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation for citizens of the Russian Federation, the consular fee is included in the associated costs. Documents on divorce will be issued by the consulate within thirty days after the application.
If spouses have common children under the age of eighteen, there is a property dispute between them, or the second spouse refuses to divorce, then to resolve the dispute you will have to go to court.
In the registry office under such conditions it will not be possible to get a divorce. Issues of divorce fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Russian Federation.
If the place of residence of both spouses is the territory of the Russian Federation, then according to the general rules, an application for divorce must be submitted to the plaintiff at the place of residence of the defendant. When spouses live in the territory of a foreign state, this does not exclude the right of one of them to apply to the court of the Russian Federation for divorce.
If the foreign spouse does not live in Russia, then the second spouse can apply to the court district that serves the territory in which the plaintiff lives, that is, the consideration of the divorce case will take place at the plaintiff’s place of residence.
But the court may ask for consent to divorce from a foreign spouse, certified by a notary. A foreigner should remember that after receiving a divorce certificate in the Russian Federation, he needs to legalize this decision on the territory of the state of his citizenship.