Divorcing in England

Hi and thanks for the question.

The most important thing to know about divorce in the UK is that it is readily available to all, but you need to have a reason; being fed up with each other is not a reason.  The UK Gov website offers the 4 main requirements to proceed to a divorce:

    you’ve been married for over a year
    your relationship has permanently broken down
    your marriage is legally recognised in the UK (including same-sex marriage)
    the UK is your permanent home, or the permanent home of your husband or wife

You can read more on their website; this link will take you there.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

Strange but my siblings are either divorced or just never got married.

For a divorce, just find yourself a divorce lawyer. You can both use the same if the divorce is totally amicable. If not amicable then get your own lawyer.

If the divorce is not amicable, get all the evidence you can find, get lots of letters from friends supporting you and slagging off your ex-spouse to be, anything you can think off to discredit your husband/wife and present it to your lawyer.

If you have kids, try to work out something amicable with your partner. For husbands, be careful, a wife can request to have the kids and the judge will usually grant her custody and then she gets the house and you may end up living under the bridge in a cardboard box or in a bedsit, paying most of your salary to support your wife and paying for your kids. So try to work something out.

The law is generally on the side of the wife/mother unless you can prove that she has abused the children, and even then that is no guarantee that you will get custody of the kids.

Initially, alimony requested by the wife's lawyer might be unfair. In this situation you can appeal the decision and in some cases turn it around in your favour. You just need to provide proof of income etc.

Divorce can be messy so always try to make it amicable. Messy also means expensive as lawyers fees are not cheap.

If the kids are to live with your ex-spouse, keep in contact with them, see them frequently, set up bank accounts for them if they are young, bring them on holidays, contact with them via Whatsapp, Line, Skype, Facebook etc.