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More often recently I have been handling divorce cases with children where one of the parents lives in Michigan, USA, and the other parent resides in another country.  This is a difficult situation for many reasons, primarily the distance makes it very difficult to craft a parenting-time or visitation schedule that approximates an equal amount of time for the children to spend with each parent.  In addition, from a divorce or litigation perspective, it creates uncertainty when it comes to deciding where to file or start the divorce case, Michigan or the other country.  This blog is written to very broadly address where a parent should file for divorce if they have children and one of the parents resides in another country.  If you have specific questions, please contact us to schedule a consultation by clicking on this link or calling (248) 608-4123.

Where Should I File For Divorce If The Other Parent Lives In A Different Country?

The first question to ask is where have the children resided for the last 180 days without regard to the children's nationality.  If the children have resided in Michigan, then the custody, parenting time and child support part of the divorce case should be filed in Michigan,  If the children have resided in another country for at least that amount of time, then most likely that will be the country that is considered the "home state" of the child and that is where you should file for custody etc.

Then the next question is whether the other parent ever lived in Michigan or the other country during the marriage.  Ideally, the other parent will have resided in the same country where the children are currently residing so that you may proceed with a full divorce that handles all of the issues and you will not have to file a separate case to handle divorce and property issues and another to handle the custody issues.  So for instance, if the family resided in Michigan with the children and then left to another country, jurisdiction will be proper to proceed with one consolidated divorce case here in Michigan.  However, if the other parent never resided in Michigan but the children now reside in Michigan, then you may have to file a case for custody in Michigan and also file a case in the other country to handle the divorce and property issues.

Regarding property, If all of the property and accounts are in the United States, then that property can be handled as part of any divorce that is filed in Michigan regardless of whether it is in another state.  The same is true for any property that is in another country that is a signatory to the Hague Convention.  This means you can obtain a divorce here in Michigan and then domesticate that divorce judgment in any other country that is a member of the Hague and vice versa.  So for instance, the family resided in Michigan, then the other spouse leaves to return to Canada and the other spouse also has a home and variety of accounts in Canada.  You can file for divorce in Michigan and handle all the aspects of custody, alimony and property division in Michigan.  If the family resided in Canada but the other spouse returned to the USA and has accounts here, the proper place to file for divorce and handle all of the issues is Canada.  However, if the family resided in Canada originally but now the children and one of the parents has resided in Michigan for more than 180 days, you may have to file for divorce and property division in Canada and the custody issues will have to handled in Michigan.  If the other country is not a member of the Hague convention, you will have to file cases in both countries.

This blog was written to very broadly address this complicated issue.  If you have questions about where to file for divorce or custody, please contact us by calling (248) 608-4123 or clicking this link to schedule a consultation.