Can we divorce in Germany if we married abroad?

The place of the wedding is not decisive

A marriage concluded in Las Vegas, Istanbul or Nairobi does not tie you to the courts there. For the jurisdiction of German family courts what counts is solely the spouses’ habitual residence, governed by the Brussels IIb Regulation Regulation (EU) 2019/1111; the place where the marriage was concluded stays out of it.

That is the answer to the question most people arrive with, and it turns out shorter than they expect. No trip back to the country of the wedding, no consent from the authorities there, no second set of proceedings in that country.

If you live in Frankfurt, the divorce takes place in Frankfurt.

Two conditions and a limit that rarely bites

Two conditions have to coincide for a German court to be able to dissolve your marriage concluded abroad. First, the marriage has to be recognized: a union validly concluded under the law of the place of the ceremony continues to apply in Germany, and nobody demands a subsequent registration Art. 11, 13 EGBGB. Second, the international jurisdiction of a German court has to be established: almost always through habitual residence, though not every residence counts the same.

A third hurdle rarely stands in the way but deserves to be named clearly. Where the conclusion of the marriage offends fundamental values of German law, for instance in the case of a marriage involving a minor or a plural marriage, its recognition can fall away in whole or in part Art. 6 EGBGB.

Is a residence in Germany enough?

Not in every constellation.

Where the respondent is habitually resident in Germany, that often carries jurisdiction directly. Where you base the application solely on your own residence, minimum periods of residence apply: one year, or six months where you hold German nationality. What matters is the specific position: who lives where, since when, with which nationality.

Once international jurisdiction is established, only then is it clarified which Familiengericht (family court) deals with the application. That local jurisdiction is arranged by § 122 FamFG: primarily by the residence of shared minor children, otherwise by that of the spouses.

This second step is often overlooked and still decides whether you travel to Frankfurt or across the country. Where the children live with one parent in Hamburg, Hamburg hears the case, even if both spouses wanted to run the divorce in Frankfurt.

Where the marriage was never registered here

The most common sentence in the first conversation is: “Our marriage is not recorded anywhere in Germany.” That is usually true and changes nothing.

A marriage validly concluded abroad applies here without having to be entered in a German register. There is no deadline, no duty to report it and no disadvantage from its never having been registered. The Familiengericht (family court) examines the marriage on the basis of the foreign certificate. A German entry plays no part in it.

Voluntary subsequent registration at the register office nevertheless has practical value. Afterwards a German marriage certificate exists, and with it the question of translation and apostille falls away for every later authority. Anyone facing several matters over time, for instance a change of name, a pension and an inheritance, saves themselves the same procurement three times.

For the divorce itself it is no advantage. Anyone who only wants to be divorced does not need it.

The marriage that is not recognized here

The exception in Art. 6 EGBGB sounds theoretical but has two cases of practical weight.

The marriage of a minor. Where one spouse was married very young, the marriage can be void or voidable under German law. The rules here have been changed several times over the years and depend on the age at the time of the marriage and on the date.

The plural marriage. A second marriage validly concluded in the state of origin is not treated as a marriage here. That does not mean it has no consequences: for maintenance and for the children it may well have them.

In both cases the question is what there is to dissolve at all. That belongs settled before the application, because a Scheidungsantrag (divorce petition) about a marriage that is none here goes nowhere.

Which papers does the court need?

In practice, most of it hangs on the marriage certificate. Depending on the state of origin, an apostille under the Hague Convention takes the place of the older legalization; for many civil-status documents from the EU both fall away. On top of that comes, almost always, a certified translation into German.

What the Familiengericht (family court) requires in the individual case can be sorted out in advance. Our divorce intake form lists the necessary papers and takes you through them.

Procurement is the item that really delays proceedings. An apostille from a state with a functioning administration is a matter of weeks. Where that is not the case, or where the certificate has to be reissued because the original was lost, months pass. Both can run alongside the Trennungsjahr (year of separation) if started early enough, and both block the application if not.

A second point that is regularly overlooked: translations should come from a person sworn in Germany. A translation prepared abroad is often impeccable in substance and is nevertheless refused here.

Which court and which law: two questions

Jurisdiction and applicable law fall apart in an international case. That a Frankfurt court decides does not mean that German divorce law applies; which legal system applies is determined by the Rome III Regulation Regulation (EU) 1259/2010, and it can refer to the law of another state. Precisely that separation opens up room for manoeuvre, and occasionally pitfalls; in detail on that, which law applies to the divorce?.

Where several countries come into question as the place of the divorce, it is worth looking additionally at which country has jurisdiction?; where there are several passports, at divorce with dual nationality.

What the place of the wedding does influence

For jurisdiction it plays no part. For two other questions it does.

Matrimonial property attaches to the first joint habitual residence after the marriage. The place of the wedding itself does not count for that, but it often stands at the start of the same chain. Anyone who married in Istanbul and lived there for the first years is subject to Turkish matrimonial property law to this day, even where both have long lived in Frankfurt. On that, foreign assets in the equalization of accrued gains.

And the question of evidence. Where the wedding took place decides how hard the certificate is to obtain, and with it the timetable. That is no question of law, and in the proceedings it is more noticeable than some that are.