Divorce is not an easy decision to make but at times you have to go through it for the greater good. If your spouse doesn’t live in the same country, divorce can be more difficult than it usually is and it should be handled by a top rated divorce lawyer.

Here are some steps you need to take in order to part ways with someone abroad.

Hire a legal advisor

Before anything else, you need to have a good legal advisor to advise you on certain things. See, you are not a legal expert and hence your knowledge about legalities is zilch. You need to be educated about the intricacies a divorce involves. Therefore, it is absolutely urgent to hire a legal advisor who can guide you through this.

Discuss with your attorney and decide things like alimony and child support beforehand

Alimony and child support are two very significant things that you need to stress on. See, before you talk to your spouse about these important things, you need to make your own mind. You need to be absolutely clear about what you want from this divorce. You need to give your opinion on these two things a very strong structure.

Go to a court clerk and fetch a form

Once you are done deliberating upon your decision regarding divorce, you need to go to a court clerk and get all the necessary information about the process. At the end of your meeting with them, they’re likely to hand over a detailed form to you which will require all the information the court needs to gather. You have to fill it out and submit it back in the least possible time.

Go to the family law facilitator and let him check if all the necessary information is given.

Since you are a layperson and not a legal expert, you might unintentionally miss out on something important, hence, you must visit the family law facilitator before turning the form in. Ask the facilitator to review all the information given by you, if he/she okays it, you are good to go!

Serve your spouse living abroad the documents through safe means

It is called ‘service of process’ in the legal jargon. You have to inform the other concerned party about what you are up to. Since you both are not in the same country, you will have to ship these papers to them. Be careful of the shipping service you choose, these papers can be lost too.

Wait for your spouse to sign the papers and send them back

Next thing in the process requires your spouse to comply with the decision you made, sign these papers, and send them back. Now your spouse has to waive the service that is agree to parting ways because of conflicts both could not resolve.

Convince your spouse to eliminate thoughts about contesting divorce

You can’t escape talking it out with your spouse whether you are on good terms with them or not. At times, the other person is not ready to accept the decision and hence they refuse to sign the papers. It can get all messy if you guys fight it out in the court, hence, you should make sure it is an uncontested divorce.

File divorce petition in the court

Once the divorce papers get looked at and signed by both the sides, you can submit them to the court and the court will take care of the rest. All you have to do is, sit back and retrospect where you went wrong and why your marriage couldn’t work.

Send one copy to your spouse living abroad

Once your divorce is finalized, do not forget to send an attested copy to your spouse living abroad. They should also be equipped with all the stuff that ensures you both are no more together. They need to be notified one last time.

If you don’t hear from your spouse, go for a ‘default divorce’

And, what if they don’t send back the divorce papers signed? You should wait for a reasonable period of time and try to get a word from them. If they still don’t show up, talk to your divorce lawyer about default divorce.

Conclusion

Divorcing someone living in a different country is a bit toilsome but if this is what you want, talk to your family attorney Fairfax VA and begin the process.