I need advice, please wendy: Hello. I am Russian and my husband is American. We got married in United States, but we are living now in the Middle East where he works. My husband was abusive to me so I took my child ( from first marriage) and went home to Russia. I want to divorce my husband. I hope very much that he would be agreed to start divorce process and then send me all the paperwork. But I am afraid he would get mad at me and who knows, maybe refuse to divorce or try to make this process as long as he can. I do not have US visa so I cannot go there and start the process myself. I know that actually I can divorce him here in Russia because I am Russian citizen and I have a right to be divorced according to Russian laws, even if our marriage took place in United States. But no one knows if this divorce I supposedly get in Russia will be valid for other countries, including US.
My second question. In case my husband refuses to divorce if I can hire a lawyer in US to represent me in my divorce case without my presence there ? I just try to find any options to get a legal divorce. Also I want to mention that I need nothing from my husband and we have no children from this marriage.
I will be grateful to hear any advice or opinion. Thank you.
Re:I need advice, please sadaboutdad: having someone apper for you in court like a lawer is called "in absectia" (check my spelling it is pretty bad), my advice is to start contating russian lawers and see what they can tell you about international laws, (do be afraid to ask them ANY legal questions, that is what lawers are for) And you may want to e-mail an american one or just start to do online research about it.
Re:I need advice, please ambergem: Well I can't speak for the US...but I used to have a summer student job handing out marriage licenses at our city hall (in Canada). I don't think that just because you were married in the US you are bound to divorce a person in the country of marriage. But as suggested above, you should look into it.
When someone came in with foreign divorce papers we would accept them provided they offered a translation of the document and had had it certified by a notary or, in some cases, signed by a judge.
Interestingly, this would even go for Somalian divorces in which all they had to do to divorce was draft up a handwritten document why both parties wanted the marriage dissolved and that was it!
Lisa
Re:I need advice, please summerparis: Contact the American Consulate or Embassy in Russia.
