Any US person got divorced to their US-based wife while living here?

[Silencer]

That is the situation I find myself in. Yes, I 'could' travel back to the US for a few months and do the paperwork there but I want to see if there is an option for me to do this while living abroad. I got mixed results in internet searches and US "online divorce services" say they can only help me if I am US based (or my wife accepts to be the petitioner). Maybe I can work with a Thai attorney, familiar with US law, and go from there but in that case I need to find such a person. So my question is has anyone done this, and if so, what was the process you used. 

[Pedrogaz]

Get your available cash out of the US; if you are giving her money to support herself, stop giving her any money immediately and let her divorce you.

If you have an income stream from the US like a pension or SS don't bother getting divorced, it will get garnished at source; and maintain the status quo.

[FarangRimPing]

I did, but I made an appearance in my state's Superior Court for the judge to approve the divorce and final settlement. I did everything else from Thailand. It went very smoothly as my ex and I agreed to a 'Collaborative Divorce', which requires specially trained attorneys. I don't know if I had to be present at the court hearing, but I was in the US anyway for a holiday visit and so the hearing was scheduled for when I was there.

[1FinickyOne]

7 minutes ago, FarangRimPing said:

'Collaborative Divorce', which requires specially trained attorneys.

maybe ask one of the attorneys... wouldn't they know? 

 

Hopefully you can print, sign and fed -ex the docs back to USA... 

[jasonsamui55]

Technically speaking you can get divorced in any country where you are resident and do it in the local courts where resident. I used to live in HK and everyone is an expat there and there are all sorts of expats filing for divorce there with no connection to HK other than one of both parties was then resident there. They are all expat marriages - like maybe an American who may have married a Swiss in Barbados while they were living in Toronto and now one lives in Mexico and the other is concurrently resident in HK and Dubai but spends all their time as a tourist in Thailand. Where to get divorced? The general rules is that either party can file for divorce where that party is officially resident and do so in the local court and then that local court can decide to try to apply either their local laws or the laws where most appropriate. It’s called forum shopping. I’m a citizen of 3 countries, and so was my ex, of 2 different countries, we together lived in 6 other countries over the years, never having anything resembling a “home country,” and we got married on holiday in a totally unrelated country, and my ex did exactly that, and my lawyers did the same.

[Chi Flyer]

I did this about a year ago. It was a gruesome process, partially because the courts were partially closed due to Covid. 

 

I was still a legal resident of the US. Any process would be very much dependent on which state you are a resident of and which county you are filing the divorce petition from. In my case my residence and the marriage only involved IL. A problem with IL is that it was initially one of the 17 states that did not accept online notary processes. They relaxed that during the pandemic, but specified that all parties must be physically within IL. I got around that with a VPN connection. This may not be hard lined legal, but the judge was willing to not look to closely at the minutia for an uncontested divorce. We actually parted on relatively friendly terms given divorce norms.

 

Good luck. You need a US attorney local to your divorce petition site IMO. Needless to say the additional rigamarole increased my legal costs. Also, mine probably went somewhat better because I started the process with the attorney while I was in the US, but the petition was not filed until I was in Thailand.

 

 

[fredwiggy]

Call Sebastian at Isaan lawyers. He's from Canada and surely knows US laws on divorce and what you can do from here.