How to file for divorce without a marriage certificate in Russia?

Regardless of which government body (court or registry office) the spouses are going to divorce, they will inevitably need 4 key documents to begin the divorce procedure:

1. Application or claim document.
2. Marriage certificate.
3. Duty document.
4. Passport.

Of course, this is not a complete list, since the judge or the registry office may require additional papers, for example, children's documents, official property papers and alimony agreement.

The four key documents listed above must be presented to the person authorized to decide the divorce in the original. However, sometimes spouses who decide to separate do not have the original certificate. Therefore it is very important to know:

• Do you need original marriage certificates for divorce?
• Will it be enough to bring a copy of the original document?
• How to issue a duplicate if necessary?

This will be discussed in detail below, but first you need to study the main options for divorce, lists of official papers needed for each case, rules governing the procedure for interaction with government officials, and the deadlines that participants in the divorce procedure must adhere to.

Possible options for divorce

Through the registry office

Spouses can officially divorce without involving the court in resolving family problems if:

• During the negotiations they came to a common denominator, confirmed their readiness to separate and not take measures for reconciliation. It is very important that they do not have small children under 18 years of age at the time the application is submitted to the civil registry office.
• There are no unresolved property disputes. It is advisable to confirm the validity of this fact with documentation, for example, in an agreement.
• One spouse decided to refuse to continue the marriage relationship due to the fact that: the location of the other spouse is unknown.
• the other spouse was declared incapable of responsibility for his own actions.
• or declared dead.
• or sent to a colony for at least three years. It should be taken into account that the legislation in this situation allows the spouse to demand a severance of marital ties, including if there is a young child in the family.

A divorce carried out by mutual agreement usually does not take more than thirty days. Please note that original documents cannot be confiscated from applicants, so keep a close eye on your documents and do not allow government officials to take them. In this case, the registry office requires the following documents:

1. An application drawn up in accordance with the eighth form.
2. Marriage registration certificate.
3. Identity card of interested parties (passport).
4. Document for the duty with confirmation of its payment.

The registry office leaves the application in its department in charge of divorce cases for thirty days. At the appointed hour, the former spouses are required to come to an authorized employee, who will give them divorce certificates. After this, the divorce procedure is considered completed.

In case of unilateral divorce, the person intending to divorce must submit the following documents:

• An application drawn up in accordance with the ninth form.
• Applicant's identity card (passport).
• Marriage registration certificate.
• Document for the duty with confirmation of its payment.
• A court act or an extract from it, which officially confirms that the location of the second spouse is unknown, or he suffers from a mental illness and is incompetent, or is declared dead.
• A certificate issued upon the death of a participant in a marriage.
• A sentence to imprison a spouse in a colony for violating the rules prescribed in the Criminal Code.

The registry office leaves the application in its department in charge of divorce cases for thirty days. At the appointed hour, the former spouses are required to come to the registry office, whose authorized employee gives them divorce certificates. After this, the divorce procedure is considered completed.

In order to save effort, it is extremely important to consider the following little things when preparing for divorce:

1. If you do not want to meet with your spouse or due to another valid reason, you can prepare a power of attorney for a third party who will handle the paperwork instead of the principal.
2. In order not to waste precious hours at the registry office, it is better to prepare electronic copies of the application and papers or photograph them, and then send them through a special website that provides government services in electronic form.

Thus, persons wishing to draw up divorce papers cannot refuse to transfer the certificate of marital union to the state civil registry office. Therefore, the question of whether it is possible to get a divorce without marriage certificates should be answered with a categorical “no”.

Judicially

The reasons for dissolving marital ties through the court are as follows:

• Different points of view regarding where a child should live after parents separate.
• Disputes concerning the distribution of assets acquired by common efforts in marriage.
• Objections to divorce that are explicitly expressed by one of the parties to the marriage.
• The presence of a married couple with a small child who has not reached the age of majority.

As a rule, the number of papers submitted to the judge is slightly larger than the registry office usually requires. In addition, it must be taken into account that if there are disputes about a child or the value of property claims above fifty thousand rubles, the marital relationship of the father and mother must be dissolved in the courtroom of the district judge. In other cases, divorce proceedings are the prerogative of the magistrate.

When a married couple has a young child, the plaintiff seeking a divorce brings the following papers to the court office:

1. Claim document. You can see a sample of it here.
2. Plaintiff's identity card (passport).
3. Marriage certificate.
4. Certificate of birth of children under eighteen years of age.
5. Alimony agreement. The document is optional, since the court can independently assign alimony allowance and calculate its amount.
6. Official paper provided by the employer or the Federal Tax Service, for example, a declaration or certificate 2-NDFL. It allows you to find out the amount of the defendant’s “white” earnings.
7. An agreement to determine the place of residence of children and to determine the parent who will perform duties of supervision and care for them.
8. Document for the duty with confirmation of its payment.

If the spouse does not want to divorce, the court must familiarize itself with the following documents before making a decision:

• A statement initiating the commencement of proceedings on a claim. A sample of it can be found here. The application must contain the plaintiff’s explanation of the reasons that motivated him for the divorce, and the defendant’s refusal to acknowledge his demand.
• Plaintiff's identity card (passport).
• Marriage certificate.
• Any evidence confirming the defendant’s commission of immoral acts, offenses, the difference in life values ​​between the plaintiff and the defendant, the defendant’s reluctance to support his family or exposure to bad habits. This evidence includes witness statements, photographs, videos, certificates from the employment center or medical institutions, protocols of government authorities on offenses.
• Document for the duty with confirmation of its payment.

Divorces accompanied by the division of common property and considered in court require the applicant to provide the following documents:

1. A statement initiating the commencement of proceedings on a claim. A sample of it can be found here. It is very important to write concise and clear descriptions of the things that the spouses are going to share. This is necessary so that the judge can correctly identify them.
2. Plaintiff's identity card (passport).
3. Marriage certificate.
4. Inventory of shared property.
5. Documents of title to it, for example, certificates, purchase agreements.
6. Documents from the appraiser.
7. A marriage contract, if the spouses entered into one.
8. Agreement regarding division of assets.
9. Document for the duty with confirmation of its payment.

The court ends the divorce case by announcing a decision on it. Without filing an appeal to a higher court, it is subject to application within one month from the date of issuance.

Next, the office workers forward the court act to the state civil registry office and, at the same time, to the former spouses, who, after receiving the court decision, are required to appear at the divorce department of the civil registry office and take with them:

1. An application drawn up in accordance with the tenth form.
2. Applicant's identity card.
3. Marriage certificate (original).
4. Act of the court.
5. Duty document with confirmation of payment.

The waiting time for a divorce certificate is usually about thirty days.

Copy of marriage certificate

Some citizens do not want to restore lost documents, believing that existing copies will be suitable for government agencies. In practice, photocopies of documents may not be enough.

For example, for a divorce in the registry office it is strictly necessary to provide the original marriage certificate, as stated in Art. 33 Federal Law No. 143.

When filing a claim in court, copies of documents are usually attached to it. At the same time, clauses 6 and 7 of Art. 67 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation confirms that during the judicial consideration of the case, the judge can verify whether the information from the original document has been changed when it is copied. To ensure that the original matches the copy, the judge may request inspection of it. If the original is not presented, the court may consider the circumstances specified in the claim not proven.

As we can see, it is advisable to obtain a duplicate so as not to delay the divorce process and not create unnecessary problems for yourself.

Note: Having a notarized copy will not help in court. Indeed, a notarized copy of a marriage certificate can be used as a confirmation document of a registered marriage. But, since the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation clearly requires the presentation of the original, acceptance of a notarized copy may be refused.

Basic list of documents for divorce

Since it is impossible to get a divorce without a marriage certificate, in addition to it, the mandatory list of papers required for this purpose includes:

1. Application for a claim for the court or application for the registry office.
2. Information from the passport about the owner, his place of residence, as well as information from the section on marital status.
3. A check for the state fee for the court or for the registry office, depending on where the spouses sent the original documents.

Is divorce possible without a certificate?

Different circumstances arise in life. Spouses may lose or accidentally damage a document confirming their marriage. Sometimes a spouse who disagrees with the divorce simply hides documents from his other half. And here a logical question arises: is it possible to file a divorce without a certificate? Formally no.

However, there is a way out of this situation. The initiating spouse must receive a duplicate. For this purpose, it is necessary to contact the authority that registered the marriage and submit an application for the issuance of a second copy of the document.

There is no clear prohibition on filing a divorce without the applicant providing a certificate; however, there are certain rules that the applicant must follow.

Thus, depending on the accompanying conditions, divorce without presenting a document on registration of the union is possible.

Procedure in the absence of a marriage certificate

According to the law, when concluding a marital union, the newlyweds are given only 1 copy of the marriage certificate. Civil registry office employees or court office workers during a divorce will require spouses to bring the original certificate. However, it may be lost by them or hidden by a spouse who does not agree to lose his other half. It’s time to fall into a stupor, not understanding how to file for divorce in the absence of a marriage certificate.

The Civil Registry Office Law allows individuals in respect of whom civil status registrations were carried out to demand the production of duplicates for an appropriate fee. What should you do to get it? According to the following action algorithms presented in the table.

How to file for divorce without a marriage certificate

We already said above that there are two options. Let's describe each of them in more detail.

Divorce without a marriage certificate through court

When drawing up a statement of claim, it is necessary to indicate that the document was either lost or hidden by the partner. As a rule, it does not take much time for the court to resolve this problem. A request is sent from the office to the appropriate registry office and the matter is quickly resolved.

The plaintiff can himself contact the civil registration department to obtain a certificate confirming that the fact of marriage registration actually took place. This document is attached to the claim filed with the court, which he is quite happy with.

This is one of the ways to file an application for divorce when there is no marriage certificate.

Divorce through the registry office in the absence of a marriage certificate

In order for a marital relationship to be terminated through the registry office, the participation of two spouses is mandatory. They provide passports and write a joint statement asking for divorce.

The absence of a certificate cannot become an obstacle to the termination of marital relations if a situation arises in which the right to unilateral divorce is granted:

• When one of the spouses is officially declared incompetent.
• If there is a document confirmed by law enforcement agencies declaring the person missing.
• Provided that one of the spouses has been sentenced to imprisonment for a term of more than three years.

Situations in which divorce will be refused

A man is strictly forbidden to divorce when he has a pregnant wife, one year has not passed since the birth of a son or daughter, or when one year has not passed since the birth of a dead son or daughter.

A categorical prohibition means that government bodies that have the right to terminate a marriage are legally empowered to refuse the husband a divorce and not to begin divorce proceedings.

It should be noted that this ban does not apply to the female half of the family.

State duty amount

The performance of legal actions by government officials working in the divorce area requires payment from the spouses in accordance with the rates defined in tax legislation. The amount of the mandatory fee is indicated in the table.

Fees for property disputes are assessed according to different principles. Their value depends on the value of the plaintiff’s claims. The formula for calculating the duty can be found in the table below.

Dissolution of the union through the registry office

Divorce in the registry office is carried out by mutual consent of the husband and wife in the absence of common minor children. Moreover, in exceptional cases, the law allows the divorce procedure to be carried out without the consent and presence of one of the spouses.

These grounds include the following:

• recognition of the spouse as a drunkard;
• deprivation of a spouse's legal capacity;
• pronouncement of a guilty verdict against the spouse with the imposition of punishment in the form of l/s for a period of more than 3 years.

In all of the above cases, a divorce requires an application from one of the spouses accompanied by a court decision or verdict.

Note! According to Part 3 of Art. 34 and part 4 art. 33 Federal Law No. 143, if it is impossible to provide a certificate of registration of a marriage union, this document may not be provided. Civil registry offices have the right to dissolve a union without a certificate, provided that the spouses (the sole initiator) registered the marriage in the civil registry office where the divorce application was filed.

Arbitrage practice

The case was considered by the magistrate of the Perovsky judicial district of Moscow at court site No. 293 in October 2010.

The wife filed a claim document in which she asked:

1. Break off marital relations with your husband.
2. Arrange for alimony for a minor child equal to 25% of the husband’s earnings.

The plaintiff indicated that the parties to the proceeding had no other disagreements, for example, property disputes, or regarding the upbringing of their daughter. At the same time, she did not allow the possibility of continuing the marriage relationship with her husband and was against reconciliation.

The defendant did not object to his wife’s claims and completely agreed with her demands.

Having examined the evidence presented by the parties, the court decided to fully satisfy the wife’s claims, namely:

• End the marital relationship.
• Assign alimony maintenance for the common daughter and oblige the ex-husband to monthly transfer 25% of his earnings in favor of the daughter.
• Oblige the defendant to pay a fee of 100 rubles.

Regulatory framework

Reasons for missing a Marriage Certificate

Spouses receive a certificate upon registration of a family union. It confirms the validity of the completed act of concluding a marriage union. Spouses are issued one common registration document. If they treat it carelessly and do not worry about its safety, then it may disappear.

Certificate may be missing for various reasons:

• his spouses lost him;
• the document was destroyed by mistake or, for example, in a fire, or it was damaged;
• he may be held back by a spouse who does not want a divorce. When the initiative for divorce comes from one partner, the second can hinder the divorce process in every possible way, for example, by hiding the original document.

Expert commentary

Kamensky Yuri

Lawyer

In the absence of a document confirming the legality of the family, a divorce can still be filed. To obtain a divorce, you will need to obtain a duplicate document as photocopies without the original document cannot be accepted.