International Marriage And Divorce In MD
Family Law 2-202 prohibits any marriage in Maryland being void. Maryland courts will recognize a marriage as valid, if it is valid, if it has been or has been entered into and does not violate the public policy of the State of Maryland. Maryland’s state policy requires Maryland courts to recognize free and valid marriages to aliens.
If the state of residence recognizes the marriage, we assume that it applies its state law to legally change the name in connection with the marriage for foreign marriages as well. This is because a U.S. state may not recognize a wedding celebrated in a foreign county, and not all cultures and countries view a wedding as an event that allows for a legal name change. Some states, while recognizing Dominican divorces, may have special criteria or procedures specific to that state.
It is recommended that you contact an attorney in your state of residence to determine if the courts in your state will recognize Dominican divorces as valid. While a US court will most likely accept that a foreign divorce decision annulled your “married” status, foreign divorce decisions may not be effective in all aspects of your divorce. An overseas divorce order may not be effective for the division of property, such as retirement benefits, located in the United States.
Assets such as real estate or other assets that are located abroad are treated by the Court in the same way as other property at issue in the event of a divorce. The exception is that property acquired before marriage, property received as a gift, inherited from a third party, or excluded from a valid agreement, is not considered the property of the spouses.
The court can make orders for child custody, visitation, spouse, and alimony, but the court cannot determine or divide jointly acquired property in a limited divorce. Whether a local state court can issue divorce orders will also depend on a variety of other factors, including whether you are asking for child custody or property division orders. For example, if your children are U.S. citizens residing in the U.S. and you are filing for divorce while residing abroad, it is unlikely that a foreign court will make a child custody order because they will not have jurisdiction (power) to do so child custody orders for U.S. citizens residing in the United States.
Divorce, property division, child custody, alimony, and other laws in the U.S. and the U.S. are different from other countries, making international divorce even more difficult. In some countries, the law may state that you are still married or that the decision regarding your divorce is void.
The state courts of the country may divorce couples married abroad, even if the reason for the divorce occurred abroad, but only if one of the spouses resides (or at least permanently resides) in the state of the court at the time of filing the action for divorce began. If the annulment or divorce was ordered by a court in another state or country, a Maryland court may decide on marital property if one of the parties was resident in Maryland at the time the other proceeding began, and if the other court does not have jurisdiction or exercise personal liability jurisdiction over the party residing in Maryland, or jurisdiction over the property in question.
Maryland courts may consider a spouse’s fault in determining the fair distribution of marital property during a divorce. When couples get divorced in Maryland, one of the disputes that the court has the power to settle in a divorce is property title disputes.
Even if you are seeking an absolute divorce, a Maryland court can grant a limited divorce. There is no need to prove adultery to obtain a final divorce; you can get a no-fault divorce in Maryland, such as by mutual consent or after a year of separation.
Maryland requires that either party, regardless of where they live, must obtain a marriage license from the county court clerk’s office in the county where the marriage took place. As we notified you earlier in our January 30, 2006 memo discussing various state requirements for legal name changes, Maryland law recognizes a ceremonial marriage as the basis for a legal name change upon presentation of a marriage license.
For the reasons stated above, we believe that Maryland law recognizes a Jamaican marriage as valid; Maryland law recognizes a Jamaican marriage as grounds for a legal name change; and the Jamaican Marriage Registry is an acceptable document of sufficient probative value to allow Social Security to change the name of Sarah Teresa Louise S on her Social Security card to Sarah Teresa P~. As per her request for legal advice, it is to be determined whether Maryland law would recognize the Jamaican marriage between Mrs S. and Thomas Stephen P. as valid.
Before filing for a divorce in the Dominican Republic, US citizens should be aware of the possible legal restrictions of their state of residence in the US on divorces obtained abroad. Most states recognize divorce decisions made by foreign countries if the foreign country guarantees that certain procedural requirements (such as proper information of the parties) are met. Couples with underage children even those who reached an agreement on everything, were required to live separately for a year before filing for divorce, or filing for divorce instead on one of Maryland’s more complex grounds of guilt. Subsequently, the Court of Appeal decided not to apply the Pakistani law, according to which, if nothing is said in the prenuptial agreement, neither party has a right to the property of the other during the divorce. The Court of Appeal ruled that it did not recognize the divorce of Marylanders as a result of ‘Talaq’. The court argued that Comity meant that Maryland enforced the substantive law of the place where the marriage took place, subject to marriage to a foreigner.