How To Get Divorced In China?

Today we shall discuss on whether it is possible for two foreigners to get divorced in China and how a divorce is done between two foreigners, or a foreigner and a Chinese national.

Two foreigners can get divorced in China, but the conditions are harsh. Either the two foreigners have to be married in China before the law changed in 2017, or if both parties were not married in China, you will need to prove that the defendant’s habitual residence is in China, and that he or she has lived continuously in the same place for over one year. It is possible but quite difficult to get the court to accept the case if both parties did not get married in China, unless both parties agree to go to court.

Normally, there are two ways of getting a divorce, which are by mutual agreement, or by court. If one party wants a divorce while the other party disagrees, then it will only be solved in court. For mutual agreement, both parties just have to go to the place where they got married, and file for a divorce. After 30 days, they may go back to the same registry, and officially get divorced. The law calls this 30 days a cooling down period, as a couple might just decide to get divorced out of heat of argument, then regret their decision later on, and want to get married again. Therefore, this new law was implemented 2 years ago to stop couples from making the wrong decisions and regretting it. This method of divorce applies to foreigners who got married in China before 2017, and marriages between Chinese citizens and foreigners.

A divorce by court is the only way if one party does not want a divorce. Divorce lawsuits generally take around 1 year from start to finish. For a divorce to be granted, either one of the 5 conditions below have to be met, which are cohabiting with someone else or marrying someone else, domestic violence, torture and abandoning family members, having bad habits like gambling and drug addiction and refusing to change such habits, living separately for 2 years, or complete incompatibility.

The easiest way to go for is living separately for 2 years, as the other ones are hard to prove. Incompatibility is extremely difficult to define, and judges tend to rule on a divorce not granted in the first go if you do not have any of the 4 reasons mentioned above. You can come back to court again 6 months later, and this time they will usually grant a divorce. As the Chinese saying goes, we would rather destroy 10 temples than to dismantle a marriage. Divorces are extremely punishing especially for the child, and it is Chinese culture to try and stop a family from separation.