Divorce UK/Nigeria

Vicky_Jones

Hi, in Aug 2009 I married a Nigerian man in a registry office in North Cyprus where I was living. To cut a very long story short I haven't seen him since Sept 2009 and he's never met his son who was born in 2010 or ever paid a penny towards his care.

For mainly financial reasons I've never bothered to get divorced before but am keen to do so now. I get a text message from him about once a year and he seems to think we're already divorced but I've never seen any paperwork and I'm not sure a Nigerian divorce would be valid over here anyway?!

Does anyone know the easiest and cheapest way to get a divorce here? As it's been so long since I've seen him and we split up because he was unfaithful (have proof) could I claim abandonment or something similar? Not sure how it would work as I don't even have an address for him and he always texts from different mobile numbers.

Thanks in advance!

Sambella

Cheapest way to divorce is doing it yourself via wikivorce but that may not apply to international marriages. Someone else may be able to confirm that.

Have a look at this -

http://www.divorce.co.uk/divorce-advice/international-divorce

When divorcing from UK you don't need grounds or their permission if you've been separated more than 5 years.

TBagpuss

You can divorce him based on the fact that you have lived apart for over 5 years. Desertion is also a ground for divorce but is quite technical and I would strongly recommend that you go down the 5 years separation route instead.

You can get the forms from the court's website (https://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/HMCTS/GetForm.do?court_forms_id=1115)

The issue you will have is proving service of the petition on him. Normally, the court would post him the petition with an acknowledgment form, and he would have to fill in the acknowlegment form and send it back,.

You can ask the court to send you the papers to serve, and then forward them to him direct. There's no reason you can't tod thisby scanning and e-mailing them to him, if you don't have a postal address, what is importnat is that he fills in and sends back the acknowledgment.

If he doesn't, then you can apply for substituted service or for service to be dispensed with. Broadly speaking, you have to satisfy a court either that he has actual knowledge of the divorce and is choosing not to respond, or that you have taken all possible steps to find and serve him but without success. This can include dping things such as writing care of any friends or family of his, taking out adverts in local papers in his area etc so can be quite expensive and time consuming.

As you have a phone number for him, testing him to say you are divorcing him based on your separationand that he will need to sign papers to confirm that he knows this may help, as if he then responds you can print off the texts and show that he knows about the divorced. E-mails are even better. (even if he does not respond, if you tecxt to all the different numbers you've had for him this may help you if you need to apply to dispense with service, as it will help show you have taken steps to try to bring the proceedings to his attention)

If he has divorced you in Nigeria then this would be recognised in England if it is a valid divorce in Nigeria. Google suggests that the Nigerian process is similar to the process here - he would have had to go to court and normally you would have had to be sent the documents. If this is true, then he should be able to tell you the name of the court, and the reference number, and you would be able to write to request duplicates. But it seems unlikely.

You can start proceedings yourself but I would suggest that you see a solicitor, as they will be able to advise you about the application for substituted service or dispensing with service.

TBagpuss

meanwhile, make sure that you have made a will, and include a side letter setting out who you would want your child to live with and why,