1. Both parties are of Chinese nationals and they registered for marriage in China, but one party cannot return to deal with the divorce procedures from abroad.
Pursuant to China’s relevant laws and regulations, in case one party cannot return for the divorce registration, even if both parties have come to agreements, the civil affairs bureau shall not agree to go through the concerning registration procedures but through the divorce proceedings.
1) Solutions for both parties having come to agreements.
① The party living or staying abroad can commission friends or the lawyer for the divorce proceedings. The letter of authorization in the fixed format and the comment for divorce should be filled in by the party involved. (Generally, Consulates in China shall provide relevant formatted forms; if not, you can log on our website (http://www.arolaw.com) or write to us for them. The letter of authorization and the comment for divorce need to be approved by the Consulate in China and the cost for approval is different and not quite expensive in different Consulates in China. For example, Consulate General of Japan in Shanghai charges 3000 yen while the Consulate of U.S.A in Shanghai charges $20.
② The party living in China brings the divorce case to the local court where the registered permanent residence locates. It is better for the party involved to mention that both parties have basically reached agreements for divorce by negotiation, for the purpose to open the court session earlier and rapidly.
③ In the trial, the plaintiff and the agent, with the respondent’s agent arrives at the letter of mediation/the judgment upon issues concerning divorce. Usually the document enters into effect on that day and the party can receive the document within one week.
2) Solutions for both parties not having come to agreements.
① The party living in China brings the divorce case to the People’s court with the marriage certificate, the plaintiff’s ID card, the respondent’s address abroad (passport) and other relevant evidence.
② After the register, the judge shall generally query the plaintiff whether both parties have reached agreements concerning issues of divorce; if not or the respondent disappears, the court shall serve the court summons for the lawsuit through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs step by step, so two consequences maybe occur:
⑴  The respondent pleas to the indictment after receiving the summons and the court shall sit in judgment on the divorce case at a certain day.
⑵  Within 3 months after serving the summons, the respondent gives no reply. Under such circumstance, generally the court may announce for another 7 months. After that, the court shall adopt the default judgment.
Please note that: generally, the court shall only make the judgment upon personal relations by means of default judgment except property division.
2. One party is of Chinese national while the other party is of foreign national and both parties register for marriage inside Mainland China.
1) Solutions for both parties having come to agreements.
① The party of foreign national can return from abroad and both parties go through the registration for divorce at the matrimonial registry concerning foreign marriage where both parties registered for marriage.
② The party of foreign national cannot return from abroad, the party of Chinese national brings the divorce case to the local people’s court where the registered permanent residence locates, the procedures of which are the same as above.
2) Solutions for both parties not having come to agreements.
① The party of Chinese national presents the divorce case and submits the relevant evidence to the court, such as the marriage certificate, the notarial document, the plaintiff’s ID card and the respondent’s identity documents (passport, the application form filled in at the registration for marriage, etc)
② After the register, the court shall serve the court summons to the respondent and sit in judgment on the divorce case at a certain day, the procedures of which are the same as above.
When signing to acknowledge the court’s judgment, the agent should take special notice of the spelling of the name of the foreign party in the legal instruments. Once I dealt with a Chinese divorce case with a German. The name of the German was MARKRO, but the court clerk misspelt for MARRKO, which caused a lot of trouble in amending the judgment later.
3. One party is of Chinese national while the other party is of foreign national and both parties register for marriage and divorce outside Mainland China.
1) First of all, the registered marriage certificate issued abroad should be notarized in that country and be approved by the Consulate for that country in China, and then make register for the divorce case in China. Even if both parties are in China or the party of foreign national is in his or her country, the notarization and approval are hard to carry out if one party refuses to cooperate. However, the foreign lawyer commissioned for the issues concerning notarization and approval charges in U.S, dollars by hour, especially in U.S.A, U.K and Canada, greatly higher than the lawyer in China. For example, we once contact a law firm in U.S.A for the procedures of notarization, the law firm charges $2000 as calculated by 4 hours. Of course, in some countries, such as Ireland, the charge may be several ten euros, even cheaper than an EMS. Besides, as our law firm has the branch in Japan, we charge not more than 20,000 yen for the procedure fees of notarization and approval, which is relatively lower.
2) Second, the registered marriage certificates of HK, Taiwan and Macao should also go through the above-mentioned procedures for notarization and approval. Take HK as an example, the registered marriage certificate should be verified by the HK notarial lawyer commissioned by Ministry of Justice with the notarial documents sealed by wax. The documents that can be adopted lawfully in the court of Mainland China should be stamped with the service company in HK China commissioned for delivery. We maintain partnership with the notary public assigned by Ministry of Justice from many law firms in HK, so the total expenses may not exceed 3000 HK dollars, including expenses for inquiring and stamping for delivery.
3) The registered marriage certificate notarized and approved, with other materials for action should be submitted for the court register. In case both parties have come to agreements, the divorce case maybe closes within a month; otherwise, the term for lawsuit maybe lasts for a year and a half or so.
4. Both parties are of foreign nationals and they register for marriage abroad, but now one party resides in Mainland of China.
With the increase of foreigners living in China, divorce cases between two foreign nationals in China are by no means a rare thing, especially in Shanghai. As different local courts may have different understanding or solutions in dealing with such kind of divorce cases. Our website concerning matrimonial lawsuits (http://www.arolaw.com) has conducted such cases in Minhang, Putuo and Huhui, but we have to say that different courts have different ideas concerning such cases if the mediation agreement cannot be reached.
In conclusion, a professional lawyer for matrimonial lawsuits should take the following issues into account:
1) Selecting the appropriate local court based on the client’s interests. Prosecution at home or abroad should be decided based on the lawyer’s proficiency on laws in foreign countries.
2) Going through the procedures of notarization and approval well. The partnership abroad may save time and energy of the client in dealing with the case.
3) Communicating well in foreign languages. As the party of foreign nationals may come from different countries, a professional matrimonial lawyer team really needs alliances from talents of foreign languages. For instance, we are dealing with a divorce case of a Japanese to a British, so the legal instruments should be prepared in three versions, i.e.: Chinese, Japanese and English.
4) Knowing about different living habits and ideologies from different countries in the world. As the parties maybe come from different countries in the world, it is necessary to take notice of their specific customs or ideologies.
Abundant experience and proficient capacity for the matrimonial cases need long-term accumulation and conclusion from practice. So, we present our experience to the large-scale netizens for reference, making progress towards agency and judgment on Chinese divorce with a foreign national or both.

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