Foreign Divorce

So apparently divorcing couples sometimes get fed up with the process of getting divorced locally and try to outsource. This tends to happen more in a state or county where there is some local impediment to an agreed divorce. For example, New York State does not have a no-fault divorce. So New York attorneys sometimes suggest a “Dominican Divorce” for couples who have agreed to divorce and for whom speed is important; that way they don’t have to be separated for as long, prove cruelty or abandonment, etc. Texas does have a no-fault divorce ground of “insupportability” and only makes you wait 60 days after filing to complete the divorce, so I don’t think the practice is as common here. But it happens. So what is Texas’ take on a foreign divorce? Well, if we’re just talking a “foreign” state’s divorce decree, Texas would absolutely recognize that (because of the Full Faith and Credit clause of the U.S. Constitution). But a foreign country’s divorce decree? Probably, but not definitely. The most helpful thing I found about this when doing client research is a Social Security Administration opinion about whether Texas would recognize a particular couple’s Haitian divorce as valid. Note that neither of the couple in question actually was properly domiciled in Haiti, one of them just flew down there for a quickie divorce. But both of them consented to the divorce, wife received property pursuant to it, and then nobody argued they were not divorced for over 10 years. So even though the SSA said Texas wouldn’t like that nobody was domiciled there, they said Texas wouldn’t let the wife argue the divorce was somehow invalid or void. Legal concepts: she would be stopped from collateral attack because of her consent to the Haitian divorce, because of her receipt of property under the divorce, and because of equitable principles (namely the benefits to her from divorce meant she had unclean hands); also the laches doctrine meant too much time had elapsed for her to then claim the divorce was invalid. This opinion wouldn’t be binding on a Texas court, but it would certainly be very persuasive, and it cites a lot of cases that would be either binding on or persuasive to Texas judges. Thinking about getting a foreign divorce? I wouldn’t recommend it. States don’t always like people getting around their rules (domicile, etc.) and sometimes invalidate them and nobody wants that uncertainty. Just get it done in your own county even if it costs a little more or takes a little longer. You are paying for the certainty. If you already had a foreign divorce a while ago, if nobody ever fought it, if you and your ex have already been acting like you are divorced, then Texas will probably respect your foreign divorce. If you need to, there are even procedures through which you can register and file your foreign divorce decree in Texas in order to file an enforcement in Texas, if you are owed property, support, etc. pursuant to that foreign divorce decree.