Foreigners married abroad - divorcing in Taiwan?

So, me and my wife have separated, and we’re both from a European country, which one should be pretty much irrelevant. In any case, our marriage was set up back home, and then legalized in Taiwan through the proper channels, and now we’re living apart from eachother and everything is amicably split - so far, so good.

I suppose my question is this: can we go through a divorce here, that is separate from the one back home? I know the usual process is having everything legalized in the home country and then filed here, but with uncontested divorces seemingly easy here, would that be a possibility? Or is my only option to wait for the papers and hope my wife doesn’t land herself massive debt that I’ll be held responsible for?

It’s definitely possible to do, but some countries might have restrictions so the country actually is relevant.

Your first stop should be the local 戶政事務所 (Household Registration Office). Depending on which city you live in and the amount of experience they have, they will tell you to go away or that it’s impossible. If you’re lucky you’ll find someone who’s seen similar cases before or is actually aware of the laws and that person will fill you in with the details that you need to provide. Be polite but be firm and don’t be dissuaded until the staff have been made to pull out the law books and show you where it says you cannot get a divorce there.

The requirements are:

  1. Original marriage certificate authenticated by the TECO office in your home country (depending on your country you might need additional legalization steps here - the UK for example, tends to have an extra layer of “authentication” or “fleecing” as I call it).
  2. Chinese translation of your authenticated certificate, notarized by a District Court here.
  3. A filled in copy of the standard divorce agreement: 兩願離婚數
  4. Go with the above plus your passports and ARCs to any Household Registration Office in Taiwan and you can sign the papers there. You need two witnesses. I’ve heard you can get the divorce agreement signed by witnesses in advance but it sounds really silly to me. Divorce will cost you a few hundred NT.

They’ll make three copies of your divorce certificate: one for each of you and one for the office. You must explicitly request the English language versions if you need them (extra cost - but still cheap)- and if your country practices some form of household registration system then you will need them. You might also need them authenticating in some way for your home country to accept them. Good luck and post more here when you’ve succeeded (or not).

One step missing, the divorce agreement should be downloaded first…or bought in a stationary store.
You then need two witnesses to sign. They can be foreigners if they have an ARC.

Each copy of the divorce “certificate” costs like 100nt.

Make sure you have all the paperwork and witnesses done BEFORE you go to household registration. You both probably need to have an ARC to do this.

The soon to be ex Mrs has to come with you…but the witnesses dont, they just have to sign and chop/fingerprint

I knew to Americans who got divorced this way here.

OH

and when you go…they will first register your marriage in Taiwan (your overseas marriage) and then divorce you.

Some places dont know they can do this. My buddy had a heck of a time finding a household registration that would do it. Get a Taiwanese friend to call ahead and explain the situation. It probably has to be in the same district your address is. If you live in the boonies…prepare for a fight. If you live where there are lots of foreigners…should be easy.

Sounds like it won’t be too tricky then. Sweden is the country, I might as well mention that. Don’t expect anyone to know how Sweden works though. :slight_smile:

The point is - it’s easier to get two separate divorces than legalizing the Swedish divorce (and blending in the Swedish Taipei Mission and all those hideously expensive Swedish government branches). Judging from your fine response, it should be doable, will have to check. Staying in Banqiao, and there’s a registration office literally two blocks away.

Our marriage is registered here already, and that’s sort of the problem for me. I have no real rush with the divorce in Sweden, as the wifester is staying here and plans to do so somehow even without my papers (being a dependent on my ARC). I just don’t want to end up in some legal crossfire if she fucks up somewhere.

EDIT: Anybody have a link to that divorce agreement form?

Your divorce here will likely be recognized in Sweden, and even going through a few hoops that might be a lot cheaper than doing it again over there. Unless Sweden has some rule that requires you to inform them of your divorce within a certain time limit.

I don’t seem to be able to attach documents here, so PM me your email address and I’ll forward you the divorce agreement in PDF form.

For the record, you can do it at any HHRO. We don’t have huji here so it doesn’t matter where we do it. But yeah, much easier when you’re not in the middle of nowhere. Banqiao should be fine.

Seems like it’s worth a try. Still, it’s not hard (or particularly expensive) to get one done in Sweden either, so double paperwork is an option. Avoid legalization of Swedish papers and the associated waiting time is what I’m after.

PM’d you.

do you know someone who can help me?im working here in taiwan and i want to get a divorce here…can you help me?

You may need to describe what kind of help you need.

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i want to know the procedures of getting divorce in taiwan…what is the first step to do,where will i file divorce??coz i really dont know what will i do…

can somEbody help me?

Try these:

Nothing in this forum should be taken as legal advice. When in doubt, talk to a lawyer.

If your spouse is a Taiwanese, check here.

How do ROC citizens and foreigners file for divorce?
https://english.gov.taipei/News_Content.aspx?n=09F161EADBD9B97F&s=F93F3A49067CF13B

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Hi,

So I’ve followed all of this and they’ve told me that because my wife and I are from the UK we can’t get divorced in Taiwan.

They’re insisting that we need to go through a court, because that’s UK law.

Anyone got any advice on this?

I’m tempted to say you should start by going to another HHRO, but I honestly don’t know anymore. I left Taiwan several years ago and haven’t had much dealings with this in the years since I posted on this thread. You need legal advice. Sorry.