Requirements for getting a divorce?

I don’t think Taiwan has any idea about human rights. You cant even divorce your husband UNLESS you have physical proof that he beats you up or you have video footage of him cheating on you. The other nite we were talking about this and the locals were shocked to find that overseas you can get divorced because you fall out of love.

Especially women’s rights…this place has a ‘she deserved it’ kind of attitude.

I don’t believe that for a moment. In fact, I know for a fact that its nonsense.

I’m very glad that it’s nonsense…the having to have evidence of physical abuse or adultery.

Far as I know, you can just leave your partner, gather proof (rent book, bills, etc.) that you’ve been living apart for a certain period (maybe 2 years?) and you can get a divorce whether the other person agrees to it or not.

From the AIT website:

[quote]Divorce

Divorce in Taiwan normally does not require court action. Divorce by mutual consent is made in writing, witnessed by two people, and registered with the Household Registration Bureau. Unless otherwise agreed, the father gets custody of the children.

To apply to a Taiwan court for a non-consensual divorce, the party seeking the divorce must prove the existence of a legally valid reason (bigamy, infidelity, ill treatment, desertion, etc.). U.S. citizens considering divorce in Taiwan are urged to consult with a local attorney.
[/quote]

Right. Desertion. That’s the one.

I wouldn’t agree with AIT’s statement cited in MuchaMan’s post above. While consensual divorce is allowable in Taiwan, unless I am mistaken, divorce here normally does require a court’s intervention… because most Taiwanese will not consent to a divorce. I could be wrong and I’d be interested in seeing reliable statistics on the matter… but, in my experience, most divorces end up in court because one of the parties will not consent to a divorce.

Not likely. If you desert your spouse, you cannot claim desertion as your ground for requesting a statutory divorce. If your spouse deserts you, you can claim desertion as your ground for a statutory divorce… but, it would be very helpful (probably necessary even though the law does not require) for you to have sent letters to your spouse every six months requesting him/her to return to the marital home. Such letters should be registered with the relevant district court at the time they are sent.

It is difficult to obtain a statutory divorce because the standards of evidentiary proof (of a ground for divorce, such as adultery, desertion, abuse, etc…) are unreasonably (IMO) high. Many spouses will refuse, out of spite, to grant a consensual divorce.

Oh no! Does this mean I’ll have to apologize to Battery 9? God, I’ll never live it down!

Yeah… it does…

[quote=“Tigerman”]Not likely. If you desert your spouse, you cannot claim desertion as your ground for requesting a statutory divorce. If your spouse deserts you, you can claim desertion as your ground for a statutory divorce… but, it would be very helpful (probably necessary even though the law does not require) for you to have sent letters to your spouse every six months requesting him/her to return to the marital home. Such letters should be registered with the relevant district court at the time they are sent.

It is difficult to obtain a statutory divorce because the standards of evidentiary proof (of a ground for divorce, such as adultery, desertion, abuse, etc…) are unreasonably (IMO) high. Many spouses will refuse, out of spite, to grant a consensual divorce.[/quote]

I would agree with TM’s comments here and opinion. It is also worth remembering unless the law has changed recently that to claim divorce based on desertion then the time period is four years and during that time the spouse cannot have stayed with you in the house alone, otherwise the clock gets reset. It will require the use of the courts to finalise the divorce. As TM quite rightly points out the standards of evidentiary proof are unreasonably high.

Sending them by postal evidentiary mail should suffice, no? Those have to be in Chinese, with no corrections on them, and you fill them out on a particular form you can get from the PO for a few NT. Sending it is under NT$100 if I remember correctly, and they should be acceptable to a judge.

Sending them by postal evidentiary mail should suffice, no? Those have to be in Chinese, with no corrections on them, and you fill them out on a particular form you can get from the PO for a few NT. Sending it is under NT$100 if I remember correctly, and they should be acceptable to a judge.[/quote]

Not necessarily. If a spouse just deserts their partner without any information of where they are going etc, then where does the spouse send the letter to. They have no address even assuming their partner is still in Taiwan.

Having been through this whilst trying to help a friend of the wifes, i can asure you it is not either as easy or as simple as it could or even should be, hence my comment when agreeing to TM’s stance over standards of evidentiary proof.

But we are straying off topic.

Yes… that is probably necessary… but, in any case, the court needs to have a copy of the letter/s on file. The court needs to know that the deserted spouse wanted the deserting spouse to return, and the deserting spouse needs to ignore the letters so that the fact of desertion is established.

And Traveller is correct… its very difficult to send a letter to a spouse when you do not know the whereabouts of the spouse. Normally, the court should accept sending the letter to the deserting spouse’s parents’ address… but, the parents can claim no knowledge of the spouse’s whereabouts.

It can be very difficult.

TM, strange you say that, but when we were involved in this, the court actually mentioned that they would prefer to see correspondence back from the deserting spouse, as not only did it prove that they had received the original letter assuming comments were made in response to items brought up in the letter, but if it showed that the deserting spouse obviously had no intention of returning it actually helped the court in deciding the case.

You’re right. I’m posting hastily between tasks at work… certainly a written rejection is better than no response (ignoring)… as the Taiwan courts, as with most Taiwan authorities, are reluctant to interpret anything… they all want absolute proof of everything, regardless of how ridiculously difficult and unreasonable such a standard may be. None of them want to take a chance on being over-ruled by a superior or higher court, as though such is some terrible loss of face rather than simply a difference in opinion among human beings.

Also, as I’m sure you are aware, there isn’t a whole lot of consistency from judge to judge, or official to official… And judges and officials can be ambiguous in their demands… the judge “preferred”… he/she should have simply stated what he/she wanted to see… then the attorneys could have asked where such a requirement is found in the relevant law.

Oh well…

Battery 9, I apologize for feeding you false information. I’ve washed out my mouth with carbolic soap and am now flagellating myself vigorously.