{"id":1412,"date":"2019-11-15T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonneil.com\/blog\/?p=1412"},"modified":"2026-06-05T11:21:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T09:21:01","slug":"divorce-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonneil.com\/blog\/en\/divorce-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting a divorce in Spain as an expat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Getting a di\u00advorce in\nSpain needn\u2019t be difficult so long as both parties can agree on the\nall-important matters of child custody and the division of assets. The conditions\nunder which a non-Spanish national can obtain a divorce in Spain are that\neither they or their spouse is resident in Spain; their spouse is a Spanish\nnational; or the chil\u00addren live in Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spouses may di\u00advorce\nby mu\u00adtual agree\u00adment when they have been mar\u00adried for at least three full\nmonths. It is not ne\u00adces\u00adsary for the couple to have been leg\u00adally sep\u00adar\u00adated\nfor any period of time be\u00adfore fil\u00ading for di\u00advorce. In cer\u00adtain cases a party\nmay pe\u00adti\u00adtion for a di\u00advorce without wait\u00ading for the three-month period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Where younger chil\u00addren\nare con\u00adcerned, cus\u00adtody is usually awar\u00added to the mother. However, joint\ncustody is now becoming a more common outcome of divorce proceedings in Spain. Span\u00adish\ncourts gen\u00ader\u00adally award al\u00adi\u00admony only where one of the spouses is clearly dis\u00adad\u00advant\u00adaged\neco\u00adnom\u00adic\u00adally as a res\u00adult of the di\u00advorce.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Types of divorce&nbsp;in Spain<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Uncontested divorce<\/strong>: The application for divorce by mutual\nconsent may be made before the &#8220;Letrado de la Administraci\u00f3n de Justice&#8221;\n(judicial secretary), notary public or the Court of First Instance.&nbsp;As\npart of the application the parties must present a con\u00adtractual agree\u00adment\naddressing the fol\u00adlow\u00ading:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Co\u00adhab\u00adit\u00ada\u00adtion and\ncus\u00adtody ar\u00adrange\u00adments for any chil\u00addren, in\u00adclud\u00ading vis\u00adit\u00ada\u00adtion rights of\nthe non-cus\u00adtodial par\u00adent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Any com\u00adpens\u00ada\u00adtion\nal\u00adlow\u00adance or al\u00adi\u00admony, if any, to be paid by one spouse to other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Use of the fam\u00adily\ndwell\u00ading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The man\u00adner, if any,\nin which the spouses con\u00adtinue to con\u00adtrib\u00adute to fam\u00adily ex\u00adpenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An un\u00adcon\u00adtested di\u00advorce\ncan be con\u00adcluded quite quickly. However, in cases where one of the spouses\ndoes not want to divorce or if both want to but they do not agree on the\noutcome, the divorce will be contentious.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Contested divorce<\/strong>: In this case the di\u00advorce pe\u00adti\u00adtion\nis filed by only one of the spouses. It may re\u00adquire ne\u00adgo\u00adti\u00adation between law\u00adyers\nand call on third party evid\u00adence. A con\u00adtested di\u00advorce can take any\u00adwhere from a few months to more than\na year to complete. Both parties will have to at\u00adtend a Court hear\u00ading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whichever way the\nspouses choose to seek a divorce (judicial or notary), they must be assisted by\na practicing lawyer. And, in the case of legal proceedings, they will have to\nbe represented by an attorney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition to\ndivorce, Spanish law also acknowledges a separation procedure. Under a\nseparation judgement the marriage is not definitively dissolved. This means\nthat the spouses can live together again in a marriage at any time. In a separation, all subsequent\nmatters, such as childcare and use of the family dwelling must be presented. If\nno such agreement is presented, the court will independently determine the\nmeasures it deems appropriate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Please note these are\nonly general guidelines and not definitive statements of the law. All questions\nabout the law\u2019s applications to individual cases should be directed to a\nSpanish lawyer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getting a di\u00advorce in Spain needn\u2019t be difficult so long as both parties can agree on the all-important matters of child custody and the division of assets. The conditions under which a non-Spanish national can obtain a divorce in Spain are that either they or their spouse is resident in Spain; their spouse is a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1383,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[110,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formalities-paperwork","category-get-to-know-spain"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Getting a divorce in Spain as an expat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Getting a di\u00advorce in Spain needn\u2019t be difficult so long as both parties can agree on the all-important matters of child custody and the division of assets.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sonneil.com\/blog\/en\/divorce-spain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Getting a divorce in Spain as an expat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Getting a di\u00advorce in Spain needn\u2019t be difficult so long as both parties can agree on the all-important matters of child custody and the division of assets.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sonneil.com\/blog\/en\/divorce-spain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sonneil Homes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SonneilHomes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-15T09:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-05T09:21:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sonneil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/07.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sonneil\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sonneilhomes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sonneilhomes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sonneil\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.sonneil.com\\\/blog\\\/en\\\/divorce-spain\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.sonneil.com\\\/blog\\\/en\\\/divorce-spain\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sonneil\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.sonneil.com\\\/blog\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4f2459627d38234c09e354e49a31711d\"},\"headline\":\"Getting a divorce in Spain as an expat\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-15T09:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-05T09:21:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.sonneil.com\\\/blog\\\/en\\\/divorce-spain\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":596,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.sonneil.com\\\/blog\\\/en\\\/divorce-spain\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.sonneil.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/07.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Formalities &amp; 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