It’s a sad truth that sometimes a love that you thought would last forever ends, and sometimes it ends badly. Last year over 60,000 divorces took place in Australia, so the people in this broken heart’s club have plenty of company.
If you feel that you are in a marriage that just isn’t working out you may have to face the facts and file for a divorce. No one wants to live a lie, so really you are doing your estranged spouse a favour by setting them free. You need to think about it carefully of course, and see if there is any way that the issues dividing you can be resolved, and the love rekindled, but if that is off the table then you just need to ring up the divorce lawyers in Sydney who can help you get through this difficult and sometimes painful process so that you, and your ex, can move on with your lives.
In Australia, the divorce process is relatively simple. In order to be granted a divorce you must first meet the requirements before applying, which are listed below:
- Citizenship – To be granted a divorce in Australia it is required that at least one of the spouses has Australian citizenship, or was born in Australia, or has lawfully lived in Australia for at least 12 months.
- Validity – The marriage’s legal validity must be proven, usually by referring to a copy of the marriage certificate.
- Separation – The couple needs to have gone through a period of separation, the minimum time being 12 months and one day. During this separation period, they may live apart in different domiciles, or in the shared home without acting as a couple, which is called a same-roof separation.
- Irretrievable – The marriage’s dissolution requires that it be irretrievable, a breakdown beyond all chance of reconciliation. In general, the 12 month period of separation is used as evidence that this is the case
- Under Two Years – If the marriage has only lasted two years or less the couple are required to provide a certificate from a marriage counsellor stating that attempts were made to reconcile, but were unsuccessful. In the case of domestic violence that requirement will be waived.
If you meet these requirements you can expect to be granted a divorce. You will now have to fill out a divorce application form which can either be submitted jointly with your soon-to-be ex-spouse, which is referred to as filing a joint application, or on your own, which is called filing a sole application.
Divorce in Australia is considered to be “no-fault”, meaning that there is no need to prove that your spouse was responsible for any kind of wrongdoing that caused the termination of the marriage. The “no-fault” divorce system was put into law as a means to make the divorce process more simple and less hostile.
The Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department has more information on divorce on their website. We hope this helps you better understand how divorce works in Australia so you can enter the process prepared for what will come.
