Ukrainian Divorce

A marriage registered or dissolved in the USA is recognized in Ukraine. However, Divorce is not declared valid automatically: to declare it valid, an American court judgment of Divorce should be apostilled and translated into Russian, with the translation certified by notary, where after one should apply to the Ukrainian court which, upon considering the judgment of the American court, will pass a decision that will be effective in the territory of Ukraine.

Yes, you can rely on our assistance in issuing documents both in the USA and Ukraine. We can issue apostilles, provide translation certified by notary and represent your interests in the Ukrainian court if necessary.

An American court judgment of Divorce, as I stipulated in the reply to the first question, will be accepted in Ukraine. Any other court judgment can be admitted by the Ukrainian court and enforced in the territory of Ukraine if the said judgment of the American court complies with the Ukrainian standards of law and law enforcement practice. Since there is no legal assistance treaty between Ukraine and the USA, this issue is solved individually in each specific case.

Technically, yes your wife can return to Ukraine with the child. In order to obstruct her exit from the USA with the child, you need to contact an American lawyer who will assist you to prohibit her exit abroad judicially. If she succeeds in taking the child abroad before such prohibition is imposed, the issue of the child returning back shall be settled in court. In such case the American court judgment is most likely to be dismissed in Ukraine, the Ukrainian court will prefer to take a decision upon the child`s life independently.

Yes, legislation of Ukraine does not require renunciation of Ukrainian nationality as a prerequisite of acquiring any other nationality. Therefore, when nationality of the USA is granted, the nationality of Ukraine also remains. However, not admitting dual nationality, Ukraine will consider such citizen exclusively as citizen of Ukraine, and the American passport will have no legal effect in the territory of Ukraine.

As to the possibility of dividing the flat given to your wife by her parents, in order to answer this question we need to know if this flat was given under an agreement of gift, sale –purchase, in the course of privatization, or in the result of any other transaction. If the flat was transferred to your wife free of charge (a gift of parents, for instance) the flat shall not be subject to dividing. If the flat was purchase under an agreement of sale-purchase or in the course of another onerous transaction, in such case you may claim to have this flat divided. If you have a copy of the flat agreement, please email it to me. If you have no agreement and you do not know when and how the flat became property of our wife, in such case it would be expedient to apply to court with an action for division of property, and, within pre-trial preparation, launch a petition to the court for discovery of data on purchase of the flat. To continue such process could make sense only if the flat was purchased under an agreement of sale-purchase or in the result of another onerous transaction.

We will be glad to assist you in solving these problems.