My wife came to South Africa together with her husband to work under a contract. After several years they partied and effected a procedure of divorce in a local court. We married after some time. At present, my wife is trying to change her surname in the Russian passport, however the Russian consul says that her divorce and correspondingly her matrimonial state with me are illegal according to the Russian laws. Is it true? Both my wife and her former husband have both the Russian and the South African citizenships.
In accordance with the article 158 of the part 1 of the Family Code of the RF, marriages between the citizens of the Russian Federation effected outside the territory of the Russian Federation subject to legislation of a country at the territory of which they are effected are accepted as effectual in the Russian Federation if there are no circumstances directly provided by the law. Possibly, your documents on the divorce and the subsequent marriage have to get through an authorization procedure without which the documents are not entertained at the territory of the RF – you can send soft copies of your documents on divorce and effecting the new marriage to me by e-mail and basing on these documents I’ll be able to make a balanced analysis of the situation.
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Russian attorney at law Karina Duvall.
