International Divorce Procedure under the Chinese Laws (III)

2020/3/26

Question: If a foreigner wants to apply for divorce in the Chinese court, will the evidence obtained abroad be recognized by the Chinese court?

The answer is following:

If the evidence provided by the plaintiff or the defendant to the Chinese court is/was formed abroad, such evidence shall be certified by the notary office of the local country and certified by the Chinese embassy or consulate in the local country. Only after fulfilling the certification procedures stipulated in the relevant treaty between China and the local country can the evidence be recognized by the Chinese court.

Question: If a foreigner wants to apply for divorce in a Chinese court, can he/she provide foreign materials to the Chinese court?

The answer is following:

All foreign language materials provided by the plaintiff or the defendant for the purpose of litigation shall be translated into Chinese. The Chinese court may not use the foreign materials without the Chinese translation.

Question: One of the spouses is Chinese and the other is a foreigner. They have divorced abroad. One applies to the Chinese court for recognition of the divorce judgment made by the foreign court. The other is going to sue for divorce in a Chinese court. How to deal with it?

The answer is following:

It depends on which court accepts first. After the Chinese court accepts the application for recognition of foreign court's divorce judgement, the other court will not accept the case in which the spouse wants to sue for divorce. After accepting the divorce lawsuit, the court will refuse the application that the plaintiff wants to change the request to apply for recognition of the divorce judgment, or the defendant want to apply for recognition of a divorce judgment.