Cote Divoire - Apply for a Divorce

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Procedure

Married couples can apply for a divorce in Cote Divoire if the marriage has broken down irretrievably. Couples must have been separated for at least 12 months and one of the parties:

• You must start divorce proceedings in Ivory Coast where you where married.

• must regard Cote Divoire as their home and intend to live in Cote Divoire indefinitely; or be an Ivorian citizen by birth, descent or by grant of Ivorian citizenship; or live in Cote Divoire and have done so for 12 months immediately before filing for divorce.

In this procedure, you will look at the steps involved when you are applying for a divorce in Cote Divoire

Step 1 - Separating In Cote Divoire, you must have been separated for at least 12 months prior to applying for your divorce.

If you and your spouse have separated but remained living under the same roof for any period (or are currently living under the one roof), or if you have been married for less than two years, you should first seek legal advice as there are additional requirements that you must meet.

Step 2 - Preparing your application

You can apply for the divorce by yourself or you can make the Application jointly with your former spouse.

Either way, you will need to complete an Application for Divorce form which is fairly straight forward. When you file your Application, you will be charged a Court filing fee. The Application for Divorce can be Submitted with all other requirements.

Step 3 - Your hearing

You must attend your divorce hearing where:

• you made the Application for divorce yourself; and/or
• where you and your former spouse have children who are under 18 years of age.

If you do not have children under 18, or if you and your former spouse made a joint Application for divorce, you can both choose not to attend your divorce hearing.

• Divorce hearings are generally quite brief. During your hearing, the Registrar may ask you questions about the information in your Application or about the service of the Application, if relevant.
• Where young children are involved, the Registrar may ask about arrangements for the children, such as which parent they live with, how often they spend time with the other parent and how they are financially supported.

• Your divorce Lawyer will also attend various court sessions and hearings appointed by the court with you. The lawyer will also help you with the scenarios which can occur in the court and advice you how to answer all the acquisitions.

Step 4 - Your outcome

If the Registrar is satisfied that the grounds for divorce have been established and that the Application has been properly served on the other party (if your Application was not made jointly), the Court will grant the divorce.

The divorce order will become final one month and one day from the date of the hearing, at which time a Divorce Order will be sent to you and your former spouse (if they have provided their address).

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Required Documents

• Affidavit or Declaration of Residency
• Marriage Certificate
• Identity Card (original and photocopy)
• Application with signature recognized by the Notary
• Certificate issued by the Court or priest.
• Birth Certificate (spouse)

Office Locations & Contacts

Ministry of Family,

Women, & Children & Dep. Govt. Spokesperson

Hon. Raymonde Goudou COFFIE

BV V200 Abidjan

Telephone : + 225 20 22 95 63

Fax  : + 225 20 21 66 33

Eligibility

All citizens of Ivory cost above 18 years of age can petition for their marriage to be dissolved.

Fees

fees charge is 30 CAF

Validity

Valid for ever.

Documents to Use

Please attach documents that can be used by people. e.g. links

Sample Documents

Please attach sample completed documents that would help other people.

Processing Time

It takes from 3 month to 1 year for the divorce to be effective but at times it reaches 3 years in complicated cases.

Related Videos

Videos explaining the procedure or to fill the applications. 
Attach videos using the following tag <&video type="website">video ID|width|height<&/video&> from external websites.
Please remove the "&" inside the tags during implementation.
Website = allocine, blip, dailymotion, facebook, gametrailers, googlevideo, html5, metacafe, myspace, revver, 
sevenload, viddler, vimeo, youku, youtube
width = 560, height = 340, Video ID = Can be obtained from the URL of webpage where the video is displayed.
e.g In the following url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0US7oR_t3M" Video ID is "Y0US7oR_t3M". 
	

Instructions

The party being divorced (Respondent) must receive notice of the initiated divorce (Plaintiff).

Required Information

• Marriage certificate
• identification Documents like identity card.
• Date of marriage
• Religion
• Office were marriage was registered.

Need for the Document

Cote dIvoire, or Ivory Coast, is a democratic republic. Historically, Cote dIvorie has been one of the more stable African countries,However that changed in 2010, with conflict arising from the presidential election.

Ivory Coast's law currently recognises the husband as head of the household, responsible for all major decisions. If you want to end your marriage or file for divorce then you have to hire a divorce attorney for legal advice and assistance. Once you have hired a lawyer then there is no need to worry about paperwork, negotiation and legal settlement. This is because he/she will take care of all these issues in a proper manner.

Information which might help

The proposed law in cote Divoire grants a man the right to divorce his wife for adultery with little more provocation than finding her engaged in intimate conversation with another man.

For women to obtain divorce for adultery, their husbands would have to be caught in a sexual act at the couple's home with the same woman more than once.

Other uses of the Document/Certificate

Please explain what are other uses of obtaining this document/certificate.
e.g. Birth Certificate can be used as proof of identity.

External Links

http://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/if-a-couple-marry-in-ivory-coast-africa--but-are-s-87369.html

http://www.drogbascountry.com/?p=905

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/06/world/for-women-in-ivory-coast-new-fight-for-equality.html

http://www.factmonster.com/world/leaders/cote-divoire.html

Others

Adultery,in Cote Divoire is theoretically punishable by imprisonment.