Marrying In Ontario after a Foreign Divorce
If you or your partner wish to get married in Ontario, but one or both of you have been previously granted a divorce in a foreign jurisdiction, it is mandatory that you get approval from the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services before you can successfully apply for a marriage licence. Part of this process requires you to obtain a Letter of Opinion on a foreign divorce.
The Letter of Opinion is a legal document that needs to be prepared by a lawyer and addressed to both you and your future spouse giving the reason(s) why your divorce should be recognized in Ontario.
The principal criteria for receiving a positive opinion on the legality and recognition of your foreign divorce in Ontario is based on your and/or your ex-spouse’s place of residence for the period leading up to the time you obtained the divorce in the foreign jurisdiction. You will be required to swear a declaration on the chronology of the dates leading up to your foreign divorce that will accompany your Letter of Opinion.
You will also need to provide a true copy or original of your Certificate of Divorce. If the certificate is in a language other than English or French, you will need to provide a translation of the Certificate of Divorce prepared by a certified translator along with an affidavit sworn by the certified translator.
Given the above, if you plan to marry or re-marry in Ontario and you and/or your partner had a divorce in a foreign jurisdiction, give yourself ample time to prepare your application for marriage as the government advises that this process can take up to four weeks to validate the documents.
For further information on Marriage in Ontario, please see the link to the Service Ontario Website;
We can assist you in the preparation of a Letter of Opinion, Declaration(s), True Copies and Notarizations of documents.
For further information on any of this or any other type of matrimonial matter, please contact us at [email protected]
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