If you are married to a Spanish person or, if neither spouse is Spanish, but you have been resident in Spain for years, you can get divorced in Spain even if your spouse has now left the country.
The Spanish divorce law requires no attribution of fault, which means that someone can be divorced without the need to provide any reason at all i.e. no grounds for divorce are needed. Even if one of the spouses does not wish to get divorced, a divorce will proceed as there only needs to be a petition from one of the spouses and to have been married for at least three months. It is unnecessary for the couple to be separated for a period of time before making a petition for divorce.
Divorce Law in Spain: 2 ways for splitting up
There are two ways to get divorced in Spain:
- By mutual agreement whereby the divorce is petitioned by both spouses, or by one spouse with the consent of the other;
- One of the spouses files for divorce at court,
If both parties completely agree on all the terms of the divorce and there is absolutely no disagreement between them, the same lawyer can act for both parties in the divorce which means the process is not only quicker, but also cheaper. In this case, you can get divorced and not even have to appear in court – you can just give your lawyer a power of attorney to act on your behalf.
Divorce Law in Spain covers - quite equally in "normal" cases as it evolves - if there is not full agreement to divorce; then one of the spouses files for divorce at court and the judge will decide regarding the custody of children, the alimony, the division of assets of the spouses where applicable.
In Spain, unlike other countries, after the divorce is completed, both spouses can get married immediately and are not obliged to wait for any specific period of time.
Legal separation is another alternative to a divorce in Spain. Nowadays, with the new divorce law, the only ‘difference’ between legal separation and divorce is that being only legally separated, the couple could not get married again to another person.
You may be interested also in the possibility of Express Divorce in Spain. As a general trend, divorce is raising over the decades, some countries - as seen with the "Express" fast path divorce - adapt themselves to the zeitgeist.
