Marriage and divorce

16. Division of property involved in foreign-related divorces

When the property dispute is involved in the divorce, it is not always able to be resolved in the divorce proceedings. That is to say, if, during the divorce proceedings, part of the real property locates in other country or region, the court handling divorce can only dispose of the real property and personal property at the locality where the court handling divorce locates. As to the real property that is not at the locality where the court handling divorce locates, both parties shall have to resolve separately the dispute over real property at the locality where the real property locates.

Where both parties have gone through the divorce formalities in other country, but no division of property is involved in China, if both parties cannot resolve the dispute over the real property located in China through negotiation and need to resolve the dispute through litigation, both parties should first file the application for the recognition of the effective divorce in foreign country to the intermediate people’s court located at the locality where the applicant resides, and then claims may be filed to resolve the property dispute by the court located at the locality where the disputed real property locates.