The most expensive men’s suit in the world is encrusted with 240 carats of diamonds and retails for more than $760,000. A different kind of suit — a suit for divorce — can get pretty pricey, too, especially if you and your spouse are hundreds of miles apart.

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Virginia Residency Requirements for Divorce

Let’s get one half of this issue out of the way. One of you — you or your spouse — has to be a legal resident of Virginia for at least six months before filing a lawsuit for divorce in the Commonwealth. That is from Virginia Code § 20-97, titled “Domicile and residential requirements for suits for annulment, affirmance, or divorce.”

Virginia’s Circuit Courts have no problem helping you conduct a long-distance divorce, but you (or your spouse) must be a resident and domiciled here for half a year. Virginia may have casinos, but this ain’t Nevada; quickie divorces for out-of-state couples in Virginia is just not a thing.

Filing Virginia Divorce as a Military Man

Given the six-month residency and domiciliary requirement, many military men stationed in Virginia are unsure if they can get divorced in the Commonwealth. No worries! The same law laying down the half-year residency also addresses military members:

For the purposes of this section only:

  1. If a member of the Armed Forces of the United States has been stationed or resided in the Commonwealth and has lived for a period of six months or more in the Commonwealth next preceding the filing of the suit, then such person shall be presumed to be domiciled in and to have been a bona fide resident of the Commonwealth during such period of time.
  2. Being stationed or residing in the Commonwealth includes, but is not limited to, a member of the armed forces being stationed or residing upon a ship having its home port in the Commonwealth or at an air, naval, or military base located within the Commonwealth over which the United States enjoys exclusive federal jurisdiction.
  3. Any member of the Armed Forces of the United States or any civilian employee of the United States, including any foreign service officer, who (i) at the time the suit is filed is, or immediately preceding such suit was, stationed in any territory or foreign country and (ii) was domiciled in the Commonwealth for the six-month period immediately preceding his being stationed in such territory or country shall be deemed to have been domiciled in and to have been a bona fide resident of the Commonwealth during the six months preceding the filing of a suit for annulment or divorce.

Let’s say you (and your civilian spouse) were transferred to Sector Virginia of the United States Coast Guard, Base Portsmouth last year (Semper Paratus!) You both knew you were headed for separation and divorce. You came THIS CLOSE to filing for divorce in your former state of residency, but now here you are at LOGCOM and eyeing the calendar.

Your civilian spouse can move anywhere she wishes — let’s relocate your spouse to San Francisco (which happens to be the furthest city from Portsmouth within the contiguous United States).

As long as you plug away at LOGCOM for six months in Portsmouth, you can file for divorce here in Virginia. Your attorney will arrange for all the paperwork to be served to your San Francisco spouse.

You will conduct a long-distance divorce, but logistically it is possible. It might be a bit drawn out (one of many reasons to pursue a no-fault, uncontested divorce). It might cost a bit more than a divorce with both of you in the same Virginia county. But it can happen.

My Wife Filed for Divorce in Another State

Yes, but does that work in reverse? Can your spouse living in The City by The Bay file in California on you, living in Virginia? Yes, after she has lived by The Bay for six months, since California has identical residency requirements to Virginia.

Your California-residing spouse must live in the same county for three months, too. Your spouse would file in California and have an attorney ensure your papers were served to you in Portsmouth.

Again, the back-and-forth could take a while, but you definitely could prove separation, with some 4,000 miles between you. Within about a year you and your spouse will be divorced.

Do We Have to File Where We Were Married?

Hold on, we hear you saying, don’t we have to get divorced in the same state where we got married?

Nope.

No state requires you to divorce your spouse in the state in which you wed. You both could have been wed in Wisconsin, ventured off to Virginia, and then one of you meandered away to Minnesota. As long as one of you maintains residency in Virginia for six months, you are good to go … to Circuit Court for a divorce.

Domicile vs. Residence

Virginia’s residency requirement brings up two of the most confusing words in family law:

  • Residency — The place you currently live, whether you intend to remain at that residence for a short or long time
  • Domicile — A person’s true, main, permanent home; the place you go back to after taking up residency elsewhere

This is very much along the lines of “all toads are frogs but not all frogs are toads” sort of thing. Your domicile could be your residence, but not all residences are your domicile.

You can have a long list of residences, especially if you serve in the military. You have only one domicile.

And yet, Virginia grants military personnel a “domicile” if they are stationed in the Commonwealth for six months. Go back and look at Virginia Code § 20-97 again: “For the purposes of this section only.” That is a carve-out exclusively within that law and for military personnel only.

Problem Solved: Call The Firm For Men

If you find yourself completely baffled by residency requirements, definitions of domiciles, and your spouse’s misunderstandings of the law, turn to highly skilled family law attorneys.

You can arrange a consultation, lay out the circumstances of your two residences, and be assured your separation and divorce will move ahead smoothly. As smoothly as the fit of a $760,000 suit.

The team at The Firm For Men is ready to answer all your concerns! Contact us online today or telephone us at (757) 383-9184. We can help with issues of residency, divorcing a nonresident, and more.