In which country should a divorce petition be filed if the marriage and the last marital residence were in Spain, and the husband currently resides in the Dominican Republic while the wife remains in Spain?
Article 22 quater(c) grants jurisdiction to the Spanish courts in matters relating to personal and property relations between spouses, marital annulment, separation, and divorce, as well as their modifications, provided that no other foreign court has jurisdiction. This applies when both spouses have their habitual residence in Spain at the time the petition is filed, or when they had their last habitual residence in Spain and one of them still resides there, or when Spain is the habitual residence of the defendant, or, in the case of a mutual agreement divorce, when one of the spouses resides in Spain, or when the petitioner has had habitual residence in Spain for at least one year prior to filing the petition, or when the petitioner is Spanish and has had habitual residence in Spain for at least six months prior to filing, as well as when both spouses have Spanish nationality.
Article 3.1(a) of Council Regulation (EC) No. 2201/2003 of 27 November 2003, on jurisdiction, recognition, and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and parental responsibility, provides that in matters relating to divorce, jurisdiction lies with the Spanish courts of the Member State in whose territory the spouses had their last habitual residence, provided that one of them still resides there. Jurisdiction also extends to cases filed by non-EU citizens.
