Divorcing my wife, confused as to what steps to take

[hrothgarr 0]

I'm the USC and my wife received her temporary green card a few months ago. We lived in South Carolina, but our relationship has fallen apart in the 8 months that she's been here, and we've amicably agreed to get a divorce. She got a job in North Carolina and moved up there last week. According to SC divorce laws, we either have to be legally separated for one year before we can get a divorce, or we have to prove some sort of abuse/infidelity, of which there has been none.

The problem is that she plans to return to her country within six months, so when the year of separation is completed she will be in a different hemisphere, which I imagine will complicate any sort of paperwork that we need to finalize a divorce.

We're both young and have no children, no assets/property, she has a full-time job and I'm a student with a part-time job. We're doing this amicably and neither have any intention of squeezing money out of the other (neither of us really has any, anyway). How should we proceed with this? Would there be serious repercussions if we pretended there was some infidelity in order to speed up the process?

The immigration process itself was complicated enough, but add a divorce to it and I have no idea what my next move should be.

[Darnell 8,478]

Prep all the docs for South Carolina,

get her to sign all, leaving the date blank,

before she is unreachable.

Then when it's time, file.

Edited March 12, 2014 by Darnell

[hrothgarr 0]

But some of these papers have to be signed in front of a notary after year of separation, I think.

[novedsac 355]

I was going to suggest she file in North Carolina after having established residency for six months, but they have the same 'separated for one year' BS.

Perhaps she could notarize the documents in PI and express them to you?

Perhaps you could encourage her to remain another seven months to complete the divorce stateside?

Alternatively, you could file the divorce after the required period of separation, with your spouse in absentia - the divorce will be granted, but you may have to go through some additional hoops like notification, best efforts to find, etc.

I wouldn't be inclined to lie just to get a quickie divorce.

[novedsac 355]

Also … she's liable to change her mind several times about returning to the PI in the ensuing six months. I think I'd just wait and see what the situation looks like after the required separation period has been met.

[Tom_Jim 40]

Pretending that there was infidelity when there was none is a dumb move. Don't do it.

Send her the divorce papers in Panama (or wherever she's going) and it's up to her to remove conditions.