Divorcing While Living Abroad: In Morocco or in Your Country of Residence?

For a Moroccan couple settled abroad, or a couple where one spouse lives in Morocco and the other in Europe, divorce raises particular questions: should you divorce before the courts of your country of residence or in Morocco? Which law will apply? Will a divorce granted abroad be valid in Morocco? And what happens to the children? Here are the key points.

Moroccan law follows Moroccans

The Family Code applies to all Moroccans, including those who hold another nationality and those who live abroad. As far as the Moroccan state is concerned, your marriage and divorce are governed by the Moudawana. In your country of residence, however, the judge applies local conflict-of-laws rules, which may lead to applying local law or Moroccan law. Some bilateral conventions, such as the Franco-Moroccan convention on personal and family status, organise how the two systems interact and how decisions are mutually recognised.

Option one: divorce in Morocco

Divorcing before a Moroccan court has several advantages: the decision applies directly in Morocco, with no recognition procedure, and it is given under the law that governs your Moroccan civil status. The competent court is in principle that of the marital home, the wife’s residence, or the place where the marriage contract was concluded. For a marriage concluded in Agadir or Inezgane, the family section of the court in Agadir or Inezgane can therefore hear the case.

The main constraint is personal attendance at reconciliation hearings, which cannot be replaced by a power of attorney. One or more trips to Morocco must therefore be planned. A lawyer can prepare the file in advance, file the application and group the hearings to limit travel. All the procedures are described in our complete guide to divorce in Morocco.

Option two: divorce in your country of residence

Divorcing in France, Belgium, Spain or elsewhere may be simpler day to day, especially when both spouses and the children live there. But the judgment has no automatic effect in Morocco. For it to be recognised and recorded in your Moroccan civil status, you will in principle need exequatur from a Moroccan court, which checks in particular that the decision was given by a competent court and rests on grounds compatible with the Family Code. The procedure is explained in our article on exequatur.

Failing to have a foreign divorce recognised can create very awkward situations: spouses still regarded as married in Morocco, inability to remarry before the adouls, inheritance complications.

The risk of parallel proceedings

Sometimes one spouse goes to court abroad while the other starts proceedings in Morocco. Parallel proceedings can produce conflicting decisions, especially on custody and maintenance. It is essential to coordinate the strategy from the start, with a lawyer who knows both systems or works with your lawyer abroad.

Children at the heart of it

When the children live abroad, where they live, visitation and trips to Morocco become central questions. Several tools exist:

• a Moroccan judge can prohibit a child from leaving Morocco without the other parent’s consent;
• Morocco is a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which allows a request for the return of a wrongfully removed child;
• decisions on custody and maintenance need to be consistent between the two countries.

For the Moroccan rules on custody and maintenance, see our dedicated article.

How to choose

The choice depends on your circumstances: where the spouses and children live, where the assets are, the other spouse’s nationality, urgency, cost and ability to travel. In some cases, a well-prepared divorce by mutual consent in Morocco is the simplest solution; in others, divorcing in your country of residence and then seeking exequatur will be more suitable.

A lawyer in Morocco for Moroccans abroad

The office of Maître Said Laachili, a lawyer in Inezgane near Agadir, assists Moroccans living abroad with divorce proceedings in Morocco, recognition of foreign judgments and the protection of children, as part of its family law practice. To organise your case remotely, also read our guide to managing a legal matter in Morocco from abroad and, if your spouse is a foreign national, mixed marriages in Morocco.

Living abroad and considering divorce? Request a remote appointment.