Marriage in Brazil Separation in Australia

Hello Australianseparation,

Well, in Brazil whatever the "Regime de Comunhão de Bens" is stated on the Marriage Certificate (in your case I presume Separação Total de Bens) is exactly what the courts or Cartórios would deal with.

That said, you're seeking a divorce in Australia and it would be granted considering Australian family law. I don't know if there is even an equivalent division structure under Australian family law and that you should really be asking a local lawyer experienced in family matters. It may well be that the Australian courts would apply a "Community Property" law at any rate and in this case there would presumably be a 50/50 split of everything acquired during the marriage.

Do you also have a Prenuptial Agreement in place? If so this would certainly be considered by the Australian courts.

One thing that I would point out to you is that if you're divorcing in Australia, the divorce will have no legal effect in Brazil unless you have a Brazilian lawyer here apply for "Homologação da Sentença de Divorcio Estrangeiro". If you do not do this then divorce notwithstanding you are still considered married in Brazil. This could pose serious problems for you in the future, especially should you wish to re-marry at some point in time, more still if your future spouse were also a Brazilian national. It would also be a real problem should you and a future spouse ever travel to Brazil since here you could be considered a bigamist. In fact, if you were to try to marry anywhere except in the country in which you actually obtain the divorce, not registering it (and thus judicially disolving the marriage) could be an impediment that would prevent your marriage altogether.

Just another downside of being an expat, I'm afraid.

Cheers,
James     Expat-blog Experts Team