How to get a duplicate of a divorce certificate - where, through government services

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Losing important official documents by citizens is not uncommon. The reason may be carelessness or theft. It is possible to restore documents using a simple procedure for obtaining a duplicate. In this article, we will look at the features of the procedure for restoring and receiving a duplicate of the divorce certificate, since even the divorce stamp in the passport is not always recognized as valid.

Is it possible to restore a divorce certificate?

Due to the fact that family relations and divorce proceedings are regulated in detail by legal norms, the issue of restoring the certificate will be affected by Federal Law No. 143 “On Acts of Civil Status”. In Art. 9 indicates that the document can be reissued in the event that the original is lost, has become dilapidated and is no longer readable, or the official seal is damaged. In connection with the above, we can conclude that the restoration of a repeated divorce certificate is not only allowed, but also regulated in detail by the legislator. There are no specific statutes of limitations, meaning this document can be ordered at any time after the dissolution of the union. This is especially true for those who have been divorced in court, when they receive not a certificate, but a court decision.

IMPORTANT

A certificate of divorce is an important document, without which it will be impossible to enter into a new marriage, confirm a change of surname, for registration of a pension or other social payment, in order to confirm a family connection with a child.

Why is document recovery necessary?

Many citizens who have lost their Divorce Certificate are in no hurry to restore it, arguing their actions, or rather inaction, by the lack of need for this document. Is this true and will a Divorce Certificate really not be required in the future?

A certificate of divorce may in fact no longer be useful, but in some cases it will not be possible to do without it.

When providing a registration act confirming the dissolution of marital relations between spouses, it is mandatory:

Without a Certificate, official registration of a new marriage relationship is impossible;
The absence of a document may prevent the child from being registered at the mother’s place of registration if the child has a different surname, say the father’s surname. In this case, you will need documentary evidence that the marriage between the mother and father of the baby is dissolved; this can be done by providing a Divorce Certificate;
to confirm the fact of receiving education during the marriage, if after the divorce the spouse changed his last name. As a rule, this applies to women who, after a divorce, change their husband’s surname to their maiden name.

Based on the above, we can conclude that it would not hurt to restore the document, so that its absence in the future does not ruin the plans and does not become a stumbling block on the way to the goal. Moreover, the procedure does not cause difficulties either in terms of time or finances.

Before contacting the registration service, you should go to the official website of the registry office branch that you plan to visit and find out the exact details for paying the state fee. At the moment, the mandatory payment for obtaining the registration certificate again is 350 rubles. However, immediately before making the payment, it is recommended to call the branch and clarify the amount of the fee and the correctness of the details in order to avoid misunderstandings in the future. The branch phone number can be found on the same registrar portal.

How payment is made does not matter. You can pay through the bank's cash desk, using terminals, both bank and located at the registration authority, the main thing is to receive a receipt confirming the fact of the payment transaction and save it for subsequent submission to the registry office.

Note! No one will accept your application for restoration of the Divorce Certificate without a receipt for payment of the state fee.

On the received duplicate you will see the mark “Duplicate”, but this should not frighten or upset you at all, since this document is equivalent in legal force to the original.

Options for issuing a duplicate

Clause 5 Art. 9 of the Federal Law “On Acts of Civil Status” regulates that the applicant can apply to several authorities to restore the divorce certificate:

The civil registry office that registered the process. The archives of this body preserved a second duplicate of the certificate, which was generated during the divorce.
The civil registry office located at the place of residence. We are talking about those situations when a citizen moved to another city/region, he needed to restore the certificate, but it is not possible to go to the place where the divorce was registered.
Multifunctional center - it doesn’t matter which one or where it is located. Regardless of the branch, employees equally process all requests and forward them to the place of requirement.
The government services portal is a remote option for restoring a divorce certificate, suitable for those who have no time or inconvenience to travel to the MFC/registry office. The application procedure is simple and the request is processed fairly quickly.

Anyone can choose a method of restoring a divorce certificate that is suitable for them, however, it is necessary to understand that the points differ in different durations and the amount of work of specialists.

Through the registry office

In any case of divorce, registration takes place through the registry office. It is in these institutions that register books containing civil status records are maintained. Even if the marriage is dissolved through the court, its decision must be submitted to the registry office to issue a certificate. Therefore, to restore the document, information from these authorities will be required, and to obtain a repeat form, citizens will have to contact the registry office.

Which department of the Civil Registry Office should I contact regarding this issue? Regardless of the place of issue of the original form, you can obtain a duplicate at any territorial civil registry office, including at your place of actual residence. Here are the rules to consider when applying for a duplicate:

if a citizen asks for a duplicate in the same registry office department where the divorce was registered, he will be able to receive the document immediately upon application;
If the place of residence has changed after the divorce, a written request will be required to restore the form. This will be done by the civil registry office specialist contacted by the citizen (naturally, the period for issuing a duplicate will increase due to sending correspondence by mail);
For each application option for issuing a duplicate, you need to pay a state fee of 350 rubles. (payment is made according to the details of the civil registry office to which the citizen applied).

To obtain a repeat form, you need to submit an application using Form No. 25. As a rule, it is completed by the civil registry office employee himself. You also need to show a stamp in your passport indicating the divorce. If the passport is not marked, the registry office specialists are obliged to accept the application, and the fact of divorce will be verified using the register books. A sample application for the restoration of a certificate can be downloaded in the appendix to this article. The lawyers of the website “Everything step by step” will provide assistance in filling it out.

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The law does not provide for the possibility of refusing to issue a certificate even in the following cases:

If the citizen has previously applied for a duplicate . The law does not contain restrictions on the number of applications, but for each repeated certificate you need to pay the state fee again;
If the citizen has already entered into a new marriage . A certificate of termination of marriage may be required to prove any legal facts, including probate or court proceedings.

Civil registry office employees will be able to refuse to issue a duplicate if there is no record of divorce at all in the register book.

An entry is also made in the register book regarding the issue of a duplicate. This allows you to avoid situations where the original document will be discovered after a long time. Accordingly, a new entry will be made upon receipt by the citizen of each repeated form.

What is needed to restore a divorce certificate?

Part 2 art. 9 Federal Law No. 143 regulates the circle of persons entitled to a restored divorce certificate, namely:

One of the former spouses in respect of whom the entry was made.
A relative of the former spouse, provided that the latter has died.
A third party acting on the basis of a notarized power of attorney in the interests of a citizen.
Guardian of a person officially declared incompetent. The right to restore a divorce certificate is also regulated in Art. 15 Federal Law “On guardianship and trusteeship” No. 48.
Interested party.

This list is exhaustive and in practice is not supplemented by individual categories. In addition, there are specifics regarding citizens acting by proxy. The document must include the clause “receive a duplicate of the civil status certificate on behalf of the principal.” The rules for drawing up a power of attorney for the restoration of a divorce certificate are provided for in Art. 185, 188 Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

To obtain a duplicate, you must collect a package of documents provided for in Art. 5 and Federal Law No. 143. The applicant must provide:

Application written in the form.
A copy of your passport, do not forget to provide a page with a note about divorce, if any.
A court decision if a judicial procedure for dissolving a marriage was used.
A receipt confirming payment of the state fee.
Power of attorney and passport of the representative, if the applicant does not apply directly, but through him.

In general, this is the entire list of documents required to restore a divorce certificate, however, specialists may request other documents. At the same time, the appearance of both spouses is not required; only the one who needs a duplicate can come.

Conditions for submitting an application, mandatory details

Please note that representatives of a limited circle have the right to apply for the restoration of the Certificate. These include:

ex-spouse;
heirs or other relatives of the deceased person, if the issue regarding inheritance is resolved. In this case, applicants are required to provide documents confirming their relationship with the deceased citizen whose divorce certificate is required to be restored;
parents of the deceased person, his legal representatives (guardians and trustees); The mother or father of the deceased has the right to demand restoration of the deed if at the time of death its owner has not reached the age of majority;
representative of one of the spouses. The powers of the authorized person must be confirmed by a notarized power of attorney.

The application must comply with established standards and contain the following information:

the exact name of the registration authority to which the application is submitted;
Full name of the applicant, his address and contact details;
information about the ex/ex-spouse: full name, place of registration, contact details;
in the event of a change of surname by the former spouse as a result of returning to the maiden name or upon re-marriage, the surname that was recorded in the Certificate subject to restoration should be indicated;
the name of the registration authority that initially recorded the fact of divorce and issued the corresponding Certificate.

You can find a sample application directly at the registration authority or below in this article. The law does not provide specific restrictions regarding the form of documents. It can be written either by hand or by machine. The main requirements are the absence of gross spelling errors, legibility, clarity, accuracy, and reliability. To prevent the registry office employees from having additional questions, it is advisable to fill out the form in block letters.

Download the application for restoration of the divorce certificate (form).

Along with the application and receipt for payment of the state fee, you must provide a copy of the page of the passport that contains information about the date of termination of the marriage relationship.

Application form for issuing a second divorce certificate

In the Russian Federation there is an Order of the Ministry of Justice dated October 1, 2018. No. 201, which regulates not only the rules for filling out applications to the registry office, but also establishes samples. In accordance with this Order, an application for restoration of a divorce certificate is written according to the following rules:

The application must be completed by hand and in legible handwriting. There are no requirements for the color of the paste, so you can choose either blue or black.
The full name is indicated exactly as was recorded in the original certificate.
Corrections and crossing outs are prohibited.
The following information must be recorded: passport details, address of the registry office where the marriage was dissolved, place of residence.
The final paragraph states the reason why a second divorce certificate is needed. You can write: “for presentation at the place of requirement.”

Please note
: In order to come to the registry office with a ready-made package of documents, the application can be filled out at home.

A sample application for restoration of a divorce certificate is available.

General information, legal framework

To carry out the procedure for restoring the Divorce Certificate, you will need to contact the same authority that issued it previously with the appropriate application. Within 10 days from the date of application you will be able to receive a duplicate of the act. If an application is submitted to another registration authority, the procedure for issuing a duplicate will be significantly delayed , the maximum period being 6 months.

How to draw up a document correctly and what requirements it must meet, read on.

In accordance with the provisions of the law, if a person applies to the registration service body, which is the Civil Registry Office, with an application for the restoration of the act confirming the fact of divorce, the employees of this body are obliged to issue the applicant a duplicate of the document. The basis for issuing a duplicate of a lost or damaged document is Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 143, which regulates legal relations of this kind.

According to Article 9 of this regulatory act, a duplicate can be provided at the request of the applicant in the following cases:

loss of the original document;
damage;
if it is not possible to use the registration document due to any other circumstances.

The last point refers to the following situations:

the text of the document is not readable;
the state of the act does not correspond to the proper one;
The stamp affixed by the registrar is blurry, the data on it is not visualized.

Procedure for obtaining a duplicate

The sequence of actions of the applicant to restore the divorce certificate is reflected in Art. 9 of the Federal Law “On Acts of Civil Status”, it is distinguished by its simplicity and transparency. You need to do the following:

Contact the registry office, finding out in advance when the department's reception day is. As a general rule, these days are from Monday to Thursday; check with the specific authority for exact hours.
Fill out the application and collect a package of documents. In addition, do not forget about paying the state fee.
Provide the prepared papers and receipt to the registry office employees. Within a few minutes they will check the correctness and reliability of the information provided. Experts will tell you when you need to come up for a duplicate divorce certificate.
At the appointed time, come with your passport and pick up a repeat certificate.

The new divorce certificate will have a completely different number than the original document received before restoration. This suggests that the acts are different, although both have legal force. At the same time, some experts say that it only confirms that the document has already been issued, but does not affect the meaning and power of the act.

Small conclusions

After the divorce, you need to take care of obtaining a divorce certificate. In this case, a divorce lawyer can be of great help.

It is issued by the civil registry office in two equal copies; they will go to each of the now free spouses.

Regardless of the reasons for divorce, the certificate has one established type and form.

When divorcing through the registry office, a month after filing the application, the spouses must visit the department on the appointed day and confirm their intention to divorce. After this, based on the entry in the deed book, receive a divorce document.

During court proceedings, an extract from the decision is transferred by court employees to the registry office. This occurs three days after the court decision comes into force. The divorce is registered. Each of the former spouses can obtain a certificate of divorce at any time thereafter.

Without a document, you won’t be able to get married again, make a deal, or get a visa abroad.

The moment of divorce is the date of registration of the divorce (if the spouses divorced through the civil registry office) or the day the court decision entered into force (if the divorce took place through the court).

Restoring a divorce certificate through State Services

The possibility of obtaining a second divorce certificate through the Public Services portal meets the needs and demands of modern society. This is a colossal saving of not only time, but also the effort of citizens, so everyone should know the sequence of operations for restoring a divorce certificate on the website:

Open the link gosuslugi.ru in a new window. A main window will appear in which you need to click on the “Personal Account” link. Before performing this action, you must not only be previously registered on the portal, but also confirm your entry in the prescribed manner. Otherwise, most operations will become unavailable to the user, including the divorce certificate restoration service.
A new page will load in which you must enter the phone number specified during registration and password. Then click on the “Login” button. If you have previously visited the portal through a browser, the data will be saved and you will not have to enter it.
The main page will load, but through the user account. First of all, you will see a white search bar in which you enter your query. You can write it this way: a second divorce certificate. Then click on the “Enter” keyboard button, or on the magnifying glass at the end of the search line. After some time, the system will display the results. In the search results you will see tabs: all, services, departments, information. We need a tab class="aligncenter" width="688″ height="493″[/img]
We are looking for a link with the title “Obtaining a repeated certificate (certificate).” It is impossible to indicate the exact name, because portals may change depending on the region. For example, somewhere the link is called “Obtaining a repeated certificate of registration of marriage or divorce.”
After you click on the link, a page will load with a full description of the service provided. You will see its terms, methods, options for provision, a package of necessary documents, and consequences. In addition, the blue “receive service” button will light up separately on the right; you should click on it.
A page will open with the appropriate form to fill out. Considering that you are logged in with your account, most of the fields will be filled in. This is your full name, SNILS, INN, gender, passport details. You should write down the information you don't already have and then proceed to pay. A similar blue button is located at the bottom of the page.

This will complete the procedure for restoring the divorce certificate. After you click the payment button, the portal will take you to the bank page. You will need to enter your bank card information and carry out the transaction; if everything is successful, then the application will go to specialists and will be processed. In your personal account, you can track the status of your application, and there you will also see the time and place of your personal application to the authority to obtain a second divorce certificate.

IMPORTANT

It is important to remember that the considered algorithm is not suitable for everyone. Not every region of the Russian Federation has developed a similar mechanism; accordingly, not all State Services portals allow the possibility of obtaining a repeated certificate via the Internet. You can find out the exact information only on the website by trying to submit an application.

If the divorce went through court

The divorce procedure can take place in court, but the original certificate is still issued by the registry office. Therefore, even in case of divorce through the court, you need to contact the local registry office for a duplicate. There is no need to obtain a copy of the court decision for this, since information about the divorce must be contained in the register books.

To obtain a second certificate, you must submit a passport with a mark on the termination of the marriage to the local registry office. If the specified stamp is missing, you must indicate where exactly the divorce took place. The remaining rules for restoring the certificate coincide with the procedure described above.

There is no need to obtain a court decision again to restore the certificate.

Obtaining a duplicate divorce certificate through the MFC

Appeal through the multifunctional center is provided for in Part 5 of Art. 9 Federal Law “On Acts of Civil Status” No. 143. Every citizen has the right to submit documents through the MFC; there are no restrictions on territoriality. In this case, the algorithm for restoring a divorce certificate comes down to the following:

Go to the nearest My Documents branch, take an electronic queue coupon from the terminal, and wait to be seen by the staff. At the window, specialists will give you an application form and direct you to the hall where sample applications are presented.
Fill out the application according to the sample. It's quite simple. Avoid corrections, this is important. Otherwise, employees will refuse to accept documents.
Pay the fee; you can do this not only at the bank, but also through the MFC terminal. Most branches have them, which makes handling much easier.
Send the prepared package of documents, application and receipt to the specialist. The employee processes the submitted papers, indicates the time and place of reception.
At the stated time, you must appear at the registry office to obtain a second certificate of divorce. In some cases, MFC employees pick up the document themselves and you need to come to the branch of the multifunctional center to receive a duplicate.

This method of restoring a divorce certificate is generally identical to applying to the registry office. The difference is only in the timing; MFC employees will need more time than registry office specialists; this must be taken into account.

What documents are needed to obtain a certificate?

The required package of documents is related to the chosen divorce procedure:

If the annulment of the family union took place in court, when applying to the registry office, the ex-husband and wife must provide:
the original of the court decision that has entered into force;
a receipt for payment of the state fee (issued by the Civil Registry Office employees and paid at the nearest bank branch on the day of application).

You can apply for a divorce document in court at any time (immediately, in a month, even after several years). The court's decision confirms the annulment of family ties.

If spouses are divorced through the civil registry office by mutual consent, they need:
marriage certificate;
application for divorce;
payment of state duty.
If one of the spouses applies unilaterally to the registry office, the package of documents will be as follows:
document on the conclusion of a marriage union;
a court decision regarding a husband or wife (recognition as incompetent, missing, sentence of imprisonment);
state duty.

State fee for obtaining a second divorce certificate

An important point of application, regardless of the filing option, is payment of the state fee. Like any action performed by the registry office employees, the issuance of a repeated divorce certificate. In order to find out the size, you should refer to clause 6, part 1, art. 33.26 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. The norm stipulates that the restoration of a divorce certificate will cost 350 rubles.

The sequence of actions is as follows:

Please check your bank details with the Civil Registry Office staff in advance to make the transfer.
Go to the branch or use the terminals located in the MFC or the registry office. The payment process is quite simple and staff will assist you if necessary.
Pick up the receipt or check to provide it to employees to process the request.

Attention
Within the meaning of clause 11, part 1, art. 333.35, heroes of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation, and holders of the Order of Glory are exempt from paying the fee to restore a divorce certificate. The remaining categories will have to deposit 350 rubles into the registry office account, and you should check the details with the employees in advance, otherwise the funds may be transferred to another institution.

Conditions

There are conditions for retrieving lost documents. This concerns the need to pay the state fee in advance. Along with filing the application, the interested party must provide a receipt for payment of the services of the civil registry office. At the beginning of 2020, this amount was 380 rubles. It does not depend on whether the certificate was lost or there are other grounds for restoration.

How long does it take to restore a divorce certificate?

In general, the procedure for obtaining a second divorce certificate is itself quite simple and quick, but it may vary depending on some subtleties. It is necessary to take into account each of them in order to assess the duration of the provision of the divorce certificate restoration service:

When submitting documents to the registry office, which previously registered the procedure. This is the fastest option - employees will prepare a duplicate within 1-3 days.
When contacting a branch of a multifunctional center, the processing time for the request will increase to 7 days if the MFC is located in the same city in which the divorce was registered. In about 5 days, MFC specialists will transfer the information to the registry office, where they will issue a second divorce certificate within 1-3 days. The specific period depends on the degree of interaction between institutions.
In case of application through a registry office located at a location other than the place where the divorce was registered. This situation often develops when citizens move from one city to another. Then you will have to wait a month for the divorce certificate to be restored, and in rare cases even 2-3. Here again, everything depends on the degree of interaction between regions.
Submitting an application through the Public Services portal has a fairly short deadline. The process of filling out the application and paying the state fee will take no more than 70 minutes. At the same time, the timing of processing applications by employees depends on the specific registry office; details can be seen in your personal account.

Please remember that the time frames presented are not set in stone and may change depending on the current situation. The time it takes to restore a divorce certificate depends not only on the chosen method of filing documents, but also on the workload of employees and the level of interaction between institutions and regions.

What difficulties might there be?

Errors when drawing up an application

The first mistake is to contact the registry office immediately, in conditions that require you to first go through the procedure of judicial settlement of the issue. Also, the appeal will not be satisfied if the ex-spouses have not waited for the court decision to enter into legal force (1.5 months).

Rarely, but there are factual errors.

Lack of necessary documents

There will be difficulties if the entire package of documents listed above is not collected.

There are cases when there is no document about the marriage (lost, kept by the partner). This is not a problem - it’s easy to make a duplicate, it is issued quite quickly to any of the married people. At any time, it is possible to request copies of all decisions (sentences, declarations of incompetence or disappearance, divorce decree), for which you need to write a request to the archive.

Nuances

Article 9 of the Federal Law “On Acts of Civil Status” No. 143 provides for some atypical situations that also often arise in practice when restoring a divorce certificate. You need to know each of them to understand how to act:

If one of the spouses died, and at the same time his relative (child, new spouse, parents) needed a divorce certificate. Part 2 art. 9 Federal Law No. 143 provides for the right of a loved one to request a duplicate in the general manner described above. The terms for consideration of the application remain the same, but among the necessary documents a document is added confirming the degree of relationship between the persons.
The former spouse has been declared legally incompetent and a new divorce certificate must be obtained. This right is also regulated by Art. 9 Federal Law No. 143, according to which both children and guardians have the right to submit documents and demand the issuance of a duplicate. Here, again, when applying, you need to provide separate acts confirming the fact of relationship or appointment of guardianship.
Strangers who are not relatives want to receive a duplicate. The law allows the issuance of a restored divorce certificate to citizens who have a power of attorney certified by a notary, heirs to whom property/securities/money or other things have been transferred under a will.
If a person lives in a foreign country, he has the right to receive a duplicate, but not from the registry office. In accordance with Art. 157 of the RF IC, marriages concluded in foreign countries between Russians are concluded at the representative office of the Russian Federation or consulates. Thus, an application for a duplicate is sent to the consulate or representative office. Here you need to be prepared for the fact that the processing time for a request to restore a divorce certificate will increase significantly.

Attention
If you have an unforeseen situation and you do not see the rules in the law regulating it, we strongly recommend that you contact a professional lawyer or the registry office for advice. This is due to the fact that each case is individual; in law, an individual approach to resolving difficulties is formed on the basis of general rules and norms.

Through the government services portal

Through government services or the MFC, you can implement many functions, including ordering and receiving a duplicate of the divorce certificate. To do this, you need to register on the site and verify your account. When filling out an application electronically, you must provide information about the place and time of termination of the family relationship (this can be taken from the passport stamp).

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As with other options for restoring the form, through government services or the MFC you need to pay a state fee in the amount of 350 rubles. There are three ways to obtain a document:

by sending by mail;
by personal appearance at the MFC office (when submitting an application, you must indicate the MFC unit where the citizen plans to receive the completed form);
at the civil registry office selected when submitting the application.

In a number of regions, civil registry offices offer their own service for obtaining duplicates, certificates and other official documents. The period for consideration of electronic applications can be up to 30 days (this issue must be clarified when filling out the application).