An unusual situation - restoring a marriage after divorce

The current legislation of the Russian Federation provides for the possibility of restoring marital relations after their official termination. But in what cases is it possible to restore a marriage after a divorce and how can this be done?

• When can a marriage be restored without re-registering it?
• Cancellation of a judicial act declaring a person dead or missing
• Cancellation of a death record
• Contacting the Civil Registry Office
• In what cases is a marriage required to be registered again?
• Submitting an application through the State Services portal
• Registration of a marital union

Cases of marriage restoration

Family law is closely intertwined with civil law, so you should turn to the latter. Art. 42 and the Civil Code of the Russian Federation regulate the grounds and procedure for recognizing a person as missing and deceased. Thus, in a unilateral judicial procedure, a marriage union can disintegrate in the following cases:

1. If one of the spouses is declared dead by a court decision, then within the meaning of Art. 16 of the RF IC, the marriage is considered dissolved.
2. By a court decision, the citizen is missing - in accordance with Art. 19 of the RF IC, the marriage union breaks up.

In the situations considered, the divorce procedure follows general conditions and does not differ from the dissolution of official relations for other reasons. The only difference is the possibility of renewing the marriage or annulling the divorce process. In accordance with Art. 26 of the RF IC, the restoration of marriage after divorce is based on a set of grounds:

1. The appearance of a spouse who was previously declared dead or absent by court decision.
2. Cancellation of a judicial act on the grounds provided for by law. These include the provision of false information by the parties.
3. The spouses submit a mutual decision to the civil registry office with a request to restore the marital relationship.
4. Neither party has a new marriage.

The considered list of the totality of grounds is exhaustive, which means that other grounds for restoring a marriage after a divorce are impossible in practice. In accordance with Art. 26 of the RF IC, a marriage can be restored only if all the specified conditions are met simultaneously.

IMPORTANT

If the spouses decide to renew the marriage some time after the divorce, the renewal procedure does not apply. However, the legislator makes it possible to register a new marriage relationship with the same citizen; there is no prohibition on this.

In what cases is a marriage required to be registered again?

As mentioned above, it is possible to restore a dissolved marriage relationship if one of the spouses was recognized as missing or dead, but subsequently showed up and the parties expressed a corresponding desire. In other cases, citizens will need to go through the procedure of registering a marital union again (as the first time). In order to re-register a marriage, the parties are required to appear at the registry office or at the MFC, with the following package of documentation:

1. Identification documents of the parties (passports).
2. An application drawn up on a standard form.
3. A document confirming the termination of a previously registered marriage relationship.
4. The original receipt (check) for payment of the duty.

If we talk about the state duty, then as of 2020 its size is 350 rubles. Details for payment can be clarified directly with the authorized body, but payment can be made at any financial institution that provides such services.

The application must be filled out on Form No. 7 - it can be obtained from the authorized body directly in person, or by downloading it from the department’s website. The form will require the following information:

• Name of the authorized body to which the appeal is made.
• FULL NAME. sides
• Data about persons entering into a marital union (full name, date and place of birth, citizenship, nationality, education, residential address, passport information, marital status, details of the document confirming the breakup of the previous union).
• Last names that applicants want to keep (assign) to themselves after joining a family union.
• Document submission date.

Sample application for marriage (form No. 7):

Download the application in doc format

If one of the parties for some reason is unable to appear, then she is required to fill out an application in Form No. 8.

Who can restore a marriage after divorce?

Part 1 art. 26 of the RF IC indicates that only a civil registry office employee can renew a marriage after its dissolution. In this case, it is mandatory for both spouses to contact the administrative authority.

You need to understand that not everyone has the right to submit such an application. If the spouses dissolve the marriage by mutual consent, there can be no talk about the procedure for restoring the marriage after a divorce. The law allows it only in cases of unilateral separation, when there was a judicial act with a decision to recognize one of the spouses as missing or dead.

Reasons for the procedure

According to the law, restoration of a marriage union is allowed only if there are worthy reasons. Moreover, family law quite clearly covers this issue and indicates what circumstances will be considered valid for such a rare procedure.

Exhaustive grounds can be found in paragraph 26 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation. It is indicated here that a marriage can be restored if one of the following circumstances is recorded:

• a person previously declared dead by the court has appeared;
• a person previously registered as missing showed up.

It is worth clarifying here that if a person is declared missing by a court decision, then divorce is allowed unilaterally. Another option is the death of one of the spouses, recognized as a fact by a court decision. In this case, the marriage is canceled automatically. And according to the law, both processes cannot be called irreversible, because family law provides for the possibility of restoring the union.

Required documents

The procedure for restoring a marriage after a divorce is divided into two large stages, so the packages of documents will be different. First of all, a citizen must go to court and provide the following documents:

1. Statement of claim.
2. The applicant's passport or other document that will prove his identity.
3. Receipt for payment of state duty.
4. A court decision declaring a person dead or absent.
5. Documents confirming the stated position, these can be receipts, checks, certificates. This also includes the testimony of witnesses.

A claim for restoration of marriage after divorce can be found here.

For your information

This is a universal form that contains general information; you must supplement it with your own details and nuances. If the claim is reasoned and detailed, the likelihood of a positive court decision will be high.

After the judicial process of restoring the marriage has ended, the administrative procedure begins - an appeal to the registry office. To do this, you should collect another package of documents:

1. Documents confirming the identity of each party.
2. A court ruling containing a note on the annulment of the first decision declaring a person dead or missing.
3. A statement from both spouses requesting restoration of the marriage after divorce.
4. Receipt for payment of state duty.

A citizen’s passport may be lost or destroyed, and the restoration process is quite lengthy, so a temporary certificate can be provided to the registry office.

A sample application for making corrections to a civil status record is available.

Attention

The proposed form is universal and suitable for absolutely any entry. Civil registry office employees in some cases provide a form upon application, helping to fill it out.

Cancellation of a judicial act declaring a person dead or missing

To cancel a decision, you need to fill out an application in which you will need to indicate the following information:

• The name of the judicial authority to which the appeal is made.
• FULL NAME. and the address of the place of residence/stay of the citizen acting as the applicant.
• Document's name.
• Information that the citizen was declared missing (or dead) with reference to the relevant court decision.
• List of rights that have been lost and are subject to restoration.
• A request to the court to cancel a previously made decision.
• List of attached documentation.
• Date of filing the claim and signature.

The list of attached documentation usually includes:

• Identity document.
• A copy of the court decision declaring a person dead (or missing).
• Original receipt confirming payment of the state duty.

Step-by-step instructions for restoring your marriage after divorce

The process of restoring a marriage after divorce, as previously mentioned, is divided into two stages. These should be considered in turn. Within the meaning of Article 44 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, if the spouse appears, he or a third party must apply to the court with the appropriate claim and appendices to it. In accordance with Art. 280 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, the sequence of actions is as follows:

1. Drawing up a statement of claim, which will reflect the demand to annul the previous divorce decision.
2. Collecting a list of applications that supplement the claim, it was listed above.
3. Within 5 days from the date of submission of documents to the court, the judge must consider the issue of accepting the claim for proceedings, this is enshrined in Art. 133 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation.
4. A preliminary court hearing is scheduled, during which preparations for the main hearing take place. The judge listens to the positions of the parties, requests the necessary documents, evaluates the evidence base, and schedules the main hearing. This requirement is established by Art. 152, 153 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation.
5. Within the meaning of Art. 155 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, a trial takes place, during which the parties and witnesses speak, and all evidence is examined. Based on the results, a court ruling is made. It indicates whether the decision to recognize the citizen as dead or missing is initially annulled.
6. In accordance with Art. 321 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, within 30 days from the announcement of the determination, it enters into legal force and begins to operate. A month is given for one of the parties to appeal the decision.

After the judicial act has entered into legal force and has been received by the applicant, the next stage of the procedure for restoring marriage after divorce can begin. In accordance with Art. 75 of the Federal Law “On Acts of Civil Status” No. 143, the registry office can cancel a record only by court decision. Thus, the administrative process is organized as follows:

1. In accordance with Art. 75 Federal Law No. 143, citizens must contact the civil registry office where the divorce took place.
2. Collect the necessary documents, the list of which was established earlier.
3. If we are talking about recognizing a citizen as dead, you need to apply to cancel the death record, on the basis of which the marriage will be restored after a divorce.
4. If a person was previously declared missing, a mutual application must be submitted to restore the divorce record.
5. Within 30 days, in accordance with Art. 72 Federal Law No. 143, the Civil Registry Office staff reviews the application and makes a corresponding note in the register.
6. At the specified date and time, you must appear at the registry office and receive a marriage certificate again.

IMPORTANT
The procedure for restoring a marriage after a divorce varies in length; in practice, the total duration is about 3 months. At the same time, everything is not as complicated as it might seem at first glance. The main thing is the consent of both parties, as well as the absence of new registered marital relations for each spouse. These requirements are provided for in Art. 26 IC RF.

Cancellation of a death record

When the court decision is made, the citizen must contact the civil registry office with a written request to cancel the death record. An application for cancellation of an act must be filled out on a standard form, which can be obtained from the authorized body.

The application form must include the following information:

• Name of the body to which the appeal is made.
• FULL NAME. the person acting as the applicant, his contact phone number, residence address and passport information.
• No. of the act entry that needs to be cancelled.
• The reason why such a need arose.
• A list of data about the person in respect of whom a record was made that is currently subject to cancellation (full name, date of birth, address of residence).
• List of attached documentation.
• Date of.

At the end of the application there must be a signature (with a transcript).

Civil registry office staff will review the application, and if they have no additional questions (for example, regarding the accuracy of the documentation provided), the entry will be cancelled.

Time frame for restoring marriage after divorce

The timing of the procedure for restoring a marriage after a divorce is a rather complex issue that depends on external factors. The duration of the trial can be a month or more. This is due to the process of requesting the necessary documents and searching for evidence. If some difficulties or controversial situations arise, the court hearing will be postponed, which means the process of renewing the marriage after a divorce may be delayed.

Regarding the civil registry office, it should be noted that within the meaning of Art. 72 Federal Law No. 143, the duration of the administrative process can be a week, or maybe 2 months. This depends on the workload of employees and the search for the appropriate entry. If there is already a court decision and there are no difficulties, the registry office employees can issue a marriage certificate in 2-3 days. In cases where citizens apply outside their place of residence and need to make a request, the process of restoring a marriage after a divorce may take 2 months.

Registration of a marital union

After the documents have been submitted (regardless of how this was done), citizens are required to appear at the authorized body for registration at the specified time. After registration of the marriage union, the spouses will be issued a certificate confirming this fact. In this case, the date of its re-registration will be considered the beginning of the family union.

If the certificate of registration of marriage relations is lost, it can be restored by contacting the department with an application and a receipt for payment of the state duty.

Read: Replacement of a driver's license due to a change of surname

State duty

In accordance with Art. 262 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, cases related to changes in civil status records are subject to special proceedings. Consequently, the amount of state duty will differ from others. In subparagraph 8 of paragraph 1 of Art. 333.19 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, such types of cases are paid with a fee of 300 rubles. Thus, when filing an application to the court to restore the marriage after a divorce, you need to pay this amount.

For your information

When applying to the registry office, within the meaning of paragraph 5 of Art. 333.26 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, you must pay 650 rubles. This is the amount of the fee for making changes and corrections to civil registration records. We can conclude that the total amount of duties is 950 rubles.

Submitting an application through the State Services portal

In addition to contacting the registry office, citizens can use an alternative option - the help of the State Services portal. To do this, you must have an authorized account (otherwise you will need to spend additional time verifying your account).

If both applicants have an account, you will need to complete the following steps:

1. Filling out an application

The application will need to provide information about the parties. It is important to take into account that the application will be general, but citizens must fill it out each from their personal account (personal account). In addition, one of the future spouses will have to choose a registry office and a date, and the second will have to confirm the choice of the first.

1. Payment of state duty

Just as with a personal application, when processing documents through the portal, applicants will need to pay a state fee. If payment is made remotely (using one of the methods offered on the website), then you will need to deposit not 350 rubles as in the method described above, but 245 rubles.

When can they refuse to restore a marriage after a divorce?

Restoring a marriage after a divorce is a fairly narrow procedure that is not available to every category of citizen, as has already been mentioned. Yes, Art. 26 of the RF IC indicates that the renewal of a marriage union is impossible if one of two grounds exists:

1. One of the spouses is against it. For example, before a citizen was declared dead or absent, the parties wanted to file a divorce and were in a state of conflict. The dissolution of the marriage union occurred, and even after the spouse’s appearance, the relationship did not improve; one of the parties, no matter which, opposes the restoration of the marriage after the divorce.
2. In paragraph 2 of Art. 26 of the RF IC provides for an important condition - the second spouse should not be in an official relationship with a third person. However, you need to understand that if the first one appears, the second one can break the marriage union with another person, which means restoration of the marriage is possible. The appearance of a missing citizen in itself does not serve as a basis for divorce of other persons.

The legislator indicates that only one of the specified grounds is sufficient for the restoration of marriage after divorce to be denied. At the same time, the citizen who has appeared is allowed to appeal to the court to annul the previous decision, but an appeal to the registry office is prohibited.

When it is impossible to renew a divorced marriage

Due to certain circumstances, the marriage cannot be restored. This:

• divorce by mutual consent of husband and wife in court or the registry office (that is, not due to the fact that one of the spouses was declared dead or missing);
• the presence of one of the spouses of the other not dissolved marriage;
• lack of will of a man or woman to restore the family.

Dear readers! Our articles talk about typical ways to resolve legal issues, but each case is unique. If you want to find out how to solve your particular problem, please use the online consultant form on the right or call:

7; 8

It's fast and free!

Property after restoration of marriage after divorce

In accordance with Art. 44 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, when a marriage is restored after a divorce, both property and non-property rights and obligations of the spouses are renewed. That is, after the procedure, everything returns to its place and there is no difference from an uninterrupted marriage. Regarding property, you should be aware of the following provisions:

1. According to Art. 43 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, after a person has been declared absent, employees of the guardianship authorities appoint a manager of his property. A special contract is concluded with him, the validity of which does not exceed 5 years. This period is determined by Art. 1016 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
2. The temporary manager must pay off all debts and realize the obligations that were assigned to the missing person, as well as transfer part of the property to the persons whom he supported. These could be minor children, disabled parents, or a spouse.
3. If a citizen is declared dead, the property is transferred according to the general rules of inheritance if there was no will.

Useful video

If the location of a person recognized (judicially) as dead is discovered, or if he appears, the court will cancel the previously adopted decision.

• about the author
• Recent publications

Anna Vladimirovna

I am the editor-in-chief of our information portal, and I carefully review all the material from our experts before publishing them here. An economist by education, specialization in accounting, analysis and audit. Experience as an accountant for 10 years. I can work with long texts and legal documentation.

What happens to the property after the marriage is restored?

What was acquired jointly regains this status and is the state of the two spouses. This rule is specified in Art. 34 of the RF IC, which specifies in detail what common property is. Regarding those objects that were the personal property of the missing/deceased person, the following rules apply:

1. According to Art. 44 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, everything that was under the control of the manager is returned to the owner on the basis of a court decision. The management agreement is terminated and ownership is restored.
2. In Part 2 of Art. 46 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation states that a person previously recognized as dead has the right to demand the return of property transferred free of charge to a relative or other citizen by inheritance.

Attention
There are some exceptions to the general rule. If funds and securities were to be transferred, and the recipient did not know that the person was alive, then the money and securities cannot be reclaimed forcibly. This is due to the fact that the recipient was mistaken in good faith. This rule is enshrined in paragraph 3 of Art. 302 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

Children upon restoration of marriage

Restoration of marriage after divorce provides for the restoration of all rights and responsibilities of the spouses, including in relation to children. Such a marriage is subject to the general norms of family law and there are no special features. Children cease to receive benefits for the loss of a breadwinner, if one was issued; in addition, the parents are not assigned alimony obligations, because there was no divorce.

For your information

In the event that there has been a divorce, division of children, determination of their place of residence, award of alimony, restoration of the marriage is impossible. In this case, the heads and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation come into force.

Contacting the Civil Registry Office

After the representative of the judicial authority has made a decision, and it has entered into legal force, and the death record has been cancelled, the next step is to contact the civil registry office.

Before contacting the authorized body, citizens will need to prepare the established list of documentation, namely:

1. Identity documents of both parties.
2. Judicial decision.
3. Certificate of termination of marital relations.
4. Statement.

The application must be filled out on a standard form, which can be obtained directly from the civil registry office.

After receiving an application from the spouses, employees of the authorized body will consider them, and then, if no additional obstacles arise, they will restore the union.

In this case, the marriage will be considered concluded not from the moment of its restoration, but from the initial registration.

Nuances

In matters of restoring a marriage after a divorce, it is important to understand what it means to recognize a person as dead or missing. Within the meaning of Art. 42 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, if a citizen’s place of residence is not known for one year, in addition, there is no information about the person’s phone number, contact details, he does not get in touch - all this is grounds for recognizing him as missing. If the second spouse does not submit a corresponding application to the court and does not want to officially establish the status of the missing person, but still wants to divorce, the application is considered according to the general rules. It is necessary to file a lawsuit demanding a divorce, defend your position and dissolve the marriage relationship unilaterally, then there will be no possibility of restoring the marriage after a divorce in the future.

IMPORTANT

In accordance with Art. 45 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, a person can become dead by a court decision when there is no information about his place of residence and contact information for 5 years, but if the citizen was in life-threatening conditions in which there is a high probability of death, he is declared dead after 6 months . Part 2 of Art. applies to the military. 45 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation - 2 years must pass from the end of hostilities for the court to recognize a serviceman as dead.

Practical examples of recovery

You can clearly understand the renewal procedure thanks to examples from practice:

Example No. 1. The Martynovs married in 2005. In 2010, a man left the house and did not return. The wife contacted the police, but the search yielded no results. In order for their common son to receive benefits, the woman visited the court to have her husband declared missing. She also dissolved her marriage unilaterally through the registry office.

After 6 years, the woman filed a lawsuit to declare her husband dead on the basis of Art. 45 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

In 2020, a man called his ex-wife. He filed an application to cancel the decision, and by mutual agreement they filed an application to register the marriage.

Example No. 2. The last time the wife saw her husband was in April 2016; he disappeared and did not contact her. In June 2020, she filed a lawsuit to declare the man missing.

The husband showed up in August 2020. The woman was not married, and by mutual agreement they decided to restore the record of registration of their relationship in the registry office. The man sent an application to annul the decision, and then they approached the registry office with a new court document.