Q: We were residents of IL but moved to Haiti in 2014. How can IL recognize Haitian divorce decree?
I am president of 501(c)(3) in IL. We have IL drivers' licenses and lived there most of our married lives (45 years). But in 2014 we moved to Haiti as missionaries. We keep a legal address in IL but it is a mail center, not a residence. My wife has been staying with her sister in MN for 5 months because of medical tests and treatments. I want to file for divorce. If I get a divorce in Haiti, how and where can it be recognized in the US? Is there any way we are still recognized as residents of IL? Or would one or both of us have to return to IL for 6 months?
A:
Illinois no longer has jurisdiction of you, of your wife, or of the subject matter, so take IL off of your list of possibilities. You are residents of Haiti, and that is where your divorce should be filed.
There is some argument that your wife may now be a resident of MN, and perhaps she could file there, but you would have to voluntarily consent to using that jurisdiction. It would be silly for either of you to live in IL for the required 90 days merely for jurisdictional purposes.
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