Divorce in Norway
If you don’t want to be married anymore, you have to apply for separation or divorce. The application doesn’t need to be justified and you don’t need your spouse’s consent to divorce.
If you, by the time of the divorce, live with your spouse, you first have to apply for separation. First, after one year of separation, you can apply for divorce.
If you and your spouse have been living apart from each other for the past two years, you don’t have to apply for separation first. You can apply directly for divorce. When searching for divorce directly, you have to prove that you and your spouse have been living apart from each other.
How to apply for separation or divorce
You have to apply for separation or divorce from the county governor’s office (Norwegian: “statsforvalteren”). You apply in the county you were living in during your marriage.
If you and your spouse have common children under the age of 16, you have to have a “mediation” meeting. This meeting must be held at a family counseling office and the counselor issues a certificate of mediation.
Consequences of divorce
If you changed your surname while being married, you will remain the surname after the divorce is approved. To change this, you have to apply for a name change from the Norwegian tax administration (Norwegian: “skatteetaten”).
When a divorce is approved, the spouses have to divide the fortune in the financial settlement. In the starting point, the fortune shall be divided after the principle of joint property. This starting point has some exceptions. At first, the spouses can make a prenuptial agreement. Then the spouse will keep all or some of their fortune during the marriage. Second of all, the spouses may have the right to unequal partition. This right appears to fortune that clearly can be traced back to assets the spouse had before the marriage. If the Norwegian citizen owned a car before the marriage, he or she gets the value of the car and its value at the financial settlement. .
We offer 15 minutes of free case clarification for cases related to divorce. Contact us on post@reinholdt.no or +47 23 68 85 58.