Legal Opinion Letter for a Foreign Divorce

Felicia Zipete

If you would like to remarry in Ontario and have been divorced outside of Canada, you are required to obtain a legal opinion letter from a lawyer, recognizing the foreign divorce in Ontario. The opinion letter must be submitted along with your marriage licence application.

In order to find that a divorce obtained outside of Ontario is valid, it is necessary that you provide your lawyer with evidence of the following:

• that either former spouse was ordinarily resident in the jurisdiction that granted the divorce for at least one year immediately preceding the commencement of the proceedings for the divorce; and

• if the divorce was granted after July 1, 1968, the jurisdiction of the granting court was dependent on the domicile of the wife; or

• whether there exists a “real and substantial connection” between both former spouses and the granting jurisdiction at the time of commencement of the divorce proceedings.

A legal opinion letter from an Ontario lawyer must be addressed to both applicants, and must provide reasons as to why the divorce should be recognized in the Province of Ontario.

Fees

Legal Opinion Letter ($500.00 + GST and Disbursements)