Divorce in Cyprus

Divorce in Cyprus is the legal dissolution of a civil or religious marriage granted by the Family Court. The Family Court takes the case when at least one spouse has lived in Cyprus for a continuous period of more than three months. It ends the marriage on one of the grounds Article 27 of the Marriage Law sets out, most often a serious breakdown of the relationship.

To obtain a civil divorce in Cyprus, you must file a divorce petition with the Family Court to get a date for the application hearing. The only documents required to be presented to the court are the marriage certificate and an affidavit from the divorce applicant.

The application will be forwarded to your spouse. The divorce may be issued in two months if the application is not contested.

If you had a religious ceremony, you must notify the bishop (for Christian Orthodox) or your religious leader (for other religions).

The divorce lawyers of our firm can file a divorce petition (dissolution of marriage) for a civil or religious marriage that took place in Cyprus or abroad, provided that either spouse has lived in Cyprus for a continuous period of more than three months. Article 20 of the Marriage Law applies the divorce rules to every civil or religious marriage, whatever the place and date of the wedding.

A further requirement for issuing a divorce in Cyprus is knowing the other spouse's address, either their work or their home address, so that the divorce papers can be served through a bailiff. It makes no difference whether the applicant was married in Cyprus or abroad.

What is the cost of a divorce in Cyprus?

Filing the application at the Family Court costs €113 in court fees. Service, sealing and any interim application add to that, so the court side of a straightforward case usually reaches about €200. Court fees carry no VAT.

Our legal fee for an uncontested divorce with both spouses in Cyprus starts at €800 plus VAT at 19%, which is €952. That puts the total at roughly €1,150.

The divorce process in Cyprus

The party against whom the divorce will be filed is the "respondent." The spouse who files the divorce petition in Cyprus is the "applicant." Once the divorce lawyer files the petition, the Court sets a specific date for the first hearing.

At the same time, the divorce petition has to be served on the other spouse, "the respondent," so that they are present at the hearing. They can instead appoint a divorce lawyer to defend the petition.

The "respondent" has the right not to appear at the first hearing, and the divorce will be issued in their absence by the procedure led by the "applicant". If the respondent appears at the first hearing and objects to the divorce, the divorce procedure will take much longer to complete.

The fastest way to issue a divorce is when the "respondent" does not appear at the first hearing. If the "respondent" does not appear at the Family Court, the divorce case will be set for proof in approximately a week.

The divorce cases currently take place at the Family Court in Limassol every Wednesday. When the case is set for proof, the divorce lawyer, following the facts told by the "applicant," will prepare an affidavit for the applicant. It will be filed on the day the divorce case is set for its second hearing.

After filing the affidavit, the lawyer will appear at the hearing and present the affidavit of the "applicant". If all requirements are met, such as serving the documents on the "respondent" through a valid method, the divorce will be issued on the same day. Then it takes a few days to receive the divorce certificate.

Divorce in Cyprus can be simple or complicated, depending on the facts of each case. Our divorce lawyers can assist you with your requests and offer a free initial consultation at our office or via email. Get in touch to talk your case through.

Divorce in civil marriage

A civil divorce is the legal process through which a governmental authority, such as a Cypriot Family Court, formally ends a marriage. It is distinct from a religious divorce or annulment, which relates to the rules and recognition of a specific faith.

Whether the wedding occurred in Cyprus or abroad, if one of the spouses has lived in Cyprus for a continuous period of more than three months, the Family Court has jurisdiction to dissolve the marriage. Dissolving a civil marriage at a Family Court, especially if the spouses agree on the divorce, is one of the most straightforward procedures.

The only documents required to be presented to the court are the marriage certificate and an affidavit from the divorce applicant. When both parties agree, the time required to receive the divorce papers in a civil marriage is about 1.5 months or less, depending on the circumstances of each case.

When the divorce becomes final and when you can remarry

The court's decision is not quite the end of it. The dissolution becomes irrevocable once the 42-day period for filing an appeal expires. Appeals against Family Court decisions go to the Court of Appeal, which took over that role from the former Second Instance Family Court in 2023.

Neither spouse can remarry before that moment. A marriage celebrated before a previous marriage has been irrevocably dissolved is void under Article 17 of the Marriage Law.

Which Family Court hears your case

Three Family Courts operate in Cyprus: one for Nicosia and Kyrenia, one for Limassol and Paphos, and one for Larnaca and Famagusta. Benches sit in Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca and Paphos. A single judge hears each case.

Law 118(I)/2023 repealed the Family Courts (Religious Groups) Law of 1994. Family matters for the religious groups the Constitution recognises now fall to these same Family Courts, rather than to the separate courts those communities used before.

Legal grounds for divorce in Cyprus

Article 27 of the Marriage Law 104(I)/2003 sets out the grounds. The main one is a serious breakdown of the relationship for a reason concerning the respondent or both spouses, to the point where continuing the marriage has become unbearable for the applicant.

Five facts raise a presumption of that breakdown, and the respondent then has to disprove it:

• Bigamy.
• Adultery.
• Desertion of the applicant, with no minimum period.
• An attempt on the applicant's life.
• Violence against the applicant or against a child of the family, in the sense the Violence in the Family (Prevention and Protection of Victims) Law gives that word.

Two other routes stand on their own. Two years of separation makes the breakdown irrebuttable, and short attempts at reconciliation do not interrupt the period provided they add up to no more than three months. Consensual dissolution needs no fault at all.

Article 27 carries two further grounds: a change of sex of either spouse, and the disappearance of the other spouse. The death of a spouse dissolves the marriage without any court decision.

Consensual divorce in Cyprus

Cyprus has had a consensual divorce since 2023. Law 1(I)/2023 added a ground of consensual dissolution of marriage to Article 27 of the Marriage Law, so spouses who both want the marriage ended no longer have to blame each other for it.

Either spouse can file the application, or both can file it together, and both then declare their consent before the Family Court. Neither has to allege adultery, violence or any other fault. The court can dissolve the marriage at that hearing.

The six-month wait applies to this route only. A consensual application can be filed at least six months after the wedding. A petition based on a serious breakdown of the relationship can be filed at any time.

Where there are minor children, the parties must settle all matters relating to the children by court order and file a copy with the Family Court. They can instead file a joint application asking the court to make that order, which the court can issue at the same sitting.

Pre-nuptial agreements remain outside Cyprus law. A Family Court deciding a property claim is not bound by one.

Legal consequences of divorce and separation

When the marriage is dissolved, and the certificate of divorce is issued, then if one of the ex-spouses cannot secure their income or property, they are entitled to claim maintenance from the other if one of the following requirements is met:

• At the time of the divorce, they are at an age, or in a state of health, that does not allow them to begin or continue the pursuit of an appropriate occupation.
• They have custody of a minor child, an adult child, or another dependent person who, due to a physical or mental disability, cannot take care of themselves, and for that reason they cannot pursue an appropriate profession.
• They do not find a suitable permanent job, or need professional training, in both cases for a period that cannot exceed three years from the date of divorce.
• In any other case where fairness requires maintenance at the time the divorce is issued.

A maintenance order rises automatically by 10% every 24 months. The payer can apply to the court to stop that increase or to limit it.

Maintenance can be refused or cut back for serious reasons, in particular where the marriage was short, where the claimant carries serious blame for the breakdown, or where the claimant brought on their own poverty deliberately.

Where there are minor children, one application now covers everything. Article 17A of the Family Courts Law, added in 2023, lets a spouse file a single application dealing with parental responsibility, maintenance, the family home and the use of household goods, rather than a separate petition for each.

The same judge hears every case between the same parties, and the court can make interim orders on those matters before the final decision.

Division of property after the divorce: financial settlement

If the ex-spouses have gained property or increased their assets during the marriage, or before the marriage for the purposes of the marriage, they should file a petition at the Court in case they do not agree to share their property with the other spouse.

Cyprus law provides that if the marriage is dissolved, or if the spouses are separated before receiving the divorce, and the property of one spouse is increased, the other spouse has the right to bring a claim to the Family Court. That spouse must have contributed in some way to the increase, and can request the return of the part of the increase that comes from their contribution.

The contributing spouse's share is presumed at one third of the increase. Either side can prove a larger or a smaller contribution. Property acquired by gift, inheritance or legacy does not count towards the increase.

The claim is time barred three years after the marriage is dissolved or annulled. Missing that deadline ends the claim, whatever its merits, so raise it early.

Read more about the division of property upon divorce in Cyprus.

Divorcing in Cyprus when neither spouse lives here

A divorce itself still needs one spouse to have lived in Cyprus for more than three months. The property claim does not.

Article 11 of the Family Courts Law was amended in 2023 so that no residence in Cyprus by either or both parties is required where property exists within the meaning of the Regulation of Property Relations between Spouses Law. Where the dispute takes in immovable property, the Family Court for the district in which that property sits hears the whole of it.

Changes to the procedure before the Church

In Cyprus, marriage is conducted through a civil ceremony. Most parties, though, have a church wedding too. In such a case, the civil divorce must be preceded by a church procedure.

Following amendments to the law, the procedure is as follows:

• The applicant submits an online notification to the bishop of the area where the applicant resides that the parties intend to request a divorce: Formal notification of spiritual termination of the wedding - pnevmatikilysi.cy.net (website opens only from inside Cyprus).
• The bishop will invite the applicant and the respondent to a conciliation meeting and will seek to ease the problems between the parties.
• If the conciliation meeting fails or does not take place, the parties may file for divorce after 6 weeks.
• Once the divorce decision becomes final, the Registrar of the Family Court sends a copy to the bishop, who performs the spiritual dissolution of the marriage within fifteen days. If the bishop does not, the divorce itself stands.

Not everyone has to go through this. The notification is not required where the breakdown of the marriage rests on violence in the family and a report exists with the Police or the Social Welfare Services. The older exemptions for the disappearance or the mental incapacity of the other spouse still apply.

The Church runs a separate procedure for the certificate you need in order to marry in church again. A three-member Council examines the application in person and reports to the bishop, and its decision becomes irrevocable thirty days after it is notified.

Parties from religions other than the Greek Christian Orthodox, who took a marriage ceremony in that other religion, will carry out the same procedure with their religious leader.

Online divorce in Cyprus

If you have been married in Cyprus or abroad and your spouse has been living in Cyprus for more than three months, you can file a divorce petition. The procedure cannot be executed online, but our lawyers can take your instructions by email or video call and act for you here, usually under a power of attorney. They will then serve the divorce papers on the spouse who lives in Cyprus.

There are two requirements to begin this process of divorce, which are the following:

1. The spouse has lived in Cyprus for a continuous period of more than three months.
2. You, the applicant, know the spouse's address and contact details, so you can serve the divorce papers on them through a bailiff.

A Cyprus divorce is recognised across the European Union with no further procedure, and no court in another Member State can reopen the question of whether the Cyprus court had jurisdiction. Denmark and countries outside the Union apply their own recognition rules, so tell us early if you need the divorce to be effective somewhere in particular.