How do I know if I am divorced? We get asked this question by many
Dominicans and other latinos from the USA. Usually the spouses are
separated, perhaps for many years already, some years ago one of the
spouses told the other that he/she was going to the DR to take care of
the divorce only to never be heard of again. The person who contacts us
now wishes to marry again, and needs proof of the divorce. We can help.
I am an attorney in the USA, representing a client who was granted a divorce in the Dominican Republic between 1/1/87 and 12/31/88? We are unsure of the exact date and place. Thanks, you've already told me that both your client and his ex-wife are non-Dominicans, which makes our search like the proverbial needle in the haystack. We can charge you for a search of the electronic database, and who knows, we may strike it lucky, and locate the divorce record, but I doubt we shall locate it. The only reliable way for us to locate the record would be if your client can tell us where and when the divorce was decreed.
My ex-husband and I were divorced in the late 1970s a short drive outside Santo Domingo, I cannot find the papers. It was not a long drive as I remember but a very rural village at the time. The TV program "60 Minutes" had done a special on Dominican Republic divorces so it was around that year but I can't find info on it online. Thanks, without more specific details, it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack, since most old divorce records remain only in the original ledgers, and have not yet been entered into the registry offices' electronic database.
My ex-wife and I divorced in Santo Domingo in 1980, and I now need a copy of our Dominican divorce certificate. If I give you the approximate date of the divorce, and our full names, would you be able to help? Possibly. Many old records are not in the registry-office database, so if your divorce record hasn't been computerized, we have to search manually. Santo Domingo has 16 registry offices, so to save us lots of legwork and telephone calls, please send us as much information as possible, for example, do you remember the name of your lawyer?
I want a copy of my divorce papers but I'm not sure of the year and the date but it was in Tamboril please help. Thanks, if you send us your cédula (Dominican ID card) number, we may be able to track it down. Otherwise, unless your divorce record is in the registry-office database, since you don't even know an approximate date, it's going to be difficult for us to search.
Old Dominican divorce records
Searching for old Dominican divorce records is some of the most challenging work we do.
Most of our Dominican divorce enquiries come from non-Dominicans who got divorced in the 1970s and 1980s under the Dominican Republic's quickie divorce laws.
Common to many enquiries is the fact that now years later, our customers cannot always remember the specific date of their divorce, nor the name of the town where the divorce was decreed.
We search for your old Dominican divorce records by working backwards:
REGISTRY OFFICE – A Dominican divorce is “pronounced” (= finalised) when the registry office registers the court decree in its ledger, and the registrar has signed the record so that a divorce certificate can be issued. It is this divorce certificate which confirms that the marriage ended, and that the divorce is irreversible and final. We start our search at the registry office because:
- Dominican civil registry-office records for the entire country are in one central database known as PARC. Old court records are not searchable online.
- The divorce record at the registry office usually provides the date and docket number of the Dominican court decree.
TOWN HALL – Before a Dominican court divorce decree may be finalised at the registry office, it must first be registered at the town hall. Town halls generally don’t keep copies of the decrees that they register, but they are sometimes able to provide us with invaluable information, such as the docket number and date of the decree, information which is not always available at the registry office.
COURTHOUSE – Old Dominican divorce decrees have usually not been scanned or indexed so are not easily searchable. When we approach the clerk-of-court to search for an old decree, they usually refer to their index of decrees which are kept in old binders, school exercise books or sometimes unorganised loose sheets, with one line for each decree. The actual divorce files are stored in storage facilities off-site. Dominican divorce files from the courthouse would typically include:
- Your divorce decree, of which we can obtain an original certified copy for you.
- Separation agreement that you and your ex-spouse signed, relating to custody of children, payment of alimony, division of property etc
- Copy of the divorce announcement published in the Dominican newspaper