Divorce often requires a complex procedure, and when one spouse is incarcerated for some reason, the issue of divorce becomes even more complicated. Is there still a way to divorce if your other half is in prison? How should the divorce proceedings be handled? In fact, this issue usually involves either a consensual divorce or a court-ordered divorce!

Spouse in prison - Consensual divorce

If the spouse agrees to the divorce, the process involves both parties signing a divorce agreement and then registering the divorce.

What's special here is that, typically in a consensual divorce, after signing the divorce agreement, both parties must go together to the civil registry to register the divorce. However, a convict clearly cannot go to the civil registry, so apart from the divorce agreement, the imprisoned person must prepare two additional documents:

1. A power of attorney in prison: This allows a third party to register the divorce, and it must be signed by the convict and verified by the warden with a fingerprint check.
2. A proof of imprisonment: This is processed by the convict within the prison.

Once these documents are completed, the convict's designated representative and one of the spouses must bring the divorce agreement, the power of attorney in prison, and the proof of imprisonment to any civil registry office during office hours to complete the divorce registration.

Spouse in prison - Court-ordered divorce

However, the above procedure applies when the incarcerated spouse agrees to the divorce. If the incarcerated spouse disagrees with the divorce, it must be pursued through a court-ordered divorce.

However, the above procedure applies when the incarcerated spouse agrees to the divorce. If the incarcerated spouse disagrees with the divorce, it must be pursued through a court-ordered divorce:
'One of the spouses may file for divorce under the following circumstances:
1.    Bigamy.
2.    Consensual sexual intercourse with someone other than the spouse.
3.    One of the spouses subjecting the other to unbearable cohabitation due to abuse.
4.    One of the spouses abusing the other's direct relatives, causing unbearable cohabitation.
5.    Malicious desertion by one of the spouses.
6.    One of the spouses intending to murder the other.
7.    Incurable grave disease.
8.    Severe incurable mental illness.
9.    Disappearance for over three years.
10.    Committing a crime intentionally, sentenced to a fixed-term imprisonment of over six months.

Other significant reasons that make maintaining the marriage difficult, not attributable to the filing spouse, can be grounds for divorce.'

Specifically, under Civil Law Article 1052, item 10 directly states that if a spouse is 'convicted of an intentional crime with a fixed-term imprisonment of over six months,' this can be grounds for divorce. One of the spouses can use this as a basis to file a divorce lawsuit in court, achieving divorce through court judgment.
However, it is important to note that under Civil Law Article 1054, 'For the conditions listed in items 6 and 10 of Article 1052, if one party learns of the situation and more than one year has passed, or more than five years have passed since the event occurred, they may not request a divorce,' meaning that if one knows of the spouse's conviction of a crime with a sentence of more than six months within a year, or if the event of such conviction occurred over five years ago, this cannot be used as grounds for divorce unless other legal reasons are presented, or the general provisions of Civil Law Article 1052, paragraph 2 are applied to strengthen the case for a court-ordered divorce.

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