The issue of where and when someone can file divorce is always something that comes up. It becomes an important issue for a couple who changed residency from Michigan to somewhere else and then came back.
Click here to watch the video on Where And When Can I File For Divorce in Michigan?
Imagine this for a moment.
As a couple, you lived your whole married life in Michigan. Owned houses in Michigan. You used to have a Michigan driver’s license. You left Michigan with the intent to relocate. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.
Now you move back to Michigan. You decide you’re getting a divorce. You’ve only been in Michigan for a month.
The question is, can you file your divorce in Michigan on the strength of your whole life having been in Michigan? Can you file it immediately as soon as you’re settled in? Or do you have to wait for the statutory residency period of six months before you can file?
Is there a work around for statutory residency in Michigan?
And the answer is, there’s no work around.
You have to wait until you’re here for six months.
Residency is determined by your intent to permanently reside in a place. That’s how you establish statutory residency in Michigan.
If your intention when you left was just to go on vacation, that’s no big deal.
If the intention was getting married and permanently going to Utah for example, and then you returned to Michigan because it didn’t work out, there’s no work around.
You’re going to have to wait to have Michigan retake the jurisdiction which it relinquished.
Statutory residency is going to take a period of six months.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel today for more advice on Family Law!
Goldman & Associates Law Firm is here to with information about Child Custody and Divorce in the State of Michigan.