Registering a divorce in the civil registry in the Netherlands

Has a judge has agreed to your divorce (echtscheiding)? Then you and your partner will be sent a copy of the final order (echtscheidingsbeschikking). When does your divorce become final? Once you have registered the final order in the municipality’s civil registry (burgerlijke stand van de gemeente).

You can register the final order in the Register of Births, Deaths, Marriages and Civil Partnerships (burgerlijke stand van de gemeente). Do this at the municipality where you were married. This must be done within 6 months of the court ruling. When you have done this you are legally divorced.

This is how it works for you

Your (future) place of residence falls under:

Municipality of Apeldoorn

Here is some information from your municipality.

Municipality of Apeldoorn: Registering a divorce in the civil registry

You can have your marriage dissolved by divorce. If you want a divorce, you have to go to court to do so. The divorce is not final until it is registered at the civil registry of the municipality where you were married.

There is a procedure before you can file for divorce with us. To get divorced, you need a mediator (divorce mediation) and/or lawyer. Your mediator or lawyer submits the request for divorce to the court where the judge pronounces the divorce.

Your mediator or lawyer then receives the court's ruling in an order. If the court's decision is final and neither party can lodge an appeal, then (in most cases) your mediator or lawyer will register the order with the municipality where the marriage was concluded within 6 months.

If you are married in the Netherlands and divorced in the Netherlands, your lawyer will usually ensure that your divorce decree ends up at the municipality where you were married.
If you are married abroad and divorced in the Netherlands, you will have to register the decree with the registrar of births, marriages and deaths in The Hague. In most cases, your lawyer will ensure that the divorce decree ends up in The Hague.
If you divorced abroad, then have your foreign divorce decree processed in the Basic Registration of Persons. The documents should be legalised in the country itself if required. If the judgment has not been translated into Dutch, German, English or French, this must still be done by a sworn interpreter/translator.

We process the divorce notification for you within 1 working day.

Entry in the divorce register is free of charge.

Once the municipality has received the documents, it will register the divorce as soon as possible. The divorce becomes official as soon as the municipality registers it in the civil registry.