Divorce Attorneys, rights?

[Sweet Licorice]

Hello, and thank you for having me. I searched the forum for "divorce," but I didn't locate an answer for my question, so here goes.

I'm here under family reunification, as a non-EU citizen married to a Danish man. Currently I am awaiting an answer from Immigration about permanent residency, but it seems stuck in limbo, which is not uncommon.

My husband wants me to move out of our andelsbolig and eventually divorce, but I'm worried I'll be deported if I get a divorce without permanent residency. We were married in 2005.

Another question I have is, am I entitled to half the apartment which he bought after our marriage? Certain friends say I surely am, however, the less than helpful women at legal services said not.

I suppose it's best for me to speak to a divorce attorney familiar with non-EU residents and the rules. So, would any of you have such an attorney, and if so, would you mind sharing with me?

[fundiver199]

If you move apart, before your application for permanent residence permit has been approved, as the main rule your residence permit will be revoked. So your concern is not unfounded.

But you can be allowed to keep it after an individual assessment, e.g. if you have children with your husband, who should not be forced to choose between mom or dad. Or you can get a new residence permit, if you worked for the same employer for at least two years.

So you expulsion from Denmark is not an authomatic consequence of a divorce. However since permanent residence permit is apparently so close at hand, it really would be much better, if you could just stay together for those few more weeks or month, it might take.

[mh1]

As for your question about whether you are entitled to 'half the apartment', it can be answered with a simple NO.

However, you may be referring to 'half of the value of the apartment'.

Many people misunderstand the Danish "Legal Matrimonial Property Regime". The law states that unless otherwise decided by a pre-nuptual or post-nuptual agreement, which furthermore has to be notarized (tinglyst) to be valid, the spouses will have 'community property regime'. Generally this is misunderstood to mean that after marriage everything becomes JOINT property, that is: both spouses become owners of it.

That is not the case. Each spouse remains and becomes sole owner of all assets that are not bought jointly or have been made joint property by clear agreement. This includes income, inheritance, gifts, donations and lottery wins etc.

When the assets are to be divided, then the value of the assets of each spouse is calculated separately:

wife: bank account: +20.000 kr.
car: +15.000 kr.
debt : - 8.000 kr.
---------------------------------------------------
wife total assets: +17.000 kr.

husband: bank account: +5.000 kr.
car: 0 kr.
apartment: +150.000
debt: - 180.000 kr.
-----------------------------------------------------
husband total assets: - 25.000 kr.

Then the POSITIVE value of the assets will be divided equally, while the negative stays with the debtor.

This means that the wife in the example will keep the car, but will have to hand half of the 17.000 kr. over to the husband: 8.500 kr. in cash.

The husband will keep the apartment, and since his debt is more than his assets are worth he does not have anything that has to be shared.

Whether you might be entitled to half of the VALUE of your husband's apartment cannot be answered without knowing the value of each of your separate assets. Any assets you may have in your home country will be included in the calculation.

The apartment is a kind of Mutual Home Ownership (MHO) with your husband as the one who has the right to reside in a particular apartment. He has the right to ask you to move out, when he does not want to continue the marriage.

I do not know how long you have been waiting for an answer about your permanent residence permit, but there is one of the users in forum, who just got his permanent residence after waiting a little less than 7 months, so if that is about the time you have waited, maybe yours in on its way. If your husband can see that he just needs to hold out a short while longer, maybe he will be more likely not to push to get you out.