Your marriage has broken down in France. You live here, your children go to school here, the house and the bank accounts are here, and at least one of you is British. The questions arrive in a fixed order, and each answer decides the next: can you divorce in France at all now that Britain has left the European Union, which judge takes your case if your husband or wife has already filed in England, which country’s law divides the house and the pensions, where the children will live, and whether the divorce takes away the residence card that lets you stay. Before Brexit, a single European regulation organised jurisdiction and the recognition of divorces between France and the United Kingdom. That system is gone for any case started after the end of the transition period, and the two countries now look at each other the way each looks at any non-EU state, with their own conflicts rules, their own procedural timetables and a formal enforcement step for each other’s money orders. This guide works through the position in the order you will meet it: first, how to get your divorce heard by the French family judge and what to do if England is seised first; second, which law governs the divorce and the financial orders that follow it, including claims brought in France after a foreign divorce; third, the children, the occupation of the home and the fate of your residence card once the marriage ends. Every decisive rule is quoted from the Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, the Code on Entry and Residence of Foreigners or a judgment of the Cour de cassation, and every French term is explained as it appears.

I. Can I divorce in France after Brexit and which French court takes my case?

A. How do I get my divorce heard by the French family judge?

The short answer is yes: living in France gives you access to the French divorce courts, and Brexit did not close that door. The French judge for all divorce and separation cases is the juge aux affaires familiales, the family judge sitting at the tribunal judiciaire, the ordinary civil court of each area. The official service-public.fr English page states the first practical rule bluntly: French procedure requires each spouse to have their own avocat, or lawyer, throughout the case (Judicial Divorce: Procedure, service-public.fr). There is no do-it-yourself divorce before a judge in France. You sign a fee agreement with your lawyer, and if your resources are insufficient you can apply for aide juridictionnelle, legal aid, to cover all or part of the costs.

Your lawyer seises the court, meaning your lawyer formally brings the case before the judge, in one of two ways. The standard route is an assignation en divorce, a writ served by a commissaire de justice, the enforcement officer formerly called a huissier, summoning your spouse to appear. The service-public page puts it simply: Proceedings are normally brought by an assignation en divorce, a writ served by the enforcement officer, while a couple who agree on the principle can file together through a requête conjointe, a joint petition. A fully agreed divorce without any judge, the divorce par consentement mutuel par acte sous signature privée contresigné par avocats, exists too: each spouse has a lawyer, both sign a private agreement countersigned by the lawyers, and the agreement is filed with a notaire, the French public officer for family and property deeds. The Civil Code describes the starting point in these terms: “Les époux peuvent consentir mutuellement à leur divorce par acte sous signature privée contresigné par avocats, déposé au rang des minutes d’un notaire. Le divorce peut être prononcé en cas : -soit de consentement mutuel, dans le cas prévu au 1° de l’article 229-2 ; -soit d’acceptation du principe de la rupture du mariage ; -soit d’altération définitive du lien conjugal ; -soit de faute.” (article 229 of the Civil Code). For a British couple, the no-judge route is attractive but it assumes genuine agreement on everything, children, house, money, and it needs careful handling of any English property or pension, because a French private deed does not automatically bind an English pension trustee or the English Land Registry.

Which town’s judge takes the case is governed by a single article that rewards whoever prepares first. The Code of Civil Procedure provides: “Le juge aux affaires familiales territorialement compétent est : – le juge du lieu où se trouve la résidence de la famille ; – si les parents vivent séparément, le juge du lieu de résidence du parent avec lequel résident habituellement les enfants mineurs en cas d’exercice en commun de l’autorité parentale, ou du lieu de résidence du parent qui exerce seul cette autorité ; – dans les autres cas, le juge du lieu où réside celui qui n’a pas pris l’initiative de la procédure. En cas de demande conjointe, le juge compétent est, selon le choix des parties, celui du lieu où réside l’une ou l’autre. Toutefois, lorsque le litige porte seulement sur la pension alimentaire, la contribution à l’entretien et l’éducation de l’enfant, la contribution aux charges du mariage ou la prestation compensatoire, le juge compétent peut être celui du lieu où réside l’époux créancier ou le parent qui assume à titre principal la charge des enfants, même majeurs. La compétence territoriale est déterminée par la résidence au jour de la demande.” (article 1070 of the Code of Civil Procedure). The English version on service-public.fr says the same thing in plainer words: the judge of the family residence first, then the residence of the parent with the minor children, then the residence of the spouse who did not start the case. Two consequences matter for British families. First, the last sentence fixes everything at the date of the application: moving house after filing does not move the case. Second, where you and your spouse already live apart, the parent who has the children in France will usually keep the case in the French court of the children’s home, which is a strong reason not to drift into an informal separation across the Channel before taking advice.

International jurisdiction, the question whether France rather than England decides, used to be organised by the EU regulation called Brussels IIa. That is over. The British government’s guidance for legal professionals states: Brussels IIa was revoked at the end of the transition period, and England and Wales now apply jurisdictional rules based on the former EU rules, inserted into section 5(2) of the Domicile and Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1973 (Family law disputes involving the EU: guidance for legal professionals, gov.uk). In France, the mirror image applies: the French court applies its own rules of international jurisdiction, and for a couple living in France the French judge is competent where both spouses are domiciled on French soil, which is also the second case in which French law governs under article 309, examined below. The practical effect is a race that did not exist before Brexit in the same form: two sets of courts, French and English, can each consider themselves competent at the same time, and there is no longer an EU-wide litispendance, or lis pendens, mechanism forcing the second court seised to stand back automatically. The English court now has a discretionary power to pause its own proceedings where a case is already running in another country, a judgment call rather than an automatic rule. If your spouse has ties to England, file in France quickly once the decision to divorce is taken, keep proof of the date of seisin, and tell your French lawyer immediately about any English petition, because parallel cases in two countries multiply costs and can produce contradictory orders about the same house.

A timing judgment of the Cour de cassation shows how precisely French courts pin down the decisive date. In a case about which law governed a Franco-Romanian divorce, the Court held: “Mais attendu que la juridiction étant saisie au jour de la requête en divorce, c’est à cette date qu’il convient d’apprécier le domicile des époux pour la mise en oeuvre de l’article 309-2 du code civil désignant la loi française lorsque les époux sont l’un et l’autre domiciliés en France” (Cour de cassation, First Civil Chamber, 8 July 2010, appeal no. 09-66.658). The domicile of each spouse is therefore assessed on the day the divorce petition is filed, not months later when the judge first hears the parties. For a British couple where one spouse is threatening to move back to Kent or to Yorkshire, that sentence is the whole strategy: while both of you are still domiciled in France on the day of the requête, the French route to French law is open, and a later removal cannot rewrite that photograph.

B. What if my spouse files in England first, or the French judge says no?

Finding out that your husband or wife has already petitioned in England is not the end of the French case, but it changes the work your lawyer must do in the first weeks. Because Brussels IIa was revoked, the English court decides for itself whether to keep a case that overlaps with French proceedings, using its discretion to stay, and the French court decides for itself whether it has international jurisdiction over your marriage. Your French lawyer’s first defensive pleading is the exception d’incompétence, or its mirror, the argument that the French court is competent and should keep the case: habitual residence of both spouses in France, French domicile, presence of the children and of the property in France. Gather from day one the documents that prove where life actually happens: the French lease or title deed, avis d’imposition, or tax notices, school certificates, employment contracts, electricity and health-insurance records. Judges decide jurisdiction on facts, not on where you say your heart lies, and a spouse who claims to have left France while keeping the flat, the car and the doctor in Lyon will struggle.

The English side has its own timetable that your French strategy must respect. The British government’s step-by-step divorce guide frames the English process as a sequence: applications start online or by post for a court fee of £628, followed by an application for a conditional order and then for the final order (Get a divorce, gov.uk). Since the no-fault reform, the English court pronounces a conditional order first and the final order later, and only the final order ends the marriage. That gap matters in France: as long as you are still married under English law, protective French measures for the spouse and children remain available, and a French financial claim framed as ancillary to an ongoing divorce is procedurally simpler than one brought after a foreign divorce has become final, as the 2026 judgment examined below demonstrates. Conversely, if the English final order has already been pronounced before you act in France, you arrive as a divorced person asking a French judge for money or for recognition, which is a different and narrower door. Speed is therefore not aggression, it is preservation of options.

One administrative trap catches British spouses who married in Britain: the French administration expects your English marriage to be visible in French civil records. For the spouse of a French national, the residence rules examined in Part II make transcription an express condition: where the marriage was celebrated abroad, it must have been transcribed beforehand onto the French civil-status registers (article L. 423-1 of the Code on Entry and Residence of Foreigners and the Right of Asylum). Even outside that specific residence context, ask your lawyer whether your English marriage certificate, with an apostille under the Hague Apostille Convention and a sworn French translation, should be put before the French judge and the officier de l’état civil, the civil registrar. Our guide to British residence paperwork after Brexit explains the apostille and translation chain for English civil-status documents: British Residence Permit in France: Is a UK Birth Certificate Apostille Required After Brexit?. A divorce pronounced in France against a spouse whose English marriage was never properly proved or transcribed invites years of argument about names, dates and the exact scope of the matrimonial property regime, and notaires will stall the later sale of the house until the paperwork is clean.

If the French judge declines jurisdiction, read the judgment rather than despairing. A refusal is usually territorial, sending you to the court of the children’s residence or of the defendant spouse, or international, holding that England is the proper forum. Both can be appealed within strict time limits, and a fresh seisin in the right court, with the domicile evidence ordered as the 2010 judgment requires, often succeeds where a rushed first filing failed. Where England genuinely is the better forum, because the whole family has returned there or all the assets are there, then litigate there properly instead of fighting on two fronts: instruct an English solicitor, meet the English fee and timetable, and use the French courts only for what must be done in France, such as protective measures over a French house or enforcement against French assets. Our guide to appealing a refused French long-stay application shows the general method for challenging French administrative refusals within their deadlines, a discipline that applies equally to jurisdictional setbacks: French Long-Stay Visa Refused After Brexit: How a British Citizen Can Appeal Before Moving to France. What you must never do is ignore an English petition while hoping the French case absorbs it: an undefended English divorce produces a final order that follows you back to France.

II. Which law divides the money and the children, and can I stay in France after the divorce?

A. Which law governs the divorce and the money that follows it?

Once the French judge keeps the case, the next question is which country’s substantive law the judge applies to the divorce itself. French private international law answers with article 309 of the Civil Code: “Le divorce et la séparation de corps sont régis par la loi française : – lorsque l’un et l’autre époux sont de nationalité française ; – lorsque les époux ont, l’un et l’autre, leur domicile sur le territoire français ; – lorsque aucune loi étrangère ne se reconnaît compétence, alors que les tribunaux français sont compétents pour connaître du divorce ou de la séparation de corps.” (article 309 of the Civil Code). For most British couples settled in France, the second case decides everything: both spouses domiciled in France means French law governs, even if both spouses hold only British passports. The converse is equally sharp. If neither spouse is French and you no longer both live in France, the French judge must look seriously at English law, and a French divorce pronounced under the wrong law can later be attacked. That is why the 2010 judgment quoted above fixes domicile at the date of the petition: the photograph taken on filing day selects the law.

French law then offers four doors into divorce, already quoted from article 229: mutual consent, acceptance of the principle of the breakdown, definitive alteration of the conjugal bond, and fault. Fault, the divorce pour faute, still exists and still matters for money and for tactics: “Le divorce peut être demandé par l’un des époux lorsque des faits constitutifs d’une violation grave ou renouvelée des devoirs et obligations du mariage sont imputables à son conjoint et rendent intolérable le maintien de la vie commune.” (article 242 of the Civil Code). Adultery, violence, abandonment of the home and serious financial misconduct are the classic examples pleaded under this text. A British client often asks whether an English-style behaviour petition maps onto article 242; broadly yes, but the French judge wants dated, specific facts proved by documents, messages, medical certificates, police reports and bailiff-recorded evidence, not adjectives. Where fault is genuinely present, pleading it can affect the prestation compensatoire, the compensatory payment examined next, because the judge may refuse that payment to the spouse whose exclusive fault caused the break-up. Where fault is absent or unprovable, the alteration route, two years of separation turning the bond into an empty shell, or a straightforward acceptance of the principle, gets you divorced without a mud fight that poisons the negotiations over children and money.

The money itself is where British spouses suffer the biggest surprise, because France compensates the lifestyle gap with a mechanism England does not have in the same form. The Code provides: “Le divorce met fin au devoir de secours entre époux. L’un des époux peut être tenu de verser à l’autre une prestation destinée à compenser, autant qu’il est possible, la disparité que la rupture du mariage crée dans les conditions de vie respectives. Cette prestation a un caractère forfaitaire. Elle prend la forme d’un capital dont le montant est fixé par le juge. Toutefois, le juge peut refuser d’accorder une telle prestation si l’équité le commande, soit en considération des critères prévus à l’article 271 , soit lorsque le divorce est prononcé aux torts exclusifs de l’époux qui demande le bénéfice de cette prestation, au regard des circonstances particulières de la rupture.” (article 270 of the Civil Code). The prestation compensatoire is a lump-sum capital payment, fixed by the judge by weighing the length of the marriage, the age and health of each spouse, careers sacrificed for children, and the pensions each will actually receive. A British wife who gave up ten years of National Health Service pension accrual to follow her husband to Toulouse and raise three children is the textbook beneficiary; a short marriage between two earners with similar pensions produces little or nothing. Crucially, this claim lives inside the divorce case and dies with its timetable. The Cour de cassation held in March 2026: “Il résulte des articles 270 et 271 du code civil que le juge doit se prononcer par une même décision sur le divorce et sur la disparité que celui-ci peut créer dans les conditions de vie respectives des époux et que la demande de prestation compensatoire, accessoire de la demande en divorce, n’est recevable que si elle est formée au cours de la procédure de divorce.” And the Court added that “Ces règles ne sont pas rendues inapplicables par le seul fait que le litige soumis au juge français présenterait des éléments d’extranéité.” (Cour de cassation, First Civil Chamber, 25 March 2026, appeal no. 23-20.905). In that case a wife divorced in Hungary in 2004 tried to claim a French prestation compensatoire in 2013, and the claim failed because it had not been made during the divorce proceedings. The lesson for a British spouse is brutal and simple: if you want French financial compensation, claim it inside the French divorce while it is running, with figures, pension valuations and housing needs on the table, because a later second thought is inadmissible.

The companion 2021 judgment in the same Hungarian saga sharpens the warning about timing and applicable regimes. The Court recalled: “Selon ce texte, les dispositions du règlement ne sont applicables qu’aux actions judiciaires intentées et aux actes authentiques reçus postérieurement à son entrée en vigueur.” (Cour de cassation, First Civil Chamber, 12 May 2021, appeal no. 19-19.531). The principle travels directly to Brexit: whether EU instruments or the old or new national rules apply to your case depends on when proceedings were started relative to the end of the transition period. A divorce action launched before that cut-off lives under the old European system, including its recognition machinery; one launched after lives under the new third-State logic. Tell your lawyer the exact date of any petition filed on either side of the Channel, because that date selects the legal world you live in.

Finally, an English money order does not walk into France by itself. Since the United Kingdom is now a third State for civil justice, an English financial-remedy order over French assets needs the French enforcement procedure called exequatur before a French enforcement officer can seize or sell. The Code states the frame: “Les jugements rendus par les tribunaux étrangers et les actes reçus par les officiers étrangers sont exécutoires sur le territoire de la République de la manière et dans les cas prévus par la loi.” (article 509 of the Code of Civil Procedure). In practice your lawyer issues proceedings before the tribunal judiciaire asking it to declare the English judgment enforceable, and the court controls international jurisdiction, due process and compatibility with French public policy before granting the order. A June 2026 judgment illustrates the control in action: faced with American jury verdicts, the Cour de cassation reviewed the refusal of exequatur, the case recording that “Le 24 février 2023, M. [J] a assigné la coopérative et la société productrice en exequatur de ces décisions.” (Cour de cassation, First Civil Chamber, 17 June 2026, appeal no. 24-16.004). The details concerned American procedure, but the structure is the one your English order will face: a standalone French action, full translations, proof that the English proceedings respected the rights of the defence, and a French judge who can say no. Budget for this second case when you negotiate in England; an English order that cannot be enforced where the villa sits is paper.

B. Where will the children live, who keeps the home, and can I still stay in France?

Children concentrate every consequence of divorce, residence, school, language and the right to travel with them to see grandparents in Britain. The French family judge decides autorité parentale, or parental authority, almost always kept joint, the children’s habitual residence, visiting and holiday contact, and each parent’s financial contribution. The territorial rule of article 1070 quoted above points to the judge of the children’s home, and that judge’s orders are immediately enforceable in France. Two Hague Conventions keep working between France and Britain despite Brexit, and the gov.uk guidance confirms both. On abduction: the 1980 Hague Convention on child abduction, given effect in the United Kingdom by the Child Abduction and Custody Act 1985, continues to operate between the United Kingdom and every EU member state. If your spouse wrongfully retains the children in England after a holiday, or you are accused of the same in France, the 1980 Convention’s return procedure applies as before. On longer-term protection measures: for cases started after the end of the transition period the courts apply the 1996 Hague Convention on the protection of children instead. Jurisdiction over parental responsibility and the circulation of those orders now runs through the 1996 Convention rather than Brussels IIa. Practically, never travel with the children without the other parent’s written consent, keep school and medical records showing the settled home, and ask the French judge for precise holiday-travel permissions naming dates, destinations and passport arrangements, because a vague order invites a border dispute at Dover.

The family home needs its own order. Until the divorce is final, the judge on interim measures, the juge de la mise en état or the family judge in the ordonnance d’orientation, allocates the use of the dwelling, sets who pays the mortgage or rent in the meantime, and can restrain dispositions of property. After the divorce, the home follows the matrimonial property regime and the partition, the partage, drawn up by the notaire or ordered by the court. British couples are often surprised twice: first, that the spouse who stays in the house during the case usually pays an occupation indemnity, the indemnité d’occupation, to the other; second, that keeping the house means buying out the other’s share at a judicially controlled value, not keeping it by inertia. If the house was bought through a French property company, the société civile immobilière or SCI that many British families use, the shares in the company, not the bricks, are divided, and the company’s debts follow the shares. Our companion guides explain how British families meet French property tax and company paperwork year by year, which is the background the divorce judge will assume you know: the SCI late-return guide and the second-home tax challenge guide on this site. Do not stop paying the mortgage to pressure your spouse; French judges punish that tactic in the financial orders, and the lending bank can seize and sell regardless of who sleeps where.

Then comes the question British clients ask with the most anxiety: does the divorce take away my right to live in France? The answer depends on which card you hold. If you are the spouse of a French national, your one-year carte de séjour vie privée et familiale, or private and family life card, was granted on three conditions: “L’étranger marié avec un ressortissant français, se voit délivrer une carte de séjour temporaire portant la mention ” vie privée et familiale ” d’une durée d’un an lorsque les conditions suivantes sont réunies : 1° La communauté de vie n’a pas cessé depuis le mariage ; 2° Le conjoint a conservé la nationalité française ; 3° Lorsque le mariage a été célébré à l’étranger, il a été transcrit préalablement sur les registres de l’état civil français.” (article L. 423-1 of the Code on Entry and Residence of Foreigners and the Right of Asylum). Divorce ends the communauté de vie, the shared married life, so renewal on the same spouse-of-French basis fails unless an exception saves you. The law carves out the essential one: “La rupture de la vie commune n’est pas opposable lorsqu’elle est imputable à des violences familiales ou conjugales ou lorsque l’étranger a subi une situation de polygamie. En cas de rupture de la vie commune imputable à des violences familiales ou conjugales subies après l’arrivée en France du conjoint étranger, mais avant la première délivrance de la carte de séjour temporaire, le conjoint étranger se voit délivrer la carte de séjour prévue à l’article L. 423-1 sous réserve que les autres conditions de cet article soient remplies.” (article L. 423-5 of the Code on Entry and Residence of Foreigners and the Right of Asylum). A British victim of domestic violence therefore keeps the protection of the card, and should file complaints, medical certificates and any ordonnance de protection, or protection order, into both the criminal and the residence files. How to obtain and defend the spouse-of-French card step by step is set out in our dedicated guide: British and Married to a French Citizen After Brexit? How to Get, Renew and Defend Your Vie Privee et Familiale Card.

Holders of the ten-year carte de résident, the resident card granted after at least three years of marriage with three years of regular stay, face a parallel rule with a longer shadow: “Elle peut être retirée en raison de la rupture de la vie commune dans un délai maximal de quatre années à compter de la célébration du mariage. Toutefois, lorsque la communauté de vie a été rompue par le décès de l’un des conjoints ou en raison de violences familiales ou conjugales, l’autorité administrative ne peut pas procéder au retrait pour ce motif. En outre, lorsqu’un ou des enfants sont nés de cette union et sous réserve que l’étranger titulaire de la carte de résident établisse contribuer effectivement, depuis la naissance, à l’entretien et à l’éducation du ou des enfants dans les conditions prévues à l’article 371-2 du code civil, l’autorité administrative ne peut pas procéder au retrait au motif de la rupture de la vie commune.” (article L. 423-6 of the Code on Entry and Residence of Foreigners and the Right of Asylum). Three shields in one paragraph: death, violence, and the parent who genuinely maintains and educates the children. A British father or mother who stays in France, pays maintenance and exercises contact after the divorce is therefore protected against withdrawal on the ground of the break-up alone. If none of these routes fits, the administration examines other grounds, salaried work, self-employment, studies or health, so line up the next basis before the current card expires, and never let the card lapse while telling yourself the divorce is still running: expiry plus divorce is the combination that produces removal orders.

British holders of a Withdrawal Agreement residence card are in a different corridor. Their right comes from the Agreement itself rather than from the marriage to a French national, so a divorce from a French spouse does not automatically cancel the card the way it cancels the spouse-of-French logic, but every information given to the prefecture must remain exact, the address current and the supporting documents consistent between the divorce file and the residence file. Whatever your status, three reflexes protect you from the day the marriage breaks: keep every card, receipt and prefecture letter; report violence immediately to the police, the doctor and your lawyer so the L. 423-5 shield can be proved; and file the next residence application on time on the strongest available ground, employed, self-employed, parent of French-resident children or student, rather than waiting to see what the divorce judge decides. Residence and divorce run on separate rails with separate clocks, and winning on one while missing the deadline on the other is the most common tragedy in these files.

Conclusion

A British divorce in France after Brexit is entirely possible, but it runs on three clocks that no longer synchronise themselves. First, jurisdiction: seise the French family judge where the family actually lives, prove domicile at the date of the petition as the Cour de cassation requires, and react within days if an English petition appears, because the two courts no longer defer to each other automatically. Second, money: French law governs where both spouses are domiciled in France, fault remains available under article 242 with dated proof, and the compensatory payment under article 270 must be claimed inside the divorce itself, since the 2026 judgment shuts the door on later French claims after a foreign divorce, while English money orders over French assets need a separate exequatur action under article 509. Third, children and residence: the children’s judge follows the children’s home, the Hague Conventions of 1980 and 1996 still bridge the Channel for abduction and protection, the departing spouse pays for staying in the house, and your residence card survives the divorce only through the violence, children or alternative-status routes of articles L. 423-5 and L. 423-6. Put the English marriage certificate with apostille and translation before the judge, value the pensions on both sides before negotiating, and file the next residence application before the current one dies. Taken in that order, the French system gives a British spouse exactly what it gives any spouse: a competent judge, a calculable financial outcome and a right to stay that depends on facts proved on time.

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