Hello. I’m Carter Allen lead attorney here at Holcomb Law. Today. I’m going to give you some of the basics of military divorce in Virginia. As you might expect, many of our military members serving and based here in the Old Dominion have come here from other states or even other countries. The requirements of military service put an incredible strain on married life, and sometimes that strain can break a marriage apart, and divorce is the inevitable result.
In Virginia, no suit for annulling a marriage or for a divorce shall be maintainable unless one of the parties was at the time of the filing of the suit, and had been for at least six months preceding the filing of the suit, an actual bona fide resident and domiciliary of Virginia. This means that a member of the U.S. Armed Forces must have been stationed or must have resided in the Commonwealth for at least the last six months preceding the filing of the divorce action.
If so, Virginia law presumes that the service member has been domiciled in and a bona fide resident of this Commonwealth. This includes a service member who was stationed aboard a Naval vessel whose home court is Virginia, or a service member stationed at any base located in Virginia, for which the United States has exclusive federal jurisdiction.
This would also include a service member who was formerly stationed in Virginia, as we previously discussed, and who is now stationed or deployed overseas, as long as Virginia was the last place where they had resided or been stationed for at least six months.
So you can see there are many nuances to our military members obtaining a divorce in Virginia. The professionals here at Holcomb Law are experienced in precisely this area and stand ready to serve you as you have served this country. Give us a call today and schedule a consultation.