To divorce in France, French Courts must be considered as having “jurisdiction”. Basically, French Courts have jurisdiction for divorce if France is either the habitual residence of the spouses, the last residence of the spouses if one of them still resides there, the habitual residence of the defendant, the habitual residence of either spouse in the case of a joint application, the applicant’s habitual residence if he or she has resided there for at least one year immediately before the application was lodged, or the habitual residence of the applicant if he or she has resided there for at least six months immediately before the application was lodged, or if the spouses are both French nationals. If none of these criteria are met, a French citizen could, among other things, seize a French Court based on his or her French nationality.

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In France, you can divorce on four separate grounds, which are mutual consent (whereby the spouses contractually agree to the divorce and all its consequences), the acceptance of the principle of marital breakdown, fault (defined as a series of actions which rendered the continuing of married life intolerable) and breakdown of communal life (evidenced by a two-year separation period between the spouses, becoming a one- year separation rule on September 2020).