What State Do I File For Divorce In?
Full Question:
Answer:
You only have to be a resident of New Jersey for one year in order to file for divorce. Since your spouse lives in another state, this makes yours more complicated, but you can get your divorce in New Jersey. First, you need to "serve" divorce papers on your spouse out of state. "Serving papers" means giving official notice.
In order to do that, you must ask a court in New Jersey for permission to serve papers in a couple of ways intended to give your spouse actual notice of the divorce. You may have to hire a local constable, sheriff or process server in your spouse's home state.
If you don't know where your spouse is, sometimes a court will allow you to send copies by certified mail to your spouse's last known residence and publish a legal notice in a newspaper selected by the court.