If you live in New York and your spouse lives in California, where should you file for divorce?
If you live in New York and your spouse lives in California, where should you file for divorce?
If the goal is simply to get a judgment of divorce, not to get an order dividing marital assets or for custody, then you can file in the state and county where either spouse resides, as long as they meet the residency requirements of that jurisdiction. If both spouses agree as to where the case may be filed, they can address their custody and property issues in the agreed court.
If there is not an agreement, and division of assets is involved, then you would normally want to file in the state in which the marital assets are located. For custody, if the children have been domiciled in a specific state throughout the relationship, the custody case would normally be heard in that state; if not, then you would normally look to their state of domicile for the most recent six month period (and, if none or if arguably both states, perform additional analysis based on the facts).