The Regulation concerning the registration of the judgements and decisions taken by the judicial or administrative authorities of a foreign state regarding the divorce, nullity, annulment of marriage or the determination of its existence to the family registry has come into force on February 7, 2018. The Regulation regulates the issues such as application, evaluation and registration process of foreign judgements and decisions to the family registry. Two new provisions were added to the Regulation on August 30, 2020 with the latest amendment. 

Pursuant to the new paragraph added to the article 6 of the Regulation, if one of the parties is dead or foreign, the application made by the other party who is a Turkish citizen or its representative, will be accepted.

The other paragraph was added to the article 7 of the Regulations on the required documents for application. Accordingly, in case of death of one of the parties, the original of the document duly approved and certified regarding the death event as well as its translated copy approved and affirmed by the notary public or foreign mission must be submitted. 

The applications are submitted to the foreign mission of the country where the decision or judgement is granted or to the provincial directorate of residence of one of the parties within the country.

As the new provisions are introduced to ease the application process, it is considered that the problems encountered in practice will be reduced.