A marriage can be dissolved in Estonia whatever country it was contracted in and whatever passports you hold. The route is decided not by nationality but by two questions: do you both agree, and do you both live here according to the population register?
If both answers are yes it is an administrative act, and the entry is made not earlier than 1 month and not later than 3 months after the joint application. Otherwise it is a court case with no fixed timetable. Property, children and immigration status are where the risk sits.
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The Three Routes, And Which One Is Yours
The Family Law Act (perekonnaseadus) allocates the routes by agreement and residence, not by choice. Section 64 lets a vital statistics office — the perekonnaseisuasutus, in practice the county-centre local government — and equally a notary dissolve a marriage by mutual agreement on a joint application, where both spouses reside in Estonia or have made a choice-of-law agreement under EU Regulation 1259/2010 selecting Estonian law. Section 65 sends everything else to court.
| Vital statistics office | Notary | County court | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Both spouses agree | Required | Required | Not required |
| Both resident in Estonia | Required, unless a choice-of-law agreement applies | Required, unless a choice-of-law agreement applies | Not required |
| Fee | €90 state fee | about €80 incl. VAT | €100 state fee |
| Timetable | 1–3 months after the application | 1–3 months after the application | No statutory period |
| Property division | Not dealt with | Agreement certified the same day | Can be decided in the same proceedings |
| Children and maintenance | Not dealt with | Maintenance agreement certified | Decided in the same proceedings |
| Application | Joint, in person or through the e-population register | Joint, in person | One spouse's statement of claim |
If one of you has moved home — and a person who has left is usually no longer registered here — the office and the notary lose competence unless you sign a choice-of-law agreement, and the case goes to court even if nobody is arguing.
Between the two administrative routes the notary costs more and does more: on the same day, priced by the value of the property, a notary can certify a division of joint property and a child maintenance agreement with submission to immediate enforcement, so a missed payment goes to a bailiff rather than back to court. The office can do neither.
Divorce At The Vital Statistics Office
The cheapest route, and deliberately narrow: Tallinn's own page says property law and joint custody are not resolved there — only the marriage is ended.
Get the marriage into the population register first
A marriage contracted anywhere can be dissolved here, but the Ministry of the Interior’s condition is that its data must first be entered in the register — for a marriage contracted abroad, with the original certificate, on the marriage page’s 30-day deadline.Pay the €90 state fee before lodging the application
Set by the State Fees Act, up from €50 on 1 January 2025. If the application is withdrawn, Tallinn keeps 25% of it.Lodge a joint application, both of you present
In person, with identity documents. A spouse who cannot attend for a valid reason submits a separately notarised application instead. E-mail is not allowed.Wait between 1 and 3 months
The Vital Statistics Registration Act sets the window, and unlike the one-month edge on a marriage it is not shortened.Come back together on the day to sign the entry
A spouse who cannot attend provides notarised proof; one who simply fails to appear voids the application, and the process — and the fee — starts again.
Since 1 December 2024 the application can also be filed through the e-population register at rahvastikuregister.ee: the spouses need not be in the same room, and only the final registration visit remains in person. The fee falls on whichever spouse completes the application last.
The certificate, and your name. Both spouses receive a divorce certificate in Estonian free; a duplicate later costs €20. A person may keep the married surname or have the earlier one restored. In Tallinn the office is the Vital Statistics Department at Pärnu maantee 67; in Tartu the appointment is booked online.
Divorce In Court
Court is where a divorce goes when it cannot be agreed, or when neither the office nor the notary is competent. It is one spouse's action, filed at the county court (maakohus) for the spouses' joint residence or, failing that, the respondent's. Estonia has four: Harju, Tartu, Pärnu and Viru.
The ground is a single one. Section 67 lets the court dissolve a marriage where marital relations have irretrievably ended, which the Act presumes after 2 years apart; a court that is not convinced may first set a reconciliation period of up to 6 months. Fault is not a ground. The state fee is €100 under § 59 of the State Fees Act; a child maintenance claim carries none, and a division of joint property is charged on the ordinary scale.
The statement of claim gives the parties, their personal identification codes and contact details, when the marriage was contracted and why it cannot continue and, for joint minor children, the claimant's proposal on custody and residence. Where property is divided in the same case, its composition, value and proposed division go in too. Documents go in in Estonian, on the form the courts publish.
A spouse abroad does not stop the case, and does not get a default judgment either. The Code of Civil Procedure requires the spouses to be heard in person and allows no default judgment against an absent respondent, but does allow a decision once the facts are established. The marriage ends when the judgment enters into force, under § 66.
Property: The Default Regime And The Alternatives
Every marriage runs under one of three property regimes, chosen on the marriage application, and the regime decides what a divorce divides. Sections 24 to 29 set them out; couples who ticked the first box without reading — most foreign couples, as the marriage page notes — are on the default.
Jointness of property (varaühisus) — the default
Under § 25, property acquired during the marriage becomes joint property, and neither spouse can dispose of their share or demand its division while the regime lasts (§ 26). On divorce it is divided, and the European e-Justice Portal’s summary is that spouses generally divide it in equal shares.Set-off of assets increment (vara juurdekasvu tasaarvestus)
Each spouse owns and manages their own property; when the regime ends, the increase in each estate is set off as a monetary claim.Separateness of property (varalahusus)
Each spouse holds property as if unmarried, and a divorce divides nothing.Even under the default, § 27 keeps as separate property what a spouse owned before the marriage, gifts and inheritances, personal effects, anything acquired on the strength of a separate-property right, and mandatory pension fund units and the money on the related accounts — see pensions.
Division is by notarial contract priced on the value of the property, or by a court claim with a value, charged on the ordinary scale rather than the flat €100. Real estate changes hands only through the land register, so a flat needs the notary whichever route settles the rest, and a marital property contract terminates at the divorce.
Children, Custody And Maintenance
Divorce does not touch parental rights: the e-Justice Portal states that it does not affect parental responsibility, and the parents retain joint custody. What has to be settled is where the child lives, how the other parent is involved, and who pays what. Section 101 sets a statutory minimum, rebuilt in 2022 from half the minimum wage into a formula:
| Element of the § 101 minimum | Rule | Figure from 1 April 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Base amount | Indexed every 1 April by the previous year's consumer price index | €295.86 a month |
| Wage element | 3% of the previous calendar year's average gross monthly wage | €62.76 — on Statistikaamet's €2,092 for 2025 |
| Child allowance | The parent's share of the child allowance and large-family allowance is deducted | Half of the €80 allowance: €40 |
| Further children | 15% less than the first child | Per child |
| Shared care | Reduced in proportion where the child spends 7–15 nights a month with the paying parent | Per child |
For one child living with the other parent that gives €358.62 before the allowance offset and €318.62 after it. It is a floor, not a tariff: the Act sets the amount by the child's needs and customary way of life, and a court can go above it, or below it on the grounds § 102 allows.
A claim for child maintenance carries no state fee, and a notarial maintenance agreement with submission to immediate enforcement goes straight to a bailiff if payments stop.
What Divorce Does To A Residence Permit
A temporary residence permit issued to settle with a spouse runs, on the Police and Border Guard Board's own page, for up to 5 years and not longer than the inviting party's own permit, extended for up to 10 years at a time on the same condition.
Read the Board's pages before the application, not after the entry
The Board’s page on the spouse’s permit sets out the conditions for issuing it and says nothing about what follows the end of the marriage; its page on expiry and revocation says that a person whose permit is revoked must leave Estonia immediately, and that after a permit expires a stay of up to 90 days is permitted in the general case. Which of those applies to a permit whose basis has ended is a question for the Board’s free migration consultants, on 612 3500, and it is worth asking before the divorce application is lodged rather than after the entry is made.
A permit on a different ground — employment, business, study, the EU Blue Card — is a new application with that ground's own conditions, salary test and fee, not a conversion; see the residence permit page. A spouse of an EU citizen holds a right of residence rather than a permit. A challenge to any Board decision runs on 10 days — the lawyer page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can two foreigners divorce in Estonia?
Yes, and the marriage need not have been contracted here — but it must be entered in the Estonian population register. For the office or the notary both spouses must agree and be resident here according to the register, or have signed a choice-of-law agreement selecting Estonian law. Otherwise it goes to a county court.
How much does a divorce cost in Estonia?
A €90 state fee at the vital statistics office, up from €50 on 1 January 2025, of which Tallinn keeps 25% if the application is withdrawn. At a notary, €63.90 plus VAT — about €80 — with no state fee on top, or €44.70 plus VAT (about €55) if the divorce does not go ahead. In court, €100. A maintenance claim is free; a duplicate certificate costs €20.
How long does it take?
At the office or the notary, not earlier than 1 month and not later than 3 months after the joint application — a 30-day reflection period that is not shortened. In court there is no statutory period at all.
Do we both have to be there?
At the office and the notary, twice: to lodge the joint application and again on the scheduled day. A spouse who cannot attend for a valid reason submits a separately notarised application; one who simply fails to appear voids it. The e-population register leaves only the final visit in person. In court an absent respondent delays the case rather than stopping it.
We married abroad. Does that change anything?
Only the order of the steps. The marriage must first be entered in the population register: report it with the original certificate, apostilled by a Hague Convention country or fully legalised (its foreign ministry, then an Estonian mission), and translated into Estonian, Russian or English by a sworn translator or with a notary's certification. A certificate from another EU member state needs no apostille under Regulation 2016/1191, and no translation if the multilingual standard form came with it. A divorce granted abroad is entered rather than repeated: Tartu's office requires the documents within 30 days.
How is property divided?
By the regime chosen at the marriage. Under the default, everything acquired during the marriage is joint under § 25 and divided on divorce, generally in equal shares, while § 27 keeps pre-marital property, gifts, inheritances, personal effects and mandatory pension fund units separate. The office does not deal with property — a notary certifies an agreed division, a court decides a contested one.
What is the minimum child maintenance in 2026?
Section 101 builds it from a base amount indexed every 1 April — €295.86 a month from 1 April 2026 — plus 3% of the previous year's average gross monthly wage, €62.76 on Statistikaamet's €2,092 for 2025, less half the €80 child allowance: €318.62 for one child. Each further child gets 15% less, and the amount falls in proportion for 7–15 nights a month with the paying parent.
Who gets custody of the children?
Both parents, unless a court decides otherwise: the divorce does not affect parental responsibility. What has to be settled is where the child lives, the other parent's part in the upbringing, and maintenance — by notarial agreement, or by the county court, which charges no state fee on a maintenance claim.
Can I claim maintenance from my former spouse?
Only in the situations the Family Law Act names. Under § 72, a divorced spouse who cannot support themselves because they are caring for the couple's child may claim maintenance until the child turns 3. Under § 73, one who cannot support themselves because of age or health may claim it if that need existed at the divorce. Around a birth the father owes the mother maintenance for the 8 weeks before and 12 weeks after. The amount under § 74 follows the entitled spouse's customary needs and both spouses' financial position, with no formula or table. A healthy former spouse of working age with no child under three has no claim.
Will an Estonian divorce be recognised in my home country, and which country's law applies?
Inside the EU, automatically, under Regulation (EU) 2019/1111 — Denmark excepted, and with no procedure. That regulation also decides where you can file: where you both live, where you last lived together if one of you still lives there, where either lives on a joint application, where your spouse lives, where you have lived for a year (six months if you are a national), or of which you are both nationals. The first court seised decides, so whoever files first chooses the forum. On applicable law Estonia is one of 17 member states applying Rome III, Regulation 1259/2010: spouses may choose the law of their residence, their last common residence, either nationality or the court; with no choice it is the common residence, then the last common residence if one spouse still lives there, then the common nationality, then the forum's own. Where the foreign law would forbid or unreasonably restrict divorce, Estonian law applies if one spouse lives here or is an Estonian citizen.
My residence permit was issued to live with my spouse. What happens to it?
The permit is derivative — issued for up to 5 years and never longer than the inviting party's own. The Board's page on the spouse's permit says nothing about the end of the marriage; its page on expiry and revocation says a revoked permit means leaving immediately, and that up to 90 days are permitted after an ordinary expiry. Its migration consultants answer for a specific case, free, on 612 3500. A permit on another ground is a new application, challengeable within 10 days.
Can I go back to my previous surname?
Yes. A person may keep the surname taken at marriage or, on application to the vital statistics office, have the earlier one restored — the Ministry allows the name used before the current marriage or before the first one. The change is made with the divorce entry; a duplicate certificate later costs €20.
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Disclaimer
General guidance, not legal advice. State fees, notary fees and the maintenance base amount change, and the consequences for a residence permit turn on the individual case. Confirm current requirements with the vital statistics office, a notary, the court or the Police and Border Guard Board before acting.