If you found your spouse has been missing, you can still make a divorce petition unilaterally. According to the Matrimonial Causes Ordinance, the petitioner has to prove that the marriage has been broken down irretrievably that either the respondent (spouse) has committed adultery, behaved in a way intolerant to the petitioner, the parties have lived apart for at least 2 years, or the respondent has deserted the petitioner for a continuous period of at least 1 year.
Under ordinary situations, the petition will have to be effectively served on the respondent by hand or by post to initial the divorce proceedings. In case of missing spouse, the petitioner can apply for ‘substituted service’ order of the petition from the Court when the respondent has been absent from the stated address. Noted it is the petitioner’s responsibility to show that it is impractical to serve the document through the ordinary service. The Court will then order to take special steps to bring the petition to the notice of the respondent, for example, publishing the petition on newspaper to notify the respondent.
However, if the respondent is not a Hong Kong resident or there is a high chance that he is not in Hong Kong, the Court may not accept the substituted service’s application due to the restrictive nature of the local newspaper publishing.
