“Personal Status” grants residents the right to rely on the laws of their country.. video

The legal advisor, Dr. Youssef Al-Sharif, confirmed that the legislator gave non-citizens the right to rely on the personal status laws issued in their country, when considering marriage and divorce disputes between them, as long as that is in their interest.

Al-Sharif said that Article (1) says, “The provisions of this law – personal status – apply to non-citizens, unless one of them insists on applying its law.”

A reader said that he married a Sudanese girl in 2009, they resided in the Emirates, and he had a boy and a girl (8 and 10 years old) with her, and her marriage continued until he divorced her at the end of 2020.

The young man added that he learned that the UAE Personal Status Law gives custody to the mother over the boy up to 11 years, and can be extended until puberty, and for the girl 13 years, and can be extended until she gets married, while the Sudanese Personal Status Law gives custody to the mother over the boy up to seven years. And the girl is up to nine years old.

The reader wondered: Does he have the right to rely on the law of his country to request custody of his children before the Emirati judiciary, or does he have to go to Sudan and file the case there?

Al-Sharif confirmed in his response to the reader, in a video episode broadcast by “Emirates Today” through its platforms, on social networking sites, that he can adhere to the application of the Sudanese Personal Status Law, if he sees that this is of benefit to him, and submits a copy of it certified by the Sudanese embassy and the UAE Foreign Ministry to the court. The ruling will be in his favor, after the judge studies all the details of the case in terms of his suitability and entitlement to the mother’s side, and that he meets the conditions required by the Personal Status Law.

Al-Sharif stressed that residents can file a personal status case, such as custody issues and others, and that they have the right to adhere to the application of their country’s laws in these cases, if that is in their interest. Therefore, the reader can file his case in the Emirates and demand custody of his children, according to the Sudanese law of which he holds his nationality.

Al-Sharif warned that it is not permissible to apply two personal status laws in the same case, but rather a specific law is applied in each case.