Clients often ask questions regarding speeding up the process of their divorce. Recently, a client inquired about altering the proceedings from seeking a divorce to seeking an annulment due to the deportation of their spouse.

While deportation certainly causes service issues and (frustratingly) prolongs processes, it is not grounds for an annulment in North Carolina. According to North Carolina law, the only grounds for annulment are void or voidable marriages. If your marriage to your spouse was valid and does not meet the requirements for void or voidable marriages, the only avenue to end the marriage is divorce. Deportation of a spouse alone does not meet the requirements for annulment in North Carolina.