u/thegh0stofdavidb0wie

So, my wife of 8 years decided at the beginning of 2025 that her, her parents and I were going to leave the US and move to Europe. This was not something I wanted and most certainly not something I agreed to as we own a business together with employees and my family and whole life are here. She continued with her plans regardless assuming that I would follow her because she was going no matter what. As it got closer to becoming a reality (something I was actually surprised about) I made it clear that I was not moving. We love each other and the whole thing was just too much too fast so we stayed married after she left (I guess I was hoping that she would realize how unrealistic this was and come home after a couple of months.) It’s now been 9 months and we’ve spent a total of 2 months together in that time…something I can’t afford to keep up with. She came back for a month to visit and made it clear that she will never come back to the US after this visit so I told her that we couldn’t stay married. I know that I will have to be the one that pushes for this to happen as she will drag her feet for as long as she can about it to put it off. We’ve discussed the business being entirely in my name now that she isn’t here any more but she is living off of disability payments currently and cannot work in the country in which she now lives with her parents for visa reasons so beyond that she has no income and no plan for future income. Since I was the primary earner in the household, I’m sure there will be some sort of alimony involved, but if she can’t work for another couple of years due to her visa I’m concerned how long I’ll be on the hook paying for her new lifelong vacation. We got married in Oregon, but I’m currently living in Washington so that is were I will be filing. Does anyone have any experience with filing for divorce with someone living over seas? What sort of complications should I prepare myself for? I’ve done a pretty good job of accepting that she’s her own person and she can just go on and make her own decisions but I can’t have her decisions affecting my financial and emotional future so I can just move on with my life.