All states have residency requirements that must be met before a person files a Petition or Complaint for divorce or dissolution. This is the only way that a state’s court has the right (jurisdiction) to make legal decisions about your marital status and issues related thereto.
Residency requirements are based upon the length of time that a person resides in a particular state and vary. If a husband and wife who are separated live in two separate states, they may satisfy the residency requirements in each state, and can therefor file for divorce in either state. However your attorney may recommend in a contested cases, that the person filing the Petition or Complaint should file for the divorce in the spouse's state of residency to ensure the court has the ability to have contempt powers over the party (through personal jurisdiction).
If a spouse is enlisted in the military, the residency requirements may be satisfied in three separate states: (1) the state in which the enlisted spouse is stationed; (2) the enlisted spouse’s actual state of residency; and (3) the civilian spouse’s state of residency.
For the State of South Carolina, Residency requirements are as follows:
"In order to institute an action for divorce from the bonds of matrimony the plaintiff must have resided in this State at least one year prior to the commencement of the action or, if the plaintiff is a nonresident, the defendant must have so resided in this State for this period; provided, that when both parties are residents of the State when the action is commenced, the plaintiff must have resided in this State only three months prior to commencement of the action. The terms 'residents' or 'resided' as used in this section as it applies to a plaintiff or defendant stationed in this State on active duty military service means a continuous presence in this State for the period required regardless of intent to permanently remain in South Carolina." [South Carolina Code of Laws]
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