For Iranians abroad and their companies — everything that has to be settled in Iran.

It depends on the country of residence, and the answers differ fundamentally. In Germany the 1929 treaty designates Iranian succession law for Iranian nationals; the residence title is irrelevant. In France the EU Succession Regulation applies habitual residence, but Art. 22 EuErbVO permits a testamentary choice of the law of nationality. In the UAE the basic rule points to the law of nationality — but only on application and against proof. In the US, England, Canada and Australia, domicile and situs count; the passport is not a connecting factor. In Türkiye the national law applies, except for immovables situated there (Art. 20 MÖHUK).

Not by itself. The marriage subsists in the Iranian registers until a separate step is taken there. That affects three things: a further marriage, succession, and every civil status document needed later — for an estate proceeding or a registration in Iran, for instance.

Whether the foreign divorce can be recognised in Iran, or whether separate Iranian proceedings are needed, depends on how it came about: before which body, with what participation and notice of both spouses, and evidenced by which document. That is a question of proof, not a formality.

Under Iranian law the mahr becomes the wife’s property on conclusion of the contract (Art. 1082 Iranian CC); it is a claim against the husband, independent of whether the marriage continues. Whether a foreign court enforces it depends on its characterisation: English courts have long treated it as an enforceable contractual obligation; US and Canadian courts test it against the state’s or province’s standards for marital agreements.

As to amount: where the mahr is measured in Bahar-e Azadi coins, the value follows the daily coin price; where measured in rial, the statutory adjustment for price movement applies. And the clause decides the burden of proof — ind-al-motalebe (on demand) or ind-al-estetaa (according to means).

Yes, under a power of attorney executed at an Iranian mission abroad. Two points decide whether it works. First, scope: the power must cover the sale, the tax filing, receipt of the price and the transfer of title. A power drawn too narrowly permits the signature but not the payout — and every correction costs the whole legalisation chain from the start.

Second, the title position: is this registered land with a deed entered in the land register, or only a privately written sale contract? For already registered land the State recognises only the registered person as owner (Art. 22 Iranian Registration Act), and authorities and courts are directed not to accept unregistered instruments over such land as proof of ownership (Arts. 46–48 Iranian Registration Act). The first step is therefore always the registry search, not the power of attorney.

Not the assurance but the chain: which Iranian transaction stands behind the money, which registered document carries it, and the path from the death to the account the money sits in today. “My father died and this is my share” is usually the truth and still the weakest answer available.

Five points typically break: the certificate of inheritance names heirs, not assets. The family divided the estate informally before anyone thought about a bank. The price entered in the sale deed is below the real one. Civil status, land register, commercial register and tax file share no common reference. And the person has long since moved, so the money surfaces where the transaction never was.

No. The court must satisfy itself as to the content of the foreign law; foreign law is ascertained by the court of its own motion (§ 293 ZPO). An Iranian certificate evidences what an Iranian body determined — it does not replace setting out which provisions lead to that result and how they are applied in Iran. In practice that is done through an opinion with the provisions in the original and in translation.

Where a German certificate is needed for an estate to be judged under foreign law, the foreign-law certificate of inheritance comes into play (§ 352c FamFG). And the same underlying question arises differently, but not more weakly, in common-law proceedings: there foreign law is a question of fact and must be proved by expert evidence; where it is not, the court may presume it matches its own (Brownlie [2021] UKSC 45).

Because Iranian law separates two things that usually coincide abroad. Hezānat is day-to-day care and custody: under Art. 1169 Iranian CC with the mother until the child completes seven years, thereafter with the father, the court being able to depart from that where the child’s welfare requires. Velāyat, by contrast, is legal representation in property and status matters and rests with the father and the paternal grandfather (Arts. 1180, 1181 Iranian CC).

The child’s passport and exit are tied to velāyat, not to care. A foreign custody order does not change that. In addition: Iran is not a party to the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention; the treaty route of return does not exist in relation to Iran.

Frequently not. Recognition presupposes conditions that are often unmet in practice; the route then runs through a fresh action in Iran, in which the matter has to be pleaded and proved again. Knowing that early saves months — and sometimes changes the answer to whether the foreign proceeding is worth running at all.

Before any step comes the same sober assessment: cause of action, limitation, jurisdiction, duration, cost, enforceability — and whether the debtor has recoverable property at all, whether it is in his name and whether it is unencumbered. A judgment against a debtor without assets is a piece of paper.

Yes — but through two different mechanisms that are regularly confused. For court proceedings an Iranian lawyer can act through the electronic judicial system; activation depends on an Iranian mobile number receiving the confirmation. For everything else — sale, inheritance, registry matters — a notarised power of attorney is required, executed at an Iranian mission abroad.

And a point few people know: a power of attorney to the right lawyer is not access to one person but to a network. Through substitution the mandate can be passed to the specialist the matter actually needs — a succession lawyer for the estate, a property lawyer for the deed, a commercial lawyer for the company. You sign once.

Yes — and it is the single commonest cause of delay. A difference between the Iranian register and the passport, a date of birth recorded differently in the civil register, an incomplete entry on marriage, divorce or parentage: every one of these small things later stops an estate, property or banking matter — usually just when it has become urgent.

Correction runs through its own Iranian proceeding and takes time. That is why the documentary check comes at the beginning of a matter and not at its end: discrepancies are identified and, where necessary, cleared before anything is filed anywhere.

A serious figure only follows the initial assessment, because the duration depends less on the proceeding itself than on the documentary position: an estate with complete civil status data and registered land runs differently from one in which parentage must first be entered or a spelling corrected. The legalisation chain is added to that — Iran is not a party to the Apostille Convention, and for Canada it has run through Washington since 2012.

As to fees: scope is fixed in writing first, and only then a fixed price. No fixed price is offered without a defined scope, because it damages either the client or the work. There is no success fee in any area; in opinion work it would destroy precisely the independence for which an opinion is obtained.

The limit comes before acceptance, not after. Before any matter the parties are established from Iranian registry records — client, beneficial owner, shareholders, Iranian counterparties — and screened against the published lists; the result is recorded in writing. If a person involved is on a sanctions list, the matter is not accepted: not conditionally, not deferred, not revisited later.

That screening is factual in nature. The legal assessment — whether a transaction is permitted, whether a licence is required, whether a person is caught — is made solely by sanctions counsel admitted in the legal system concerned. No funds run through me in any configuration, and I am in no configuration a channel for assets.