You Own Property in Another Country. Your U.S. Will Probably Cannot Transfer It.

You built a life in Texas or Illinois and still own land back home: a house in Nigeria, an apartment in Mexico, farmland in India, a flat in the Philippines. Your will here, you assume, covers all of it. It almost never does, and your family will find that out at the worst possible moment.

The rule that governs

Real property is governed by the law of the place where it is located. Not where the owner lived, not where the will was signed, not where the family is. A Travis County will admitted to probate in Texas has no direct operative effect on land in Lagos or Jalisco. The local authorities apply local law, local formalities, and local procedure.

That single principle drives everything else in this article, and it bears saying plainly, because it contradicts what most people assume.

Why local counsel is not optional

Your instinct that you need a lawyer in the other country is correct. That lawyer does four things you cannot do from here.

Some jurisdictions will recognize a foreign grant of probate through a resealing procedure, in which a court in the property’s jurisdiction gives effect to a grant already issued elsewhere. Nigeria, for example, provides for resealing through the probate registry of the relevant State High Court, and the path is clearest for grants issued in Commonwealth countries. A grant from a United States court is not automatically in that category, which is exactly the sort of question that has to be answered by someone admitted there.

Other jurisdictions ignore the foreign will and require a fresh local proceeding, sometimes with a locally executed will, sometimes with statutory heirs who are fixed by law.

Formalities differ. A will valid in Texas may fail abroad for want of witnesses, notarization, registration, or language.

Substance differs more. Many civil law and customary systems apply forced heirship, reserving fixed shares to children or a spouse regardless of what a will says.

Parts of Nigeria apply customary or Islamic succession rules depending on the state and the decedent’s circumstances, and Nigerian land is subject to the Land Use Act, under which interests are held as rights of occupancy and transfers commonly require the Governor’s consent. Mexican coastal and border land is subject to the restricted zone and is often held through a bank trust. None of that can be managed from here.

The multiple wills trap

The usual solution is a situs will: a separate will executed in each country, governing only the assets there, so each can be probated locally without waiting on the other.

Done carelessly, this destroys the plan. Wills routinely open with a clause revoking all prior wills. Sign a Nigerian will with that language after your Texas will and you may have revoked the Texas will. The drafting has to limit each will expressly to the assets in its own jurisdiction, and the two lawyers have to see each other’s drafts. This is the most common and most expensive error in cross border estates.

What to do now

Inventory foreign real estate, accounts, insurance, and business interests by country. Find out how title is actually held, since family land is frequently in a parent’s name or unregistered. Engage counsel in each country and have them coordinate with your U.S. documents rather than working in isolation. And expect the foreign process to be slower than the domestic one, so build the timeline around it.

This week: List every foreign property, account, insurance policy, and business by country. Find out how title is actually held, since family land is often still in a parent’s name or unregistered. Then engage counsel in that country before signing anything here.

If you own property in another country, your plan is not finished until someone in that country has looked at it. Call or text 512.761.8479.