To get a divorce in the UK — specifically in England and Wales — you file a no-fault application online or on paper, pay a £612 court fee, wait 20 weeks, apply for a conditional order, wait a further six weeks and one day, and then apply for the final order that legally ends the marriage.1GOV.UK. Get a Divorce: Before You Apply The whole process takes at least seven months. You no longer need to prove fault; a statement that the marriage has broken down irretrievably is enough.2Legislation.gov.uk. Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020
Where These Rules Apply
The no-fault procedure below covers England and Wales only. Scotland still requires grounds such as unreasonable behaviour, adultery, or a period of separation, and has its own simplified route where there are no children under 16 and no financial disputes. Northern Ireland operates under 1978 legislation that also requires fault or separation; a consultation on reform has taken place but no-fault divorce along the England and Wales model has not been enacted.3Department of Finance Northern Ireland. Consultation Launched on Law on Marriage and Civil Partnerships If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, the steps here will not apply to you.
Who Can Apply
You must have been married for at least one year. The court cannot accept an application filed before your first wedding anniversary.4Legislation.gov.uk. Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 Your marriage must also be legally recognised under the laws of England and Wales, whether the ceremony took place here or abroad.
You also need a jurisdictional connection. That can be established by being habitually resident in England or Wales for at least 12 months before filing, being domiciled here and resident for at least six months, your spouse being habitually resident here, or both of you having last lived together here with one of you still resident. If your situation crosses borders, take early advice on jurisdiction — filing in the wrong country can cause delays or leave you bound by less favourable financial rules.
Applying Alone or Together
You choose upfront whether to file as a sole applicant or jointly with your spouse. The legal outcome is the same; the difference is cooperation.1GOV.UK. Get a Divorce: Before You Apply
A joint application suits couples who agree the marriage is over and are willing to confirm at each stage that they want to continue. If your spouse stops engaging partway through, you can convert a joint application into a sole one and carry on.
Choose a sole application if your spouse does not agree or you doubt they will cooperate with court notifications. The court sends the papers to them and asks for an acknowledgement of service. They cannot block the divorce on its merits under the current law; the only openings are disputing jurisdiction or arguing that the marriage is not legally valid.
What You Need to File
You need your original marriage certificate or a certified copy from the General Register Office.5GOV.UK. D8 – Divorce Application If you married outside the UK and the certificate is not in English, you need a certified translation. You also need the full names and current addresses of both spouses.
The court fee is £612, paid when you submit the application.6GOV.UK. Get a Divorce: How to Apply In a joint application, both applicants share responsibility for the fee. If you are on a low income or receive certain benefits, you may qualify for a reduction or full waiver, based on your savings and monthly income.7GOV.UK. Get Help Paying Court and Tribunal Fees For a joint application, both applicants must apply separately for help with fees; if one does not qualify or does not apply, the full £612 is payable.
Most people apply through the online portal at GOV.UK, which lets you track progress. You can also file a paper D8 form by post. Once the court has checked and formally issued your application, the clock starts on every waiting period that follows.
The Timeline From Filing to Final Order
The process has three stages, each separated by a mandatory wait. GOV.UK estimates the whole process takes at least seven months.1GOV.UK. Get a Divorce: Before You Apply
- Application issued. The court checks and formally issues your application. A 20-week reflection period begins.
- Conditional order. After the 20 weeks, you apply for a conditional order, the court’s confirmation that it sees no legal barrier to the divorce. In a joint application, both of you must confirm you want to continue.
- Final order. You then wait at least 43 days (six weeks and one day) before applying for the final order, the document that legally ends the marriage.8GOV.UK. Get a Divorce: Finalise Your Divorce
The 20-week window is not dead time. It exists so both parties can reflect and, more practically, start sorting finances and arrangements for children. That work is what determines whether you leave the marriage cleanly.
In a sole application, if the applicant does not apply for the final order, the other spouse can apply after waiting an additional three months on top of the standard 43 days. This stops one party from stalling indefinitely.
Sort Your Finances Before the Final Order
The divorce itself and the division of your money are two separate processes. The divorce can move on a fixed timetable; the finances often take longer, and skipping them is one of the most expensive mistakes people make.
Getting a final order without a financial order in place leaves the financial claims open. Your ex-spouse can bring a claim against your capital, property, pension, or an inheritance years or even decades later. There is no time limit on that right in England and Wales. If you come into money after the divorce, they can apply for a share. The only way to close that door is a financial order approved by the court.
Consent Orders
If you and your spouse agree how to divide everything, you draft a consent order and ask the court to approve it. A judge reviews the terms, usually without a hearing, and approves them if they look fair. The court fee is £60.9GOV.UK. Money and Property When You Divorce or Separate: If You Agree You submit a statement of information form (D81) and a notice of application for a financial order (Form A) alongside the signed draft order.
The court cannot approve a consent order before the conditional order stage, and the consent order only takes legal effect after the final order is granted. Have the consent order drafted and submitted between the conditional order and the final order so everything completes together.
Clean Break Orders
The court has a legal duty to consider whether it can make a clean break, ending all ongoing financial obligations between spouses as soon as it is just and reasonable to do so.10Legislation.gov.uk. Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 – Section 25A Once approved, neither party can make future claims against the other’s assets, income, pension, or later inheritance. A clean break is not always possible, particularly where one spouse needs ongoing maintenance or there are young children, but where it works it delivers certainty. Even if there is little to split now, the cost of a clean break order is small compared with the risk of leaving claims open. Child maintenance is assessed separately and continues regardless.
Pensions
Pensions are often the second most valuable asset after the family home and are easy to overlook. A pension sharing order can transfer a percentage of one spouse’s pension value to the other; the receiving spouse gets a pension credit and the original member’s benefits are reduced by a corresponding debit.11GOV.UK. Pensions Tax Manual – PTM029000 To value a pension you request a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) from the provider. It can take up to three months to arrive and stays valid for court purposes for one year.12MoneyHelper. How to Split Pensions in a Divorce or Dissolution The State Pension generally cannot be shared, and pensions held outside the UK cannot be divided by a UK court order, though their value can still be factored into the overall split.
Children and Mediation
If you need to apply to the court for a financial remedy order or a child arrangements order, you generally have to attend a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM) first, under the Children and Families Act 2014.13The Judiciary. Guide to Family Mediation for the Courts 2024 The meeting lasts about 45 minutes to an hour and helps you understand whether mediation could resolve your dispute without a full hearing. You do not have to agree to mediation itself — only to attend the assessment. Exemptions exist for domestic abuse, urgency, cases where social services are involved with a child, and situations where no mediator is available within 15 miles. Any exemption claim needs evidence.
Child arrangements orders, covering who a child lives with and when they spend time with each parent, are made under the Children Act 1989, with the child’s welfare as the court’s first concern. If you and your spouse can agree without involving the court, no formal order is needed. Where there is a dispute, a court application (and therefore a MIAM) becomes necessary.
What It Actually Costs
The £612 court fee is the starting point.14GOV.UK. Court and Tribunal Fees If you handle everything yourselves through the online portal and agree on finances without legal help, you could complete the process for under £700 including the £60 consent order fee. Most people need some professional help.
For an uncontested divorce where a solicitor handles the paperwork, expect legal fees of roughly £800 to £2,000 excluding VAT on top of court fees. Contested cases, where you disagree over finances, property, or children and the court has to decide, can run from £2,000 to £30,000 or more per person, depending on the number of hearings and how far apart the positions are. Financial remedy proceedings, not the divorce itself, drive costs up. Early legal advice on finances, even if you file the divorce application yourself, tends to pay for itself.