What Is a Covenant Marriage and How Does It Work?

A covenant marriage is a legally distinct form of marriage, available only in Louisiana, Arizona, and Arkansas, that requires premarital counseling and a signed declaration before the wedding and limits divorce to specific fault grounds or a lengthy separation. Couples who choose it are opting out of no-fault divorce and into a lifelong commitment the state will hold them to.

Where Covenant Marriage Exists

Three states have active covenant marriage statutes. Louisiana passed the first one in 1997,¹ Arizona followed in 1998,² and Arkansas added its version in 2001.³ Other state legislatures have introduced similar bills, but none have passed. In any of the three covenant states, couples applying for a marriage license can opt into a covenant marriage or proceed with a standard one. The choice is voluntary.

How a Couple Enters a Covenant Marriage

Premarital Counseling

Every covenant marriage starts with mandatory counseling from a member of the clergy or a professional marriage counselor. The session covers the seriousness of the commitment, the fact that the marriage is intended to be permanent, the limited grounds for divorce, and the couple’s obligation to seek counseling later if problems arise.² Afterward, the counselor signs a notarized attestation confirming the discussion took place and that the couple received the state’s informational pamphlet.⁴

Declaration of Intent

Both spouses then sign a Declaration of Intent, a written statement acknowledging that their marriage is a lifelong covenant and promising to make all reasonable efforts to preserve it, including seeking counseling in difficult times.¹ The declaration includes a notarized affidavit from both parties along with the counselor’s attestation. In Arizona, a court clerk must witness both signatures.²

Filing the License

The declaration goes to the official who issues marriage licenses in that jurisdiction, submitted alongside the standard license application.⁴ Once the clerk verifies that the counselor’s attestation is notarized and the declaration is properly signed, the license is issued with a notation identifying it as a covenant marriage. That designation distinguishes it from a standard marriage in the public record.² The wedding ceremony itself proceeds like any other.

How a Covenant Marriage Ends

This is where covenant marriage diverges most sharply from standard marriage. There is no no-fault option (with one Arizona exception noted below). A spouse seeking divorce must either prove specific grounds or wait out an extended separation period. All three states also require the couple to seek counseling before a divorce is granted, even when fault is established.

Fault Grounds

All three states permit divorce when the other spouse has committed adultery, been convicted of a felony resulting in imprisonment, or physically or sexually abused the filing spouse or a child.⁵⁶⁷ Louisiana and Arizona also treat abandonment of the home for at least one year as grounds.

Beyond that shared core, each state adds its own grounds:

Arizona recognizes habitual drug or alcohol abuse, emotional abuse and domestic violence, and mutual consent of both spouses.⁶
Louisiana allows divorce when the other spouse’s habitual drinking, cruel treatment, or other mistreatment makes living together unbearable.⁵
Arkansas limits fault grounds to adultery, felony conviction, and abuse, the shortest list of the three.⁷

Arizona’s mutual consent provision is the outlier. It effectively lets both spouses agree to end the marriage without proving fault, which the other two states specifically prohibit. Louisiana’s statute states that a covenant marriage “may not be dissolved, rescinded, or otherwise terminated by the mutual consent of the spouses.”¹

Divorce After Separation

When no fault ground applies, all three states allow divorce after the couple has lived continuously apart without reconciling for at least two years.⁶ The clock runs from the date the spouses physically separated, and any period of reconciliation resets it.

A shorter path opens if the couple first obtains a formal legal separation decree from a court. The waiting period after that decree depends on the state and on whether there are minor children:

Louisiana: one year after the separation decree, or one year and six months if there are minor children of the marriage.⁵
Arizona: one year after the legal separation decree, regardless of whether children are involved.⁶
Arkansas: two years after judicial separation, or two years and six months with minor children. If child abuse was the basis for the separation, the period drops to one year.⁷

Legal separation (called “separation from bed and board” in Louisiana and “judicial separation” in Arkansas) is a distinct proceeding with its own grounds, which generally mirror the divorce grounds but can be broader. Beyond starting the shorter clock, a separation decree can establish temporary custody, support, and property arrangements while the couple lives apart.

Converting an Existing Marriage

Couples already married under a standard marriage can convert to a covenant marriage without a new ceremony or license. Louisiana requires the couple to meet with a counselor and execute a new Declaration of Intent containing the same recitation and affidavit as an original covenant marriage, with the counselor’s signed attestation. They file the declaration with the official who holds their original marriage certificate, and that official notes the covenant designation on the certificate.⁸⁹¹⁰ Once filed, the conversion governs the marriage going forward under the stricter covenant rules.

What Happens If You Move Out of State

Other states will recognize a lawfully performed covenant marriage as a valid marriage. The harder question is which divorce rules apply if a covenant couple moves to a state without covenant marriage laws and one spouse files there. Most non-covenant states apply their own divorce laws, which typically allow no-fault divorce. There is no uniform national rule on this, and the restrictive divorce provisions may not follow a couple who relocates outside Louisiana, Arizona, or Arkansas.

How Common Is Covenant Marriage

Adoption has been low. Studies conducted within a few years of Louisiana’s 1997 enactment found that fewer than two percent of newly married couples chose a covenant marriage. The counseling requirement adds time and cost, many couples are unaware the option exists, and some clergy and counselors do not raise it during wedding planning. The option remains available in all three states, but it continues to be a niche choice rather than a mainstream alternative to standard marriage.

1
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes 9:272 – Covenant Marriage; Intent
2
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 25-901 – Covenant Marriage; Declaration of Intent; Filing Requirements
3
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 9-11-803 – Covenant Marriage
4
Louisiana Department of Health. Covenant Marriage
5
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes 9:307 – Divorce or Separation From Bed and Board in a Covenant Marriage
6
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 25-903 – Dissolution of a Covenant Marriage; Grounds
7
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 9-11-808 – Divorce or Separation
8
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes 9:275 – Covenant Marriage; Applicability to Already Married Couples
9
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 25-901 – Covenant Marriage; Declaration of Intent; Filing Requirements
10
Mohave County Superior Court. Instructions: Convert Marriage to a Covenant Marriage