Are your papers filed, or about to be? Learn the earliest date your divorce can be final.
How Long Does a Divorce Take? Waiting Periods, Residency Rules and the Steps in Between
Choose your state in the free tool below for its waiting period. Give the free estimator a filing date and it counts to the earliest decree date; the sections after it explain the residency rule, the separation rule where one exists, and what fills the time in a real case.
Quick answer
Three clocks set your shortest legal path: a residency requirement before you can file, a waiting period after filing that can run from none in 17 jurisdictions to 6 months in California, and in 8 states a period of living apart that must run first. Among states that set a wait, the most common is 60 days, in 11. An agreed case can finish near the minimum, while a contested case can run past it by months because service, a response, disclosures, a parenting class and a hearing each take time. Rules were checked on October 14, 2026 against each state's statute or court page, or for 9 waiting periods and 4 residency rules a national table or legal-aid page, which the state chart names.
Free tool
Choose your state and answer four questions, and the filing date if you have it, to learn your filing fee, fee waiver path, residency rule, waiting period and the earliest date it allows, each with its source.
By the Legal Cost by State Editorial Team·Last updated and source-checked October 14, 2026
What to do next
Three dates you can find before you count anything.
1
Write down the filing date and the service date
The free estimator linked above counts from your filing date; keep the service date too, because several states count the wait from service.
2
Ask the clerk which of the two starts the wait in your state
Arizona, Iowa, Montana and Nebraska count from service, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri and Wisconsin from filing; the chart's note gives every state's trigger.
3
With children, get the parenting class date on the calendar now
Colorado wants the certificate within 63 days of service and New Hampshire's seminar within 45; the steps section below lists the deadlines.
The three waits the law sets before a decree
Each state combines these differently.
Residency before filing
At least one spouse must have lived in the state (sometimes the county) for a set time before the petition is accepted; if you have just moved, this can be the longest clock.
The waiting period after filing
A minimum number of days between filing (or service) and the earliest decree; when it ends the case may finish, not must.
Separation, where required
In 8 states a period of living apart is a precondition to filing or the no-fault ground itself. Where it applies, it is usually the longest clock.
Learn more. Tap a topic to open it.
Learn how long you or your spouse must live in the state before filing, from the shortest rule to the longest.
The shortest rules are measured in weeks: Arkansas 60 days (Ark. Code 9-12-307), Arizona 90 days of domicile or military station (A.R.S. 25-312), Colorado 91 days (C.R.S. 14-10-106). Alaska sets no minimum period, only that one spouse be a resident who plans to stay.
Six months is the most common rule: California (plus three months in the county), Delaware (13 Del. C. 1504), and Alabama when the defendant is a nonresident (Ala. Code 30-2-5). Connecticut accepts a complaint once either party is a resident, but a decree needs 12 months of residence by one party, with exceptions (C.G.S. 46b-44).
Learn the wait between filing or service and the earliest decree, shortest to longest.
The shortest waits are three weeks or less: Florida enters no final judgment until at least 20 days after the petition, unless injustice would result (Fla. Stat. 61.19); Wyoming no decree less than 20 days from the complaint (Wyo. Stat. 20-2-108); Idaho 21 days after commencement and service (Idaho Code 32-716); Montana 21 days after service when one party files alone (MCA 40-4-105).
Thirty and sixty days are the common middle: Alaska at least 30 days after filing, Missouri 30 days after the petition (Mo. Rev. Stat. 452.305) and Utah 30 days (Utah Code 30-3-18); Arizona 60 days after service (A.R.S. 25-329), Indiana 60 days after the petition (Ind. Code 31-15-2-10) and Kansas 60 days after filing unless the judge declares an emergency (K.S.A. 23-2708).
The longest waits are three to six months: Colorado 91 days (C.R.S. 14-10-106); Iowa, Washington and Vermont 90 days (RCW 26.09.030; 15 V.S.A. 554); Rhode Island and South Carolina 3 months; Pennsylvania 90 days for a mutual-consent divorce (23 Pa.C.S. 3301); Massachusetts 120 days in a joint petition, the judgment nisi becoming absolute 90 days after entry (M.G.L. c. 208 s. 21); Wisconsin 120 days after service or a joint filing (Wis. Stat. 767.335). The longest is California: no divorce is final sooner than six months from service or response (Family Code 2339).
Learn which jurisdictions have no post-filing wait, and the other rules that still slow them.
17 jurisdictions set no post-filing wait: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Virginia. (Louisiana: none for an Art. 103 divorce; an Art. 102 divorce waits 180 or 365 days after service, La. C.C. arts. 102, 103.1.) No wait does not mean your divorce is fast: Connecticut can proceed from the second day after the return date in an agreed case (C.G.S. 46b-67); Delaware will not rule until the parties have been separated six months (13 Del. C. 1507); Maryland’s only time rule is its six-month separation ground (Fam. Law 7-103); New York’s no-fault ground needs an irretrievable breakdown of at least six months.
Oregon repealed its 90-day wait (ORS 107.065) in 2011, and New Mexico’s 30 days is the time to answer, not a wait. With no wait, the practical minimum is service, the answer period and the court’s calendar.
Learn which states require you to live apart before a divorce, and for how long.
8 states in the dataset record a separation requirement: Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia. North Carolina requires one year living separate and apart before filing (N.C.G.S. 50-6). Virginia requires one year, or six months when there are no minor children and a separation agreement exists (Va. Code 20-91). Louisiana requires 180 days apart without minor children and 365 days with them for a no-fault divorce (La. C.C. art. 103.1). Delaware and Vermont require six months (13 Del. C. 1505; 15 V.S.A. 551), and Kentucky 60 days (KRS 403.170).
In Arkansas and South Carolina the separation is the no-fault ground itself: 18 months of continuous separation in Arkansas and one year without cohabitation in South Carolina (S.C. Code 20-3-10); fault grounds need none, so the date you began living apart matters more than the court’s wait.
Learn the five steps that make a real case run past the statutory minimum.
1
Filing and service
The other spouse is served by sheriff, certified mail, a process server or an acceptance of service; where the wait runs from service, slow service delays everything after it.
2
The response period
The served spouse has a set number of days to answer; one who does not can be defaulted, which has its own notice rules.
3
Disclosures and a parenting class
Both sides exchange financial information, and with minor children many states require a parenting class with its own deadline: Colorado wants the certificate within 63 days of service (C.R.S. 14-10-123.7); New Hampshire’s child impact seminar within 45 days of service (RSA 458-D).
4
Agreement, mediation or trial
An agreed case moves to a signed settlement. A disputed custody case goes to mediation in California (Fam. Code 3170), North Carolina (N.C.G.S. 50-13.1), Colorado and usually Utah; a contested case goes to temporary orders, discovery and a trial date.
5
The decree
Once the wait has run and the paperwork or trial is done, the court signs the decree; in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont it is nisi first and absolute later.
If you agree and have no children or property, your case can finish near the statutory minimum; a contested case can run months past it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Tap a question to see the answer.
In a state with no statutory wait, the minimum is service plus the answer period plus the court’s calendar, once the residency rule is met. Where a wait exists, the shortest are 20 days in Florida and Wyoming and 21 days in Idaho and Montana; California is the slowest at 6 months from service.
It depends on the statute: some count from filing, some from service, Washington from the later of the two, Colorado from filing for a joint petition and from service otherwise, and California from the day the other spouse was served or responded. The chart’s waiting-period note states the trigger for each state.
Some statutes allow it: Florida where injustice would result, Kansas, Iowa and Wisconsin in an emergency, Michigan for unusual hardship, Oklahoma for good cause without objection. Nebraska’s 60 days cannot be waived.
In Michigan the wait rises from 60 days to six months with minor children (MCL 552.9f), and in Oklahoma a 90-day wait applies only with children (43 O.S. 107.1). Children also add a parenting plan, a support calculation, often a class and sometimes mediation.
From no set period in Alaska and 60 days in Arkansas to six months, the most common rule, and 12 months for a Connecticut decree unless an exception applies.
Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, from 60 days in Kentucky to one year in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia and 18 months in Arkansas.
A provisional judgment that becomes final (absolute) after a further period unless something intervenes: 90 days after judgment nisi in Massachusetts (M.G.L. c. 208 ss. 1A, 21) and Vermont (15 V.S.A. 554), and three months after the decision in Rhode Island (R.I. Gen. Laws 15-5-23).
This dataset records a typical duration for one state only: Kentucky legal aid says a few months. Elsewhere it is the statutory minimum plus service and the court’s calendar.
Information on this page reflects laws and published figures as of October 14, 2026. This is general information, not legal advice, and not a prediction for any matter. Rules and fees change; check the court or agency page linked for each figure.
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