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The Original Petition for Divorce (FM-DivB-100): How to Fill It Out

Reviewed by the Amicably document team · Updated August 18, 2026

FM-DivB-100 is the Original Petition for Divorce that opens a Set B case, the TexasLawHelp toolkit for divorcing parents with minor children together who do not already have a conservatorship or child support order in place. It runs 18 numbered sections across 11 pages, and this walks through what each one asks so you can gather the right information before you sit down to fill it in.

What FM-DivB-100 is and who publishes it

FM-DivB-100, titled "Original Petition for Divorce," is the opening document in TexasLawHelp's Set B toolkit for parents who have minor children together and no existing court order about those children. Filing it is what starts the case: it gets a cause number, tells the court what you and your spouse are asking for, and gives your spouse formal notice of the divorce. Unlike the Texas Supreme Court's own Set 1 forms for couples with no children and no real property, this petition is not a Supreme Court order: its footer reads "© TexasLawHelp.org" rather than citing a Misc. Docket number, because the Texas Access to Justice Commission writes and updates the with-children sets, not the Supreme Court.

The form is organized as 18 numbered sections, though Section Six (the children) is really seven lettered subsections on its own. Here is what each one covers, in the order the form presents them.

Sections 1 to 5: notice, jurisdiction, and grounds

Section One does not ask you anything; it simply sets the case at Discovery Level 2, the evidence-exchange tier the form uses for a Set B case. Section Two, Legal Notice, is where you decide how your spouse finds out about the case: check the box saying you expect a signed waiver or answer if you and your spouse are cooperating, ask for formal service by a sheriff, constable, or process server if you are not, or ask for service by publication with an attached affidavit if you genuinely cannot locate your spouse.

Section Three, Jurisdiction, breaks into three lettered parts. 3A and 3B confirm residency: Texas will not let you file until you or your spouse has lived in the filing county for the last 90 days and in the state for the last six months, and either spouse's residence can satisfy the test. 3C only matters if your spouse lives outside Texas, and asks you to check which basis gives a Texas court personal jurisdiction over that spouse, such as an agreement to the case, a recent shared home in Texas, or the children living in Texas because of the spouse's own actions.

Section Four records the date you married, including an informal or common-law marriage, and the date you and your spouse stopped living together. Section Five, Grounds for Divorce, states insupportability, the no-fault ground the form uses by default because it requires no proof that either spouse did anything wrong.

Section Six: the children, conservatorship, and possession and access

Section Six is the longest part of the petition, split into seven lettered subsections that cover every question involving the children. 6A lists each child's name, date of birth, place of birth, and current state of residence. 6B addresses jurisdiction over the children, essentially confirming Texas has been their home for the required period; TexasLawHelp is explicit that this form is not the right one if a conservatorship or child support order already exists for the children, since that situation calls for the Set C toolkit instead. 6C discloses whether the children own any significant property in their own name.

6D, Conservatorship (Custody) of the Child(ren), asks you to choose one of three arrangements: naming both parents joint managing conservators, with one parent given the exclusive right to decide the child's primary residence within a stated geographic area; naming the mother sole managing conservator; or naming the father sole managing conservator. 6E lets you ask for the exclusive right to apply for and renew the children's passports. 6F, Possession of and Access to the Child(ren) (Visitation), is where you request the Standard Possession Order, a different schedule you and your spouse have already agreed to, or safety-driven restrictions such as supervised exchanges, plus a separate schedule for a child under three. Choosing joint conservatorship in 6D is a decision about shared legal rights, not a promise of equal time; the possession schedule requested in 6F is a separate question and does not have to be an even split. 6G asks the court to order child support along with medical and dental support, and retroactive support if the evidence supports it.

Sections 7 to 10: pregnancy, other children, and protective orders

Section Seven discloses whether the wife is currently pregnant, because Texas will not finalize the divorce until after the child is born, and if the husband is not the father, paternity has to be established first. Section Eight covers the reverse situation: any child born during the marriage who is not the husband's, and whether that child's paternity has already been resolved by court order or by signed acknowledgment and denial forms.

Section Nine, the Protective Order Statement, requires you to disclose any family-violence, sexual-assault, or emergency protective order involving you, your spouse, or a child of either of you, whether it is pending or already in place, and to attach a copy of any order where one spouse was the applicant and the other the respondent. Section Ten lets you ask the court to waive the standard waiting period, but only for two family-violence reasons: a conviction or deferred adjudication against your spouse for a family-violence offense, or an active protective order against your spouse based on family violence during the marriage. Without one of those two boxes checked, the standard 60-day wait applies and there is no general good-cause exception a judge can grant instead.

Sections 11 to 18: property, name change, and signing

Section Eleven covers property and debt. 11A asks the court to approve whatever agreement you and your spouse have reached about community property; if you cannot agree, it asks the court to divide the community estate according to Texas law, which is a just and right division rather than an automatic 50/50 split. 11B lists each item you claim as separate property, meaning property you owned before marriage or received by gift, inheritance, or a personal-injury recovery, across categories for a house, land, vehicles, other property, and personal-injury money.

Section Twelve restores a former name if you check the box and write it in; the form cannot be used to pick a name you never used before marriage. Sections 13 and 14 report the children's current health and dental insurance, including whether private coverage is available to each parent at a reasonable cost, which the court uses to decide who carries that coverage going forward. Section Fifteen discloses whether the children currently have or have ever had Medicaid or TANF benefits; checking either box means you must send a copy of the petition to the Office of the Attorney General's Child Support Division and later sign Section Eighteen to certify that you did.

Section Sixteen lets a petitioner who fears family violence ask the court to keep contact information, such as a home address or phone number, confidential from the other spouse. Section Seventeen is the signature block: your name, date, signature, phone number, mailing address, and email, plus an acknowledgment that you must notify the court and your spouse in writing if your address changes. The form includes a printed warning that your spouse will see this information, with a hotline number for anyone worried about a spouse learning their address. Section Eighteen, the Certificate of Service to the OAG, is signed only if Section Fifteen disclosed Medicaid or TANF; it certifies delivery of the petition to the Attorney General's office and asks you to bring proof of that delivery to court.

After you finish the petition

Signing Section Seventeen does not end the process; it starts the timeline that leads to the Final Decree of Divorce.

1. Before filingCheck every box against your notes so the petition matches what you actually intend to ask the court to order, since the Final Decree later has to track it.
2. Filing dayThe clerk accepts the petition, assigns a cause number, and starts the 60-day waiting period, which runs from the filing date rather than from whenever your spouse is served.
3. Within days afterYour spouse is served, signs a waiver, or signs an answer, depending on what Section Two requested.
4. Day 60 or laterOnce the waiting period has run and both spouses agree on the terms, the case can move to a prove-up.
5. Prove-upA judge signs the Final Decree of Divorce, drafted to match what the petition requested, and it is filed along with form VS-165.

Whether the prove-up itself needs a courtroom appearance or can be handled by a written affidavit depends on the county and the individual court, so check local practice rather than assuming either way applies statewide.

Frequently asked questions