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How to File for Divorce in Texas: Every Step From Petition to Decree

Reviewed by the Amicably document team · Updated August 1, 2026

Filing for divorce in Texas starts with a residency check: one of you must have lived in the state for the past six months and in the filing county for the past 90 days. After that the path is the same everywhere: one spouse files an Original Petition for Divorce with the district clerk, the other is served or signs a waiver, a mandatory 60 day waiting period runs, and the case ends at a short hearing called the prove-up, where a judge signs the Final Decree of Divorce.

This guide walks that path step by step for a self-represented, agreed case: which official forms fit your situation, what filing actually costs, how service works when you are cooperating, what the 60 days are for, and what happens on the day it ends. If you are still deciding whether to do the paperwork yourselves, start with the comparison of doing it yourself, using an online service, or hiring a lawyer, then come back here for the mechanics.

Before you file: residency and grounds

Texas checks two things before it will hear a divorce. The first is residency: either you or your spouse must have been a Texas resident for the preceding six months and a resident of the county where you file for the preceding 90 days. Only one of you needs to qualify, so a spouse who moved away does not block the case as long as the other still meets the rule. The details and the edge cases are in the residency requirements guide.

The second is a ground for the divorce. Agreed cases are typically filed on insupportability, the Texas no-fault ground: the marriage has become insupportable because of conflict that destroys the legitimate ends of the marriage, with no reasonable expectation of reconciliation. Nobody has to prove wrongdoing, and nobody has to consent. Fault grounds such as cruelty, adultery, abandonment, felony conviction, living apart for at least three years, and confinement in a mental hospital exist in the statute, but they belong to contested cases, not the process this guide covers.

Step 1: choose the right form set

Texas publishes free, official uncontested divorce forms, but they come in distinct sets, and choosing the wrong one is the most common self-help mistake. The split that matters most is children and real property.

Only Divorce Set 1, the no-children, no-real-property set, was promulgated by the Texas Supreme Court. The with-children sets are published by TexasLawHelp and the Texas Access to Justice Commission; they are widely used and court-accepted, but they carry no Supreme Court stamp, so do not be surprised when a vendor or a clerk describes them differently. The core with-children paperwork includes the Original Petition for Divorce (FM-DivB-100), the Waiver of Service Only (FM-DivB-103), the Respondent's Original Answer (FM-DivB-102), the Final Decree of Divorce (FM-DivB-201), and a prove-up affidavit. A walkthrough of every set lives in the guide to every official Texas form set.

Step 2: file the Original Petition with the district clerk

The petition is the document that opens the case. It states who you are, that the residency rule is met, the ground for the divorce, and what the case will cover. Divorce cases are filed with the district clerk of the county where you or your spouse meets the 90 day county residency, not with the county clerk. Filing looks like this:

1. Complete the Original Petition for Divorce from your form set and sign it.
2. Make at least two copies: one for your spouse, one for your records.
3. File it with the district clerk, in person or through eFileTexas, the statewide e-filing portal. Self-represented filers may e-file, but in most cases are not required to; paper filing at the clerk's window still works.
4. Pay the filing fee, or file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs if you cannot. The statement is a sworn document filed with the petition, and if the court grants it the fee is waived.
5. Keep the file-stamped copy the clerk returns. It carries your case number and the court assignment, which every later document must repeat.

The fee itself is set county by county and changes. As of mid-2026, Harris County charges roughly $350 to open a divorce with no children and slightly more with children, and the other large counties sit in the same neighborhood. Check the district clerk's own fee schedule for the county where you will file rather than trusting a statewide figure, because there is no statewide figure. The full cost picture, county by county, is in what a Texas divorce actually costs.

Step 3: serve your spouse, or collect a waiver

Once the petition is filed, your spouse is entitled to formal notice. In an agreed case there are two ways to satisfy that, and the choice changes both the cost and the feel of the case.

The waiver rules trip people constantly. The waiver must be signed after the petition is filed; a waiver signed even a day before filing is not valid and must be redone. It must be sworn before a notary, and the notary cannot be an attorney in the case. And a digitized signature is not allowed on a divorce waiver of service, so this one document gets ink. Formal service, by contrast, costs real money: the citation itself is a few dollars, and delivery by constable or certified mail runs well into the double digits, all county-dependent.

There is a third path if your spouse would rather not visit a notary: filing an answer. TexasLawHelp publishes the Respondent's Original Answer (FM-DivB-102) for exactly this, and a spouse who has answered is participating in the case without formal service. The service guide compares all three routes in detail.

Step 4: wait out the 60 days, and use them well

A Texas court may not grant a divorce before the 60th day after the date the petition was filed. The clock runs from filing, not from service, so a slow waiver or a hard-to-find spouse does not restart it. The only statutory exceptions are two family-violence circumstances: a family-violence conviction or deferred adjudication against the respondent, or an active protective or emergency protection order. There is no general good-cause waiver and no shortening the period by agreement, however complete your paperwork is. The 60 day waiting period guide covers the edge cases.

The wait is not dead time. Agreed cases that finish quickly use these weeks to complete the Final Decree, gather account statements and vehicle titles, sort out the waiver or answer if it has not been signed yet, and confirm how their county handles the final hearing, which is the next surprise for most filers.

Step 5: complete the Final Decree of Divorce

The decree is the longest document in the case and the only one that matters afterward: it is the court order that divides property, orders anything owed, and, when there are children, sets out conservatorship, possession and access, and support. In an agreed case both spouses sign it before the prove-up, so the judge is approving a finished agreement rather than resolving anything.

Three things to know while filling it in. First, property: Texas divides the community estate in a manner the court finds just and right, which is not automatically a 50/50 split, and a court cannot award one spouse's separate property to the other. Your decree should describe each asset and debt specifically enough that a bank or title office can act on it. Second, children: Texas speaks in conservatorship rather than custody, and in possession and access rather than visitation, and the decree's provisions follow that structure; in every child-support case the court must also order medical support and dental support for the child. Third, names: if either spouse wants a previously used name back, the decree is the place to ask, and the court will restore it on request unless it states a reason for denying it.

One companion form travels with the decree: form VS-165, the vital statistics report, which every Texas divorce must file so the state's records reflect the dissolution. The clerk will expect it at or before the prove-up.

Step 6: the prove-up, and what comes after

An uncontested Texas divorce ends at a prove-up: a short appearance where the petitioner presents brief testimony supporting the decree, the judge asks a few confirming questions, and the decree is signed. In some counties there is no appearance at all, because the court accepts a sworn prove-up affidavit by submission. Whether yours does depends on the county and the individual judge, so do not assume a no-courtroom finish statewide: ask your district clerk or check the court's own instructions before the 60 days run out. The prove-up guide walks through the testimony itself.

Once the judge signs, get several certified copies of the decree from the clerk. Banks, title offices, and the driver license office each want their own, and a name restored in the decree becomes usable the moment you can show it.

The whole timeline at a glance

1. Day 0The Original Petition for Divorce is filed with the district clerk and the fee is paid or waived. The 60 day clock starts today, at filing, on every route.
2. First weeksYour spouse signs the waiver of service, after the filing date and before a notary, or is formally served, or files an answer.
3. Days 1 to 60You complete and both sign the Final Decree, prepare form VS-165, and confirm how your county finalizes agreed cases.
4. Day 61 onwardThe prove-up: brief testimony or, in some counties, an affidavit by submission. The judge signs the Final Decree and the divorce is granted.

Day 61 is the earliest lawful finish, not a promise. Real timing depends on how quickly the paperwork is complete and how the county schedules prove-ups; agreed cases commonly finish in the weeks after the waiting period ends rather than on its first eligible day.

Frequently asked questions