How Long Does a Divorce Take in England and Wales?
A divorce takes at least about seven months in practice: 20 weeks to the conditional order, six weeks and a day to the final order, plus court time. In 2026 the median case took about 40 weeks, and the finances usually take longer than the divorce itself.
Key points
- The statutory waits total 26 weeks: 20 weeks to the conditional order, then six weeks and a day to the final order; with court processing, the quickest divorce takes about seven months.
- Official figures for April to June 2026 show a median of about 40 weeks from application to final order and a mean of 68 weeks, mostly because finances are settled first.
- A joint application avoids the service stage and is usually smoother; a sole application can be delayed by a respondent who does not acknowledge the papers.
- The divorce does not divide your money; a consent order or financial remedy order does, and contested financial proceedings often take a year or more.
- Do not apply for the final order until finances are resolved: you could lose pension death benefits, inheritance rights and, if you remarry, the right to claim at all.
- The court fee is £628 since 13 July 2026; Help with Fees can cover all or part of it if your income and savings are low.
A divorce in England and Wales takes a minimum of about seven months in practice: the law requires 20 weeks between the court issuing your application and your applying for the conditional order, then a further six weeks and one day before you can apply for the final order that ends the marriage, and the court needs time to process each stage. Very few couples finish that quickly. The latest Family Court Statistics, for April to June 2026, put the median time from application to final order at about 40 weeks and the mean at about 68 weeks, largely because people sensibly wait to settle the finances before applying for the final order. This guide sets out the legal timetable, the real averages, each step of the online process, sole versus joint applications, why money takes longer than the divorce itself, and the £628 court fee.
The legal minimum: 20 weeks plus six weeks and a day
Since 6 April 2022, under the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020, the only ground for divorce is that the marriage has broken down irretrievably, and your statement to that effect is conclusive. There is no need to allege adultery or unreasonable behaviour, no separation period to wait out, and your spouse cannot defend the divorce except on narrow grounds such as the court's jurisdiction or the validity of the marriage. You must have been married for at least a year before you apply.
The Act built two waiting periods into the process. The first is 20 weeks from the date the court issues the application to the earliest date you can apply for the conditional order (formerly the decree nisi), intended as a period of reflection. The second is six weeks and one day, or 43 days, from the conditional order to the earliest date you can apply for the final order (formerly the decree absolute). Add the time the court takes to issue the application, to process each stage and to list the conditional order for pronouncement, and the quickest realistic divorce is around 26 to 30 weeks. You must apply for the final order within 12 months of the conditional order or explain the delay to the court.
How long divorces really take
The Ministry of Justice publishes quarterly Family Court Statistics. For April to June 2026 there were 26,834 divorce applications (including civil partnership dissolutions), 73% of them by one spouse alone and 27% joint. For cases reaching a final order in that quarter, the mean time from application to final order was 68 weeks and the median 40 weeks; the mean time to the conditional order was 40 weeks and the median 28. The statisticians note that the mean is inflated by a tail of old cases that finish late, so the median is the better guide: a typical divorce takes around nine to ten months, and a large minority take more than a year.
Three things account for the gap between the legal minimum and the real figures. First, most couples wait until their financial agreement has been approved by the court before applying for the final order, for reasons explained below. Second, in sole applications the respondent sometimes does not return the acknowledgement of service, and the applicant cannot apply for the conditional order until the court is satisfied the papers were received. Third, applications are held up by avoidable mistakes: a missing or uncertified marriage certificate, a foreign certificate without a certified translation, mismatched names, or a conditional order application submitted a day early.
The online process step by step
Almost all divorces are now started online through GOV.UK, by the applicant or by a solicitor through the HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) portal. The stages are:
- Apply. You need your spouse's full name and address (an email address speeds things up), your original or a certified copy of the marriage certificate, and the £628 fee or a Help with Fees reference. In a joint application the second applicant reviews and confirms the application before it is submitted.
- Issue and service. The court checks the application, issues it and sends it to the respondent, usually by email with a postal notification. The respondent should complete the acknowledgement of service within 14 days. A joint application needs no service.
- The 20-week period. Nothing happens in the divorce itself; this is the time to exchange financial disclosure, go to mediation and agree arrangements for children.
- Apply for the conditional order. From week 20 you confirm online that you want to continue. A legal adviser or judge reviews the papers and, if everything is in order, fixes a date on which the conditional order is pronounced in open court. Nobody needs to attend. This stage usually takes a few weeks.
- Wait 43 days. The conditional order allows the court to approve a financial consent order, but you are still married.
- Apply for the final order. From day 43 the applicant (or either joint applicant) applies online, and the order is usually made within days. If a sole applicant does not apply, the respondent can do so three months after that date. The final order ends the marriage; keep a copy, as you will need it to remarry and for pension and property matters.
The guide to the divorce process describes each form in more detail.
Sole or joint application: which is quicker?
A joint application is usually the smoother route: there is no service stage, both of you are applicants, and neither is cast as the one who started it. Its weakness is that both must confirm each step. If one joint applicant stops cooperating at the conditional order or final order stage, the other can switch to proceeding alone after giving notice, which adds a few weeks but does not derail the divorce.
A sole application keeps control in one person's hands but depends on the respondent acknowledging the papers. If they will not, the applicant can arrange personal service by a process server or court bailiff, ask the court to accept alternative service (by text message or through a relative, for example) or, where the respondent clearly has the papers, apply for deemed service. Each of these costs time and, usually, a further fee. A respondent cannot stop a divorce by refusing to engage; they can only delay it.
Why the finances take longer than the divorce
The divorce ends the marriage; it does not divide the money. That happens either through a financial settlement agreed between you and approved by the court as a consent order, or through contested financial remedy proceedings. The consent route can be quick: if you agree terms during the 20-week period, your solicitor drafts the order and the court can approve it once the conditional order is pronounced, so the final order follows without much delay. Mediation, for which most people must attend an initial meeting (a MIAM) before any court application, and the £500 family mediation voucher available to separating parents until at least 31 March 2027, help many couples reach that point.
Contested proceedings are a different timescale. The application (Form A, with a £321 fee) leads to the exchange of sworn Form E financial statements, a First Appointment, a Financial Dispute Resolution hearing and, if there is still no agreement, a final hearing. Court lists are long, and a fully contested case usually takes a year or more from the application. Pensions add further time, because a pension sharing order often needs an expert report and the scheme then has months to implement it. Arrangements for children are dealt with separately and rarely hold up the divorce itself; see the guide to child arrangements orders.
Why you should not rush the final order
Applying for the final order before the finances are settled is the most common and most expensive mistake in a divorce. Once the final order is made you are no longer a spouse, and several protections fall away at once. If your former spouse dies before a financial order is made, you lose any widow's or widower's pension and lump sum from their pension scheme, and you no longer inherit under the intestacy rules or as a spouse under their will. Transfers between you lose the inheritance tax exemption for spouses. And if you remarry before applying for your own financial orders, section 28(3) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 bars you from making most claims at all: the "remarriage trap".
The divorce itself does not end financial claims; only a court order does. That is why solicitors advise obtaining at least a consent order before the final order, and why the respondent in a sole application can ask the court to delay the final order while their financial position is considered. If there is a reason to finish quickly, for example a planned remarriage, take advice on protecting your position first.
The court fee and Help with Fees
The court fee for a divorce or dissolution application is £628, the same for a sole or joint application and for online or paper applications, following the fee increase on 13 July 2026. It is paid once, by the applicant or shared between joint applicants as they choose, and there is no separate fee for the conditional or final order.
If you receive a qualifying benefit such as Universal Credit with low earnings, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support or the guarantee credit element of Pension Credit, and have savings under the limit (£4,250 for a fee of this size), the Help with Fees scheme pays the whole fee. Otherwise there is an income test: a gross monthly income of £1,420 or less for a single person, or £2,130 for a couple, plus £425 for each child under 14 and £710 for each older child, qualifies for full remission, with partial help above those lines. Apply online when you make the application and quote the reference, or claim a refund within three months of paying. In a joint application both applicants must qualify. Legal aid for the divorce itself is available only in limited cases, chiefly where there is evidence of domestic abuse; see can I get legal help for free.
Civil partnerships, other parts of the UK and getting help
Dissolving a civil partnership follows exactly the same timetable, forms and fee, with a conditional order and a final order. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own divorce laws and timetables, and a couple who married abroad can still divorce here if the court has jurisdiction, which depends on where each of you is domiciled or habitually resident.
Many people complete the divorce application themselves and spend their money on advice about the finances, which is where the risk lies. A solicitor will typically charge a fixed fee to run an uncontested divorce from start to finish and a separate fixed fee for a consent order, with hourly rates for contested financial work; the guide to how much a divorce costs gives figures. Instruct a solicitor early if your spouse is abroad or cannot be found, if there are pensions, a business or property in more than one name, if you were married overseas, or if there is any history of abuse. Specialist firms are listed under divorce solicitors, and you can search by area, for example divorce solicitors in Manchester or solicitors in Leeds who handle divorce.
Frequently asked questions
Can a divorce be completed in six months?
Not quite. The two statutory waiting periods alone add up to 26 weeks (20 weeks to the conditional order and 43 days to the final order), and the court needs time to issue the application and process each stage, so even a flawless, fully cooperative case takes about seven months. Anyone promising a divorce in six months or less is describing the paperwork, not the legal timetable. Most divorces take nine to twelve months because finances are settled first.
What is the quickest way to get divorced in England and Wales?
Make a joint online application with a certified copy of the marriage certificate and the fee ready, so there is no service stage to go wrong. Use the 20-week period to exchange financial disclosure and agree a settlement, so that a consent order can be lodged as soon as the conditional order is pronounced. Apply for the conditional and final orders on the first day you are allowed to, and respond to any court query the same day.
Can my spouse refuse or delay the divorce?
They cannot refuse it. Since April 2022 a divorce cannot be defended except on narrow grounds such as the court having no jurisdiction or the marriage not being valid. A respondent who ignores the papers can slow a sole application, because you must prove service before applying for the conditional order, but the court has procedures for alternative and deemed service. A respondent can also ask the court to hold back the final order until their financial position has been considered.
What happens if I do not apply for the final order within 12 months?
The conditional order does not lapse, but if you apply for the final order more than 12 months after it was made you must file a statement explaining the delay, confirming whether you have lived together since the conditional order and whether any child has been born in that time, and the court may ask for more information before granting it. Delays of this kind are common where finances took a long time to resolve, and they are rarely a problem if explained.
Does dissolving a civil partnership take the same time?
Yes. Civil partnership dissolution uses the same no-fault process under the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020, with the same 20-week and 43-day waiting periods, the same online application and the same £628 fee. The orders are also called a conditional order and a final order. The same advice applies about settling finances before the final order, including the pension and inheritance risks of ending the partnership first.
Do I have to wait for the divorce to finish before dividing the property?
No, and you should not. Negotiate or mediate the finances during the 20-week waiting period, because a consent order can be lodged with the court as soon as the conditional order is pronounced, although the transfers it orders take effect only when the final order is made. If you cannot agree, a contested financial remedy application can also be issued once the divorce application has been issued, and it runs alongside the divorce.
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This guide describes the law in England and Wales as at 30 October 2026. It is general information, not legal advice about your situation; the law and the figures it quotes change, so check the position with a solicitor before acting. LawFirms.co.uk is a directory and does not provide legal services.