How to File for Divorce in California: The Full Process

By the FormsPal Editorial Team · Updated September 2, 2026 · 13 min read

Filing for divorce in California follows a set order, and two of the steps are locked to specific dates by statute rather than to how quickly you get your paperwork done. This guide walks through that order the way a Superior Court clerk actually expects to see it, for the case that covers most people who search for this: a couple who already agree on how to split things up. If you and your spouse are still fighting over the terms, the honest answer sits in the next section, and it isn't a form.

1. Confirm you meet the residency rule

California will not accept your petition unless one spouse clears two residency thresholds at once. That spouse has to have lived in California for the six months right before filing, and in the county where the case is filed for the three months right before that (Fam. Code §2320). Both conditions have to be true on the day you file, not the day you decided to divorce.

If you split time between counties or moved recently, count the months on an actual calendar rather than estimating. There's a narrow exception for same-sex couples married in California but living somewhere that won't grant them a divorce, and for registered domestic partners, who are exempt from the residency rule entirely. Most filers don't fall into either exception, so verify your own timeline before you assume you're clear.

2. Grounds, and choosing your filing track

California grants a divorce on a single no-fault ground the statute calls "irreconcilable differences," meaning the marriage has broken down beyond repair (Fam. Code §2310). Only one spouse has to allege it, and neither of you has to prove the other did anything wrong. That makes getting permission to divorce a formality. What actually varies between cases is whether you've settled every practical term: dividing community property and debts, spousal support if either of you wants it, and, with children together, custody, visitation, and child support.

This guide covers the agreed route, where both spouses have settled the terms and the case moves through the court almost entirely on paper. If a major term is still genuinely disputed, this isn't the right path, and going it alone against a contested issue tends to cost more in the long run than hiring counsel from the start. Talk to a family law attorney instead of forcing a contested case through an uncontested process.

If your case is agreed, California gives you a real choice most other states don't: file the standard Petition (FL-100), where you file and your spouse is formally notified afterward, or, if you're both willing to file together, the newer Joint Petition (FL-700). The joint route, added statewide on January 1, 2026, lets you co-sign one filing, pay one fee, and skip serving papers entirely, since your spouse is already part of the case the moment it's filed. Either spouse can still back out of it before judgment. It's the simpler option when you're both cooperating, and the rest of this guide notes where the two tracks diverge.

3. Get and complete your forms

Every California dissolution, joint or standard, opens with a petition and a summons. On the standard track that's the Petition (FL-100) and the Summons (FL-110). On the joint track it's the Joint Petition (FL-700) and the Joint Summons (FL-710). A case with children together adds the Declaration Under UCCJEA (FL-105) on either track, covering the children's recent address history and any other custody cases involving them. Every case, agreed or not, also carries a set of financial disclosure forms, covered in its own step below, since California requires that exchange even when both spouses already agree on the numbers.

California is what's called an official-forms state: the Judicial Council publishes the exact form every court requires, and a homemade substitute gets rejected. We've built a full walkthrough of exactly which forms your case needs and what each one does at our guide to California divorce papers. If children are part of your case, our guide to California divorce with children covers the custody and support attachments those cases carry. This article stays focused on the filing sequence itself rather than repeating that catalog.

4. File with the Superior Court and pay the fee

Filing happens at the Superior Court in the county that meets your residency test, under a caption that reads "Superior Court of California, County of" wherever you file. California has no single statewide e-filing portal. Instead, each county runs its own system through approved e-filing providers, and the pattern across every launch county we've checked is the same: e-filing is mandatory for attorneys but optional for people representing themselves. That means paper filing, in person or by mail, remains available to you almost everywhere in the state, even where e-filing exists as an upgrade.

In Los Angeles County, family law cases file at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse or a district courthouse depending on where you live, and self-represented filers may e-file but aren't required to. San Diego County runs its family filings through Odyssey eFileCA, open to self-represented filers who want it, with paper filing also accepted at the Family Law Business Office. Orange County requires e-filing only for attorneys under a local rule, and self-represented parties are explicitly exempt, though it's "strongly encouraged" for them too. None of that changes the underlying law, residency, the six-month clock, and the paperwork itself work the same way statewide, but confirm your own county's current fee schedule and filing options before you assume your neighbor's experience in a different county maps onto yours.

The filing fee

California sets one statewide first-paper fee, and it's $435 in most counties, with a handful of counties charging up to $450 under a local surcharge. That's the fee for your Petition or Joint Petition. If your case runs on the standard track and your spouse later files a formal Response, they pay their own first-appearance fee of the same amount, though a spouse who signs your settlement agreement without filing a separate Response typically pays nothing. On the joint track, there's only ever one fee, shared between you both. If that amount is a genuine hardship, you can file a Request to Waive Court Fees (FW-001) alongside your petition, a sworn statement of your income and any public benefits you receive that lets a judge waive the fee entirely. It costs nothing to ask, and each spouse can file their own request. For a fuller breakdown of what an agreed case runs beyond that first fee, see our guide to what a California divorce costs.

5. Notify your spouse, or skip that step entirely

If you filed a Joint Petition, this step doesn't exist. Both of you signed the same filing together, so there's no one left to notify and no proof of service to file. That's the practical advantage of the joint track for a fully cooperative couple.

On the standard track, your spouse has to be formally brought into the case after you file. California gives an agreed couple an easier path than a contested one. A cooperative spouse can sign a Notice and Acknowledgment of Receipt (FL-117) confirming by mail that they received the Petition and Summons, no process server required. The date they sign that acknowledgment is the date of service, and it's what starts your six-month clock, not your filing date. If your spouse won't sign, any adult who isn't part of the case, or a process server, can hand them the papers directly, followed by a Proof of Service of Summons (FL-115) filed with the court. Your spouse then has 30 days to respond.

Two things commonly happen next in an agreed case. If your spouse doesn't file a formal Response but does sign your settlement agreement, you file a Request to Enter Default (FL-165), and because a signed agreement is part of the record, your spouse pays no additional court fee for it. If your spouse would rather file their own Response, they can, paying their own first-appearance fee, which formally joins them to the case. Either way gets you to the same finish line.

6. Exchange your financial disclosures

California requires both spouses to exchange a full financial disclosure in every dissolution, agreed or not, on both the standard and joint tracks. It's the step that most surprises people coming from other states, where an uncontested case with no children can sometimes skip disclosure entirely. Here, it's mandatory regardless.

The preliminary Declaration of Disclosure (FL-140) is the cover sheet, paired with your Schedule of Assets and Debts (FL-142) and your Income and Expense Declaration (FL-150). Most of that packet is served directly on your spouse and never filed with the court, FL-140 and FL-142 fall into that category. FL-150 is the exception, you file it as well as serve it. Once you've both exchanged your preliminary disclosures, you file a Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (FL-141) to prove the exchange happened. Without it, the judge can't sign your judgment later.

Most agreed couples also sign a Stipulation and Waiver of Final Declaration of Disclosure (FL-144), mutually agreeing to skip the second, final round of disclosure. The preliminary round above is never waivable, but the final one commonly is once you've both already put your full financial picture on the table.

7. The six-month wait

California law sets a floor under every divorce, and where that floor starts depends on how you filed. On the standard track, a judge cannot sign your judgment until six months have passed since the date your spouse was served or formally appeared, whichever happened first (Fam. Code §2339). On the joint-petition track, there's no service to wait on, so the six months runs from the day after you filed instead. Either way, nothing accelerates it. Agreement between the spouses doesn't shorten it, and neither does a faster form.

Treat the wait as working time rather than dead time. Finish your judgment package, confirm every figure matches what you and your spouse agreed to, and file your disclosures if you haven't already, so the case is ready to close the moment the clock runs out. For the full picture of how this period fits into an overall timeline, including what typically pushes a case past the six-month floor, see our guide to how long a California divorce takes.

8. The judgment, and what comes after

Because your case is uncontested, California finalizes it entirely on the papers, no hearing, no testimony, and no notary anywhere in the packet. Once the six-month wait has passed and your disclosures are on file, you submit your signed Appearance, Stipulations, and Waivers (FL-130) and Declaration for Default or Uncontested Dissolution (FL-170) along with the Judgment (FL-180) itself, with your Marital Settlement Agreement attached covering property, debts, and support. A case with children adds a custody and visitation attachment and a child support attachment to that same package. The judge reviews everything and signs, and that signature is what actually ends the marriage.

Once the judge signs, the court mails you a Notice of Entry of Judgment (FL-190), which confirms the divorce is final and states the exact date your marriage ends. Order certified copies of your signed judgment from the county clerk once you have it, you'll want more than one, since banks, the DMV, and other institutions rarely hand a certified copy back. If your judgment transfers real estate, a separate county-recorder instrument, usually an interspousal transfer deed, typically has to be recorded on top of the court packet. If it divides a retirement account, a plan-specific order called a QDRO is usually needed to split it without triggering taxes or penalties.

For the wider picture of how California's uncontested process fits together, from qualifying through your form package, see our California online divorce overview.

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