Divorce Process and Timeline in England and Wales (2026): The No-Fault Steps, Start to Finish

Since 6 April 2022, divorce in England and Wales works very differently from the version most people still picture. There is no blame, no naming of a guilty party, and no way for an unwilling spouse to drag it out by defending it. What there is instead is a fixed timetable with two built-in waiting periods. This is how the process actually runs, start to finish, and the one thing it quietly leaves undone.

This is part of the Janus Compliance family law cluster, alongside the pieces on the harder money questions: pension sharing and cryptoassets in divorce.

What changed in 2022

The Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 came into force on 6 April 2022 and rewrote the front end of divorce. The single legal ground stayed the same: the marriage has broken down irretrievably. What went was the need to prove it. You no longer pick from the old five facts (adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion, two years' separation with consent, five years without). You simply state that the marriage has broken down, and that statement is treated as conclusive.

That removed the blame, and it also removed the fight. A spouse can no longer contest a divorce because they would rather stay married. The same Act brought in plainer language, which matters because the paperwork now uses it.

Before you start

Three things need to be true before you can apply:

• You have been married for at least one year. The one-year bar is firm. You can separate immediately, but you cannot apply to divorce until the first anniversary has passed.
• A court here has jurisdiction. Usually that means one or both of you are habitually resident or domiciled in England and Wales. For couples with cross-border lives, which country you divorce in can change the financial outcome significantly, so this is worth checking before you file.
• You have your marriage certificate (or a certified copy), and a translation if it is not in English.

Civil partnerships follow the same route, called dissolution, with the same timetable.

The five steps

Step 1: The application. You apply online through the gov.uk divorce service, on your own (a sole application) or together (a joint application). You confirm the marriage has broken down irretrievably. The court fee is £593 at the time of writing, though fees change, so check the current figure on gov.uk before you file. If you are on a low income or certain benefits, you may get help with the fee. The court issues the application and, on a sole application, sends it to your spouse, who has 14 days to acknowledge it.

Step 2: The 20-week reflection period. From the date the application is issued, a 20-week clock runs before you can take the next step. This pause is deliberate: it gives space to be sure, and time to start sorting the practical questions of money and children. Nothing forces you to wait around doing nothing. This is the right window to begin the financial discussion, because that is the part that usually sets the real timetable.

Step 3: The conditional order. Once the 20 weeks have passed, you confirm you want to continue and apply for the conditional order. This is the order that used to be called the decree nisi. A judge checks the paperwork and, if it is in order, pronounces the conditional order. It confirms the court sees no reason you cannot divorce. You are not divorced yet.

Step 4: The 6-week wait. After the conditional order, a further 6 weeks and 1 day must pass before you can apply for the final order. This second pause is shorter but fixed.

Step 5: The final order. You apply for the final order, formerly the decree absolute. When the court grants it, the marriage is legally over and you are free to remarry. Keep the final order safe: it is your proof of divorce.

The new words for the old stages

The plain-language switch trips people up because older guides and older relatives still use the previous terms. The map is simple:

Old term	Term since April 2022
Petitioner	Applicant
Petition	Application
Decree nisi	Conditional order
Decree absolute	Final order

The timeline at a glance

Stage	Earliest it can happen
Application issued	Day 0 (after 1 year of marriage)
Apply for conditional order	After 20 weeks
Conditional order pronounced	Shortly after, once checked
Apply for final order	6 weeks and 1 day after the conditional order
Final order: divorce complete	About 26 weeks at the very fastest

Twenty-six weeks is the floor. The real average runs longer: most divorces take six to twelve months, and the reason is almost never the divorce paperwork. It is the money.

The thing the divorce does not do

Here is the point that costs people the most: the divorce ends the marriage and nothing else. It does not divide your house, your savings, your pensions, or your debts. Those are dealt with by a separate financial order, and the two run on different tracks.

This matters for two reasons.

First, a divorce on its own leaves your financial claims against each other open. Years later, an ex-spouse can still bring a claim, and people have lost assets and inheritances and lottery wins to exactly that gap. Even when you agree everything between yourselves, you should put the agreement into a consent order, ideally a clean-break order, and have the court approve it. A handshake is not protection.

Second, the timing of the final order can affect money. Applying for the final order before the finances are sorted can, in some cases, cost a spouse pension or survivor benefits that depend on still being married. For most people the sensible order of events is: sort the financial settlement, get the financial order approved, then apply for the final order. A pension sharing order, in particular, only takes effect once the divorce is final, so the sequence has to be right.

Children sit on their own track too. Arrangements for the children are not part of the divorce. If you can agree them, the court does not need to be involved at all. If you cannot, that is a separate application, and the court's focus there is the welfare of the child, not the divorce.

When to get a solicitor

You can run the divorce itself online without a lawyer, and for the paperwork most people can. The financial settlement is where the value, and the risk, actually sits, and that is where advice pays for itself.

Get a solicitor when any of these apply:

• There are pensions, a business, property beyond the family home, or assets abroad
• One of you earns or owns significantly more than the other
• The split is not amicable, or disclosure is not straightforward
• There is any history of abuse or coercion
• The marriage had an international dimension and more than one country could deal with it

For the divorce, look for a family solicitor. For agreement reached out of court, a solicitor can still draft the consent order that makes it binding.

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Current as at 25 June 2026. This is educational. For your specific facts, instruct a qualified family solicitor.

Part of the Janus Compliance Family Law cluster. See also: Pension Sharing Orders in UK Divorce, Cryptoassets in Divorce, Cohabitation Rights for Unmarried Couples, Legal hub, Immigration, Employment.