You can handle most of a Texas annulment online by preparing your petition at home and submitting it through the state’s eFileTexas system, though the case still ends with a short in-person hearing before a judge. An annulment in Texas treats the marriage as if it never legally existed, which is different from a divorce that ends a valid union. Whether the online route works for you depends on two things: your marriage has to fit one of the specific grounds in the Texas Family Code, and you have to meet the filing deadline that goes with that ground.
Void or Voidable: Which Situation Is Yours
Texas separates invalid marriages into two categories, and the difference changes what you file.
A void marriage was never legally valid. Texas treats a marriage as void when either spouse was already married to someone else, when the spouses are close blood relatives or related by adoption, when one party was under 18 and not legally emancipated, or when the spouses are current or former stepparent and stepchild. You do not technically need a court order to end a void marriage, but filing a suit to declare the marriage void creates an official record that prevents confusion with government agencies, creditors, or future spouses.
A voidable marriage is legally valid until a judge annuls it. All of the grounds below fall in this category, and until the court signs a decree, every legal obligation of marriage still applies to you.
Grounds for Annulment and the Deadlines That Go With Them
Texas Family Code Chapter 6, Subchapter B lists the reasons a court can annul a voidable marriage. The flaw has to have existed at the time of the ceremony, and almost every ground requires that you stopped living with your spouse once you learned about the problem. Several grounds also carry hard calendar deadlines. Miss one and no Texas court can help you.
- Marriage within 72 hours of the license. Texas requires a 72-hour waiting period between getting a marriage license and holding the ceremony. If the wedding happened inside that window, either spouse can seek an annulment, but you have only 30 days from the wedding date to file.1State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code Section 6.110 – Marriage Less Than 72 Hours After Issuance of License
- Intoxication. If either party was so impaired by alcohol or drugs during the ceremony that they could not consent, the court can annul the marriage. The petitioner must not have voluntarily continued living with the other spouse after the effects wore off.
- Fraud, duress, or force. If your spouse tricked, threatened, or physically forced you into the marriage, the court can annul it, provided you stopped living together after you learned about the fraud or escaped the coercion.2State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code Section 6.107 – Fraud, Duress, or Force
- Mental incapacity. If either party lacked the mental ability to understand the marriage ceremony because of a mental disease or defect, the marriage is voidable. The petitioner cannot have continued living with the other spouse during any period when capacity returned.3Texas Public Law. Texas Family Code Section 6.108 – Mental Incapacity
- Permanent impotency. If either spouse was permanently impotent, physically or mentally, at the time of the marriage and the other spouse did not know, the court can annul the union. The petitioner must have stopped cohabitating after discovering the condition.4State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code Section 6.106 – Impotency
- Concealed divorce. If your spouse finalized a divorce from someone else within 30 days before marrying you and you had no reasonable way to know, the court can annul the marriage. You have one year from the wedding to file, and you must have stopped living together after learning the truth.5State of Texas. Texas Family Code FAM Section 6.109 – Concealed Divorce
- Underage marriage. If a party was under 18 and not emancipated, a parent, managing conservator, or guardian can petition before the minor turns 18. The minor can also file on their own behalf. The court weighs the welfare of both parties and whether the minor is pregnant.6State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code Section 6.104 – Discretionary Annulment of Underage Marriage7State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code Section 6.103 – Underage Annulment Barred by Adulthood
For the grounds without a calendar deadline, like fraud, mental incapacity, and impotency, the practical deadline is behavioral. If you kept cohabitating after you knew, a judge will treat that as accepting the marriage and your case ends there. The clock effectively starts the moment you learn the truth.
Residency: Who Can File in Texas
Annulment is easier to file than divorce when it comes to residency. There is no minimum period you have to have lived in the state. You qualify if either the marriage took place in Texas or at least one spouse lives in Texas when you file the petition.8Texas Law Help. Annulling a Marriage in Texas A Texas divorce, by contrast, requires at least one spouse to have been a state resident for six months and a county resident for 90 days.
If you married in another state but both of you now live in Texas, a Texas court has jurisdiction. If you married in Texas but now live elsewhere, you can still file here even if neither spouse is a current resident.9Texas Law Help. Requirements for Annulments in Texas
Preparing Your Petition
The document that opens your case is called the Original Petition to Annul Marriage. TexasLawHelp.org publishes a standardized version you can download and fill out digitally.10Texas Law Help. Original Petition to Annul Marriage Your local district clerk’s website may post a county-specific version.
You will need the full legal names of both spouses, the date and location of the ceremony, and the county that issued the marriage license. The most important field is the legal ground. Pick the specific reason from Chapter 6 of the Family Code. Leaving this vague or choosing the wrong ground will get the petition rejected or dismissed.
Prepare a proposed Final Decree of Annulment at the same time. This is the document the judge signs at the end of your hearing to make the annulment official. Having both the petition and the proposed decree saved as PDFs before you log in to file will save you from a stalled upload.
Filing Through eFileTexas
Texas handles electronic court filings through eFileTexas.gov. E-filing is mandatory for attorneys in all district and county courts. If you are filing on your own without a lawyer, e-filing is not required but is strongly encouraged and is the fastest way to submit paperwork.11eFileTexas.Gov. Official E-Filing System for Texas
Create an account on eFileTexas.gov, upload your completed petition and proposed decree as PDFs, select the correct court and case type, and pay the filing fee. The system tracks your case status and sends notifications when the clerk processes your documents. If you would rather file in person, you can bring printed copies to your district clerk’s office.
One real advantage of annulment over divorce: Texas does not impose a waiting period after you file. Divorce requires a mandatory 60-day cooling-off period before a judge can sign the decree. No equivalent delay exists for annulment, so your case can move as soon as service and scheduling allow.8Texas Law Help. Annulling a Marriage in Texas
Fees and Fee Waivers
Filing fees vary by county but generally run $300 to $400 for cases without children, and higher when children are involved. If you need to formally serve your spouse through a process server, expect another $40 to $200 depending on the provider and how hard the respondent is to locate.
If you cannot afford these costs, file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs with your petition. You qualify if you receive means-tested government benefits like SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, or SSI, if you are represented by a legal aid organization, or if paying the fees would prevent you from covering basic household needs. If no one contests the statement, the fees are waived automatically.12Texas Law Help. I Cannot Afford My Court Fees
Notifying Your Spouse
After you file, your spouse has to be notified. Texas requires formal service of process to satisfy due process. How it works depends on whether the case is agreed or contested.
In an uncontested case, your spouse can sign a Waiver of Service. This tells the court that the respondent received notice voluntarily and does not need to be formally served. It saves time and money and is the usual approach when both parties agree the marriage should be annulled.
If your spouse will not cooperate or you cannot find them, arrange formal service through a private process server or the county constable. If a diligent search truly turns up nothing, you can ask the court for permission to serve by publication, which means publishing notice in a newspaper or on a public information website. Courts require documented proof of your search before approving this method. Service by publication also weakens the finality of your case: the respondent has two years afterward to request a new trial.
The Prove-Up Hearing
Once service is complete and any response period has expired, you schedule a prove-up hearing. This is the part of the process you cannot do online. It is a short in-person appearance, usually 10 to 15 minutes, where you present evidence supporting the ground you identified in your petition.
For an uncontested annulment, the hearing is largely a formality. You testify that the facts in your petition are true, answer a few questions from the judge, and present your proposed Final Decree for signature. If you claimed fraud, be ready to describe the fraud and confirm you stopped living with your spouse after discovering it. Bring your marriage license and any evidence tied to the specific ground.
When the judge signs the decree, the marriage is officially declared void and the signed decree becomes the permanent court record.
If You Have Children
An annulment does not make children born during the marriage illegitimate. Under Texas law, a man is presumed to be the father of any child born during the marriage or within 300 days after the marriage ends by annulment, divorce, or death, and that presumption holds even if the marriage is later declared void or invalid.13State of Texas. Texas Family Code FAM Section 160.204 – Presumption of Paternity
If children are involved, the court still has to decide conservatorship (the Texas term for custody), possession schedules, and child support, just as it would in a divorce. The annulment petition for cases with children includes additional sections for these issues. Erasing the marriage does not erase parental obligations.
Property and Immigration: Two Things Annulment Does Not Erase
Because an annulment treats the marriage as if it never happened, there is technically no community property to divide. In practice, a couple that lived together often has shared assets, debts, and commingled accounts, and the court will sort out ownership using a murkier framework than a divorce. Texas also recognizes the putative spouse doctrine, which protects someone who entered the marriage in good faith believing it was valid. A putative spouse may receive a share of property similar to what a divorce would allocate. If you knew the marriage was flawed when you entered it, you lose that protection.
If either spouse holds immigration status based on the marriage, an annulment has serious consequences a divorce does not. Because the marriage is declared never to have existed, any immigration benefit built on it loses its foundation. A conditional permanent resident whose marriage ends by annulment can still apply to remove conditions on their green card using Form I-751 with a waiver of the joint filing requirement, but they will need to show USCIS that the marriage was entered in good faith.14U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 5 – Waiver of Joint Filing Requirement If the annulment is based on fraud, expect USCIS to look closely at the circumstances of the marriage.