How to File for Divorce in Houston, Texas: Steps and Waiting Period

To file for divorce in Houston, you open an Original Petition for Divorce with the Harris County District Clerk, either in person at 201 Caroline Street or electronically through eFileTexas.gov. At least one spouse must have lived in Texas for the past six months and in Harris County for the past 90 days.¹ The filing fee is $350 without children and $365 with children,² and Texas imposes a mandatory 60-day waiting period before a judge can grant the divorce.³

Confirm You Meet the Residency Rules

A Texas court cannot grant your divorce unless one spouse has been a Texas resident for the six months immediately before filing and a resident of the filing county for the preceding 90 days.¹ For a Houston case, that county is Harris County. Both facts have to be stated in your petition.

If your spouse still lives in Harris County but you moved out of state, you can file here as long as your spouse meets both requirements. If neither of you satisfies the time on the ground, the court will dismiss the case. There is no workaround.

Prepare the Original Petition for Divorce

The document that starts the case is the Original Petition for Divorce. You are the Petitioner. Your spouse is the Respondent. The petition tells the court who the two of you are, what you are asking for, and why the court has authority to hear the case. It needs to include:

Full legal names of both spouses, the date of the marriage, and the date you stopped living together as a married couple.
Names and birthdates of any children under 18 or still in high school that you and your spouse share.
A statement confirming the six-month state and 90-day county residency.
The legal grounds for the divorce.
A general description of community property and debts you want divided, and any separate property you want confirmed as yours.

Texas courts use standardized forms approved by the Texas Supreme Court. You can download the petition packet from TexasLawHelp.org or pick up printed copies at the District Clerk’s office. You will also file a Civil Case Information Sheet, which gives the court basic administrative data about the proceeding and the parties.

Gather your financial records before you start filling out forms. Bank statements, mortgage documents, vehicle titles, retirement account statements, and credit card balances all help you describe the marital estate accurately. Incomplete information in the petition creates problems later, particularly if the case turns contested.

Grounds: What to Put in the Petition

Texas allows both no-fault and fault-based divorce. The vast majority of petitions are filed on the no-fault ground of “insupportability,” meaning the marriage has broken down through conflict and there is no reasonable expectation of reconciliation.⁴ You do not have to prove your spouse did anything wrong.

Fault grounds do exist: cruelty, adultery, felony conviction, abandonment, living apart for at least three years, and confinement in a mental hospital. Filing on fault grounds requires proof and typically makes the case longer and costlier. Fault can influence property division because a judge who finds adultery or cruelty has more room to award a disproportionate share to the wronged spouse. For most self-filers, insupportability is the practical choice.

File the Petition in Harris County

Harris County accepts divorce filings in person or electronically. The physical office is the Harris County District Clerk at 201 Caroline Street in Houston, and the building has a 24-hour drop box on the north side.⁵ You can also file online through eFileTexas.gov. E-filing is mandatory for attorneys, but if you are representing yourself, paper filing is still allowed under Texas procedural rules.

The filing fee is $350 for a divorce without children and $365 with children.² If you cannot afford the fee, file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs. This sworn statement asks the court to waive your fees. Once the clerk accepts it, the case must be docketed and citation issued at no charge. A judge can later review the statement and challenge it, but until that happens, your case moves forward.

Once the clerk stamps in your petition, you have a case number and a court assignment. You are on the docket. Nothing else moves, though, until your spouse is notified.

Serve Your Spouse or Get a Signed Waiver

After the clerk accepts your petition, you have to formally notify your spouse. Texas calls this service of citation. A constable, sheriff’s deputy, or certified private process server physically delivers a copy of the petition along with a court-issued citation. The citation tells your spouse they have been sued and states the deadline to answer.

If the divorce is amicable, your spouse can skip formal service by signing a Waiver of Citation. The waiver has to be signed after the petition is filed, not before, and must be notarized or signed under penalty of perjury. A waiver saves the cost of a process server, which typically runs $75 to $150 in the Houston area depending on how many attempts are needed.

If Your Spouse Is on Active Military Duty

Federal law adds protections when the respondent is a service member. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, a court cannot enter a default judgment against a service member who does not appear unless it first appoints an attorney to protect that person’s interests.⁶ The court must also grant a minimum 90-day stay if military duties prevent the spouse from participating. Before asking for a default, the petitioner has to file an affidavit stating whether the respondent is in military service. Skipping these steps can get a judgment overturned later.

If You Cannot Locate Your Spouse

If you genuinely cannot find your spouse after a diligent search, you can ask the court for permission to serve by publication, which involves publishing a notice in a local newspaper for a set period. This is a last resort. The court will expect a documented record of the steps you took to locate your spouse before approving it.

Ask for Temporary Orders If You Need Them

The stretch between filing and the final decree can run for months, and daily life does not pause. Either spouse can ask the court for temporary orders covering urgent issues while the case is pending.⁷ A court issuing temporary orders can:

Require either spouse to make support payments to the other during the case.
Award one spouse exclusive use of the family home.
Restrict both spouses from spending beyond reasonable living expenses.
Order production of financial documents like bank records and tax returns.
Order payment of reasonable attorney’s fees.
Appoint a receiver to protect marital property from being wasted or hidden.

Temporary orders require a hearing where both sides present their arguments, and the orders stay in place until the final decree replaces them. If you have children or a significant income imbalance with your spouse, temporary orders can be the difference between stability and chaos during the case.

Wait Out the 60 Days

Texas requires a 60-day cooling-off period after the petition is filed before a judge can grant the divorce.³ The clock starts on the filing date, not the date your spouse is served. Even if the two of you reach total agreement the next morning, the earliest a judge can finalize is day 61.

Only two narrow exceptions apply, both tied to family violence. The 60 days is waived if your spouse has been convicted of, or received deferred adjudication for, a family violence offense against you or a member of your household, or if you have an active protective order or magistrate’s order against your spouse for violence during the marriage. Outside those situations, the wait is mandatory.

There is no upper deadline. Contested divorces routinely take many months or more than a year. The 60 days is a floor, not a ceiling.

Finalize at the Prove-Up Hearing

Once the 60-day waiting period has passed and all terms are settled, the final step is a short court hearing called a prove-up.³ It is not a trial. In an uncontested case, typically only the petitioner appears. You give sworn testimony confirming the facts in the petition: residency, grounds, and that any property division and custody arrangements are fair and agreed. The judge runs through a standard set of questions, reviews the Final Decree of Divorce that both spouses have signed, and if everything is in order, signs it. The marriage ends at that point.

The Final Decree is the most important document in the whole process. It contains every binding order: which assets go to whom, who pays which debts, the custody and visitation schedule, child support, and any spousal maintenance. Read every line before signing. Errors and omissions in the decree are difficult and expensive to fix after the judge signs it.

If you changed your name when you married and want it back, request the change in the petition or in the decree. The court must grant a name change to a previously used name if you ask for it, and the judge cannot deny the request solely to keep family surnames aligned.⁸ Once the decree is signed, the clerk can issue a name change certificate you can use to update your driver’s license, Social Security card, and other identification.

What Filing Does Not Resolve on Its Own

Filing opens the case; it does not decide it. If you and your spouse disagree on property, custody, or support, the case becomes contested and moves onto a longer path involving discovery, potentially mediation ordered by the judge, and if mediation fails, a trial where a family court judge decides the outstanding issues. Property division follows Texas community property rules with a “just and right” division standard,⁹ custody is decided under the best-interest-of-the-child standard,¹⁰ and spousal maintenance in Texas is limited both in who qualifies and how much and how long it can be paid. Each of those areas has its own rules that come into play after your case is on file, and each one is worth understanding on its own before you sit down at the prove-up.

1
State of Texas. Texas Code FAM 6.301 – General Residency Rule for Divorce Suit
2
Harris County District Clerk. Fee Schedule – Civil and Family
3
Texas State Law Library. Finalizing the Divorce
4
State of Texas. Texas Code FAM 6.001 – Insupportability
5
Harris County District Clerk. Civil/Family Filing Methods
6
GovInfo. 50 USC 3931 – Default Judgments
7
State of Texas. Texas Code FAM 6.502 – Temporary Orders
8
Justia. Texas Code FAM Chapter 45 – Change of Name
9
State of Texas. Texas Code FAM 7.001 – General Rule of Property Division
10
State of Texas. Texas Code FAM 153.002 – Best Interest of Child