To file for divorce in Michigan with children, you file a complaint for divorce in the circuit court of the county where you or your spouse meets the residency rule, attach the child-specific forms the court requires, serve your spouse with the summons, and then wait at least six months before the judge can enter a final judgment covering custody, parenting time, and child support. Michigan is a no-fault state, so the complaint only has to state that the marriage has broken down and cannot be preserved.1Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 552.6 – Complaint for Divorce Filing Grounds Everything else in the process exists to protect the children while the case moves through the court.
Confirm You Can File in Michigan
At least one spouse must have lived in Michigan for 180 consecutive days and in the filing county for at least 10 days before the complaint is filed.2Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 552.9 – Judgment of Divorce Residency Requirement If everything that led to the divorce happened outside Michigan, the state residency requirement stretches to a full year.3Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 552.9e – Divorce Cause Occurring Out of State Residence Either spouse can satisfy the requirement; the person filing does not have to be the one who meets it.
Gather the Forms You Need
Blank forms are available at courts.michigan.gov or from your local circuit court clerk. For a case with minor children, you will file:
- Summons (MC 01), which notifies your spouse of the case and gives them 21 days to respond, or 28 days if served by mail or outside Michigan.4Michigan Courts. MC 01 Summons
- Complaint for Divorce, which uses Michigan’s standard breakdown-of-the-marriage language and lists the full names and ages of all minor children born during the marriage.1Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 552.6 – Complaint for Divorce Filing Grounds
- UCCJEA Affidavit (MC 416), which lists where the children have lived for the past five years and with whom, so the court can confirm its authority to decide custody.5Michigan Courts. MC 416 Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act Affidavit
- Confidential Case Inventory (MC 21), which lists any other family court cases involving the parties or their family members and stays off the public record.
Filing fees for a divorce with minor children generally run between $230 and $255 depending on the county, and some counties add a separate e-filing fee. If you cannot pay, file an affidavit of indigency and ask the court to waive the fee.
Serve Your Spouse
After the clerk issues the summons, your spouse must be formally handed the paperwork. You cannot do this yourself. Any adult who is not a party to the case can serve the papers, including a professional process server, a sheriff’s deputy, or an uninvolved friend or relative over 18.6Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 600.1908 – Process Persons to Make Service Certified mail with return receipt also works, as long as your spouse personally signs for it.
Whoever delivers the papers files a proof of service with the court. The summons expires 91 days after it is issued, so service has to be completed within that window.7Michigan Courts. Michigan Judicial Institute – Summons If it expires before service, you have to ask the court to reissue it.
Plan for the Six-Month Waiting Period
When minor children are involved, no testimony or proofs can be taken until at least six months after the complaint is filed. The clock cannot be waived outright. A judge can shorten it after the first 60 days on a showing of unusual hardship or compelling circumstances, which typically means something like domestic violence or a severe financial crisis rather than impatience with the process.8Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 552.9f – Divorce Taking of Testimony Minor Children You would have to file a motion and present specific evidence. Most cases run the full six months.
Get Temporary Orders in Place Early
Six months is a long time to go without a legal framework. Either parent, the Friend of the Court, or the judge can request temporary orders that cover custody, parenting time, and child support while the case is pending. These carry the same enforcement weight as a final judgment, and temporary support must follow the Michigan Child Support Formula just like a permanent order.9Michigan Courts. Child Support Formula
This matters more than most filers realize. If your spouse moves out and months pass with no temporary order in place, the day-to-day arrangement that develops can become the “established custodial environment” the court recognizes. Once that exists with one parent, the other parent has to prove by clear and convincing evidence that changing it would serve the child’s best interests. That is a higher bar than the normal standard, and it can shape the final judgment. Settle temporary arrangements on paper rather than by default.
How the Court Will Decide Custody
Michigan treats custody as two separate questions. Legal custody covers major decisions about education, healthcare, and religious upbringing. Physical custody covers where the child actually lives. Either can be sole or joint, and joint legal custody is common even when one parent has primary physical custody. The judge can order joint custody whether or not both parents agree, as long as it serves the child’s best interests.10Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 722.26a – Joint Custody
Every custody decision runs through 12 statutory best-interest factors, and the judge has to evaluate each one on the record.11Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 722.23 – Best Interests of the Child Defined They cover the emotional bond with each parent, each parent’s ability to provide guidance and material support, the stability and permanence of each proposed home, moral fitness, mental and physical health, the child’s ties to school and community, the child’s own preference if they are old enough to express one reasonably, each parent’s willingness to support the child’s relationship with the other parent, any history of domestic violence, and any other relevant circumstance. No single factor controls, but stability, willingness to co-parent, and any domestic violence history tend to carry the most practical weight. A parent who has been the primary caretaker and who supports the child’s bond with the other parent typically goes into the case with the stronger position.
Child Support and the Friend of the Court
The Friend of the Court (FOC) is an arm of the circuit court in every Michigan county that handles the domestic relations side of family cases.12Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 552.501 – Friend of the Court Act Once you file with children involved, expect to deal with FOC staff. They investigate custody and parenting time disputes, review each parent’s finances, and send the judge recommendations on custody, support, and visitation. When parents cannot agree, the FOC’s report usually becomes the foundation of the court’s orders. Most counties also require both parents to attend a mandatory orientation or parenting program early on.
Child support itself is calculated under a statewide formula. Judges have to follow it and can deviate only in limited circumstances, with written justification.9Michigan Courts. Child Support Formula The formula uses each parent’s income and the number of overnights with each parent, then adjusts for healthcare coverage, childcare, and certain education costs.13Michigan Courts. 2025 Michigan Child Support Formula Manual Payments generally run through the Michigan State Disbursement Unit rather than directly between parents, which keeps a clean record and makes enforcement easier if someone falls behind.
Handle These Before the Judgment Is Entered
A few financial issues are easier and cheaper to resolve inside the divorce than after it.
Retirement Accounts
Retirement savings built up during the marriage are marital property regardless of whose name is on the account. Dividing a 401(k), pension, or similar employer plan requires a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO). A valid QDRO identifies both spouses, names the specific plan, states the dollar amount or percentage being transferred, and specifies the time period covered.14U.S. Department of Labor. QDROs Qualified Domestic Relations Orders An Overview The plan administrator reviews it before processing anything, and a poorly drafted order gets rejected.
Funds transferred under a QDRO avoid the 10% early withdrawal penalty that normally applies before age 59½.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 72 – Annuities Certain Proceeds of Endowment and Life Insurance Contracts Taking the money as cash still triggers ordinary income tax; rolling it directly into another retirement account avoids both. Draft the QDRO before the judgment is entered, not after.
Who Claims the Children on Taxes
Federal law gives the custodial parent (the one the child lives with the greater number of nights) the right to claim the child as a dependent, with the higher-AGI parent winning any true tie. The custodial parent can release the dependency claim to the other parent by signing IRS Form 8332, which transfers the child tax credit, additional child tax credit, and credit for other dependents. It does not transfer the earned income credit, the child and dependent care credit, or head of household status; those always stay with the custodial parent. A divorce decree alone is no longer accepted in place of Form 8332, so handle that form separately.16Internal Revenue Service. Claiming a Child as a Dependent When Parents Are Divorced Separated or Live Apart
The Ten-Year Social Security Rule
If your marriage lasted at least 10 years before the divorce was finalized, you may later qualify for Social Security benefits on your former spouse’s earnings record once you are at least 62, unmarried, and divorced for at least two years. The benefit is only payable if it would exceed your own, and claiming it does not reduce your former spouse’s payments.17Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 404.331 If your marriage is near the ten-year mark, pay attention to the finalization date.
Finalizing the Divorce
Once the six-month waiting period has passed and the issues are resolved, the judge signs a Judgment of Divorce. Cases typically end one of two ways. If both parents agree on custody, parenting time, support, and property division, they submit a consent judgment for court approval. If the other spouse never responded to the summons, the court can enter a default judgment on the terms the filing parent requested.
Either way, a brief final hearing is required. The filing spouse testifies to residency, confirms the marriage has broken down, and confirms the proposed terms serve the children’s welfare. The judge checks that the judgment addresses healthcare coverage, parenting time, and support in line with Michigan law. Once signed, the terms are enforceable. Nothing involving the children is strictly permanent: either parent can later petition to modify custody, parenting time, or support if circumstances change significantly, and those requests go through the same FOC process and the same best-interest factors that governed the original order.