Uncontested Divorce in New York: Requirements, Filing, and Agreements

An uncontested divorce in New York is one where you and your spouse agree on every issue (property, debts, custody, child support, and spousal maintenance) or where the spouse who was served never responds. Because a judge has nothing to decide, the case moves on paperwork alone, court filing fees start at $335, and most cases finish within a few months of the final submission. What follows walks through who qualifies, what your agreement has to cover, the automatic rules that kick in the moment you file, and how the paperwork actually moves through the court.¹

What Counts as Uncontested

Two situations qualify. In the first, both spouses reach a full agreement on every financial and parenting issue: who keeps which property, how debts are split, where the children live, how much child support and spousal maintenance will be paid, and for how long. In the second, the spouse who receives the divorce papers simply never responds, which the court treats as a default. Either way, the court has nothing to resolve and can approve the divorce based on the submitted paperwork.¹

Partial agreement does not count. If you agree on everything except one issue, the case is contested, which means hearings, discovery, and a trial. That is why couples often negotiate their way to a full settlement even when they start out apart.

Residency You Have to Meet Before Filing

Before you file anything, at least one spouse has to satisfy one of these residency thresholds:²

Either spouse has lived in New York continuously for at least two years before the case is filed.
Either spouse has lived in New York continuously for at least one year, and one of the following is also true: the couple married in New York, lived here as a married couple, or the grounds for divorce arose here.
Both spouses live in New York when the case is filed, and the grounds for divorce arose in the state.

The two-year option is the broadest because it has no extra conditions. If neither spouse meets any threshold, New York cannot hear the case and you would need to file in a state that does.

The Ground You’ll Cite

New York requires a legal reason for the divorce. Almost every uncontested case uses the no-fault ground: the relationship has broken down irretrievably for at least six months. One spouse states this under oath, and that is enough.³

Fault grounds still exist (cruel and inhuman treatment, abandonment for at least one year, imprisonment for three or more consecutive years after the marriage, and adultery) but they require more evidence and rarely appear in uncontested filings.³

One point people misread: the six-month breakdown does not start a countdown to an automatic divorce. The court will not grant the divorce until all economic issues, custody, child support, and spousal maintenance are resolved. The six months only establishes that the marriage has been failing long enough to end legally.

What Your Agreement Has to Cover

Every open issue gets written into a settlement agreement that the court incorporates into the final judgment. Anything left unresolved makes the case contested.

Property and Debt

New York follows equitable distribution: marital property is divided fairly, not necessarily 50/50. Marital property generally includes everything acquired from the wedding date until someone files, regardless of whose name is on the account or title. Separate property (gifts, inheritances, and assets owned before the marriage) usually stays with the original owner, as long as it was not mixed with marital funds.

Both spouses need to identify and value real estate, bank accounts, investment accounts, retirement funds, and vehicles. Marital debts (mortgages, car loans, credit card balances) also get divided. The agreement should spell out who keeps what and who is responsible for each debt.

Custody and Child Support

Parents have to agree on both legal and physical custody. Legal custody covers major decisions about education, healthcare, and religious upbringing. Physical custody covers where the child lives. Either can be sole or joint. Where one parent has sole physical custody, the agreement must lay out the other parent’s visitation schedule in detail.⁴

Child support follows the Child Support Standards Act formula. Combine both parents’ income, apply a percentage based on the number of children, and divide the obligation in proportion to each parent’s share of that combined income:⁵

One child: 17%
Two children: 25%
Three children: 29%
Four children: 31%
Five or more: no less than 35%

These percentages apply to combined parental income up to $193,000 as of March 1, 2026.⁶ Above the cap, the court has discretion to apply the same percentages, weigh additional factors like the children’s standard of living, or set a different amount. Parents can agree to deviate, but if they go below the presumptive amount, the agreement must explain why.

Spousal Maintenance

Maintenance (what most people call alimony) may or may not apply. New York uses a formula to calculate a guideline amount based on both spouses’ incomes, with the higher earner potentially paying the lower earner. The formula applies to the payor’s income up to a cap that adjusts every two years.⁷

Duration follows an advisory schedule tied to the length of the marriage:

Marriages up to 15 years: 15% to 30% of the marriage length
Marriages of 15 to 20 years: 30% to 40% of the marriage length
Marriages over 20 years: 35% to 50% of the marriage length

So for a 10-year marriage, the guideline range works out to roughly 1.5 to 3 years. These are guidelines only. Spouses can agree to any arrangement, including waiving maintenance entirely, and the court will generally accept what the parties negotiate.⁷

Automatic Orders Trigger the Moment You File

This is the part most people miss. Once the case is filed and the other spouse is served, a set of automatic restraining orders binds both spouses. They are not optional, and violating them has real consequences. Both spouses are prohibited from:⁷

Selling, transferring, or hiding any assets, held individually or jointly, except for ordinary household expenses and attorney fees.
Withdrawing, transferring, or applying for retirement benefits from IRAs, 401(k)s, pensions, or similar accounts without the other spouse’s written consent or a court order.
Borrowing against the home’s credit line, taking cash advances, or running up credit card balances beyond normal household expenses.
Removing the other spouse or the children from existing health, dental, life, auto, or homeowners insurance.
Changing beneficiaries on life insurance policies or other accounts.

These orders freeze the financial status quo so neither spouse can gain an advantage while the case is pending. They remain in effect until the divorce is finalized, so even in an amicable case, both spouses need to know what they cannot touch.

Filing: Forms, Fees, and Where They Go

You start by purchasing an index number from the County Clerk’s office in the county where you file. The index number costs $210, total court filing fees for an uncontested divorce come to at least $335, and filing the settlement agreement adds another $35.⁸

If you cannot afford the fees, you can request a fee waiver by filing a motion with a sworn statement about your income, property, and expenses. The court grants waivers for people receiving public benefits, those with low income, or anyone who cannot cover basic household needs and court costs at the same time.⁹

The plaintiff (the spouse starting the case) prepares the paperwork. The core forms in the uncontested divorce packet are:

Summons with Notice (Form UD-1), or a Summons (Form UD-1a) paired with a Verified Complaint (Form UD-2), which start the case and tell the other spouse what is being requested.
Affidavit of Defendant (Form UD-7), which the defendant signs to confirm they agree to the divorce and do not dispute the terms.
The written Settlement Agreement covering property, custody, support, and maintenance.
Note of Issue, Findings of Fact/Conclusions of Law (Form UD-10), and Judgment of Divorce (Form UD-11), which the plaintiff submits for the judge’s review and signature.

Everything is filed with the County Clerk, which is part of the Supreme Court in that county.¹

Serving Your Spouse

After filing, the plaintiff has to deliver the papers to the defendant. Two options, depending on how cooperative your spouse is:¹⁰

If the defendant is fully on board and plans to sign the Affidavit of Defendant, the plaintiff can hand the papers over directly. If there is any uncertainty, the papers must be personally served by someone other than the plaintiff who is at least 18 years old. Within New York, the server must be a state resident. Outside the state, the server can be a New York resident or someone authorized to serve papers under that jurisdiction’s laws.

Service has to happen within 120 days of filing. Missing the deadline can get the case dismissed, though the court can extend the time for good cause.¹¹ If you do not know where your spouse lives, contact the Supreme Court Clerk’s office about alternative service before purchasing your index number.

After Service: Two Paths

If the defendant signs the Affidavit of Defendant, the plaintiff can immediately complete and file the remaining forms, including the Note of Issue and proposed Judgment of Divorce. A judge reviews the file without a hearing. If the paperwork is complete, the terms are fair, and everything complies with New York law, the judge signs the Judgment of Divorce.

If the defendant was served but never responds, the court treats it as a default. The plaintiff waits 40 days from the date of service, then files the remaining papers.¹ The case still moves as uncontested because the defendant chose not to contest it. Once the judgment is signed, the plaintiff must give the defendant a copy.

Dividing Retirement Accounts

If either spouse has a 401(k), pension, or other employer-sponsored retirement plan that is marital property, writing “wife gets half of husband’s 401(k)” in the settlement agreement is not enough. Transferring funds between spouses in a divorce requires a Qualified Domestic Relations Order, or QDRO. That is a separate court order directing the plan administrator to divide the account according to your agreement.¹²

A valid QDRO identifies both spouses, names the specific plan, and states the exact amount or percentage being transferred. Without one, the plan administrator has no authority to split the account, and any withdrawal is treated as a taxable distribution with potential early-withdrawal penalties. Done correctly, the receiving spouse can roll the funds into their own retirement account tax-free.¹²

IRAs follow different rules and do not require a QDRO. They can be transferred between spouses incident to a divorce through a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer. Either way, the tax consequences of a mistake are steep, so the paperwork has to be right.

Tax, Insurance, and Social Security Items to Settle

A few federal issues deserve attention in your agreement, because they are easy to overlook during the divorce itself and expensive to fix afterward.

If you have children, decide which parent will claim each child as a dependent. The IRS generally assigns the dependency claim to the custodial parent. If you want the noncustodial parent to claim the child tax credit instead, the custodial parent must sign IRS Form 8332 releasing that claim. Old divorce decrees alone are no longer sufficient. Form 8332 only covers the child tax credit, additional child tax credit, and credit for other dependents; the earned income credit, child and dependent care credit, and head of household filing status stay with the custodial parent.

Health insurance is another critical piece. If one spouse is covered under the other’s employer plan, that coverage ends when the divorce is finalized. The spouse losing coverage has 60 days from the divorce to notify the plan administrator and elect COBRA continuation coverage, which can last up to 36 months but requires paying the full premium. Building this timeline into the settlement prevents a coverage gap.

Social Security matters for longer marriages. If your marriage lasted at least 10 years, you may be eligible to collect benefits on your ex-spouse’s work record after the divorce, as long as you remain unmarried. Your ex-spouse does not need to consent, and your claim does not reduce their benefits. If you are eligible for both your own benefit and an ex-spousal benefit, the Social Security Administration pays only the higher of the two.

Filing Without a Lawyer

New York supports filing an uncontested divorce on your own. The court system publishes a free Uncontested Divorce Packet with all necessary forms and instructions, offers a DIY Uncontested Divorce online tool, and maintains guides on the most common mistakes that delay filings.¹³

Court employees can answer procedural questions, such as where to file and in what order. They cannot advise you on what your agreement should say or whether your terms are fair. For straightforward cases with limited assets and no children, the DIY path works well. When the divorce involves significant property, retirement accounts requiring a QDRO, complex custody arrangements, or substantial income differences that affect maintenance, paying a lawyer to at least review the settlement agreement is worth the cost. A poorly drafted agreement can create problems that cost far more to fix than the attorney fee would have been.

1
NY CourtHelp. Uncontested Divorce Overview
2
New York State Unified Court System. Residency and Grounds for a Divorce
3
New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 170 – Action for Divorce
4
NY CourtHelp. About Custody
5
New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 240 – Custody and Child Support
6
New York State Unified Court System. What’s New in Matrimonial Legislation, Court Rules and Forms
7
New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 236 – Special Controlling Provisions
8
NY CourtHelp. Filing for an Uncontested Divorce
9
NY CourtHelp. Fee Waiver
10
NY CourtHelp. Serving the Defendant in an Uncontested Divorce
11
New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules 306-B
12
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – QDRO Qualified Domestic Relations Order
13
New York State Unified Court System. Uncontested Divorce Forms