Washington State Uncontested Divorce: Forms, Filing, and 90-Day Wait

An uncontested divorce in Washington runs on a standardized packet of Washington uncontested divorce forms, all downloadable at no cost from the Washington Courts website. A couple without minor children files roughly six forms; a couple with minor children adds a parenting plan, a child support order, and support worksheets. Everything gets filed with the Superior Court Clerk in the county where either spouse lives, and no judge can sign the final order until at least 90 days have passed from filing or service, whichever is later.¹

What to Gather Before You Open the First Form

Pull everything together first. Going back to hunt for a date or an account number is how blanks get left and packets get rejected. You need full legal names for both spouses, current addresses, the date and place of the marriage, and the date of separation. If either spouse wants to return to a former name, you can request that inside the divorce paperwork rather than filing a separate name-change case later.

The separation date carries real weight. Under Washington law, what each spouse earns and acquires while “living separate and apart” is that spouse’s separate property rather than community property.² If you and your spouse disagree about when the marriage was actually over, bonuses, vesting stock, and retirement contributions earned during the disputed window can be classified differently. Agree on one date before you divide anything.

Build a full inventory of community property, separate property, and debts: bank accounts, retirement funds, real estate, vehicles, credit cards, student loans, everything. Both spouses have to agree on how each item is divided. That agreement is what makes the case uncontested. Disagreement on even one asset can push the case toward a hearing or mediation, which is a different process.

Core Forms for Every Uncontested Divorce

The forms below sit under “Divorce (Dissolution)” on the Washington Courts forms page.³ For a couple without minor children, the packet is:

FL Divorce 201, Petition for Divorce. This starts the case. It identifies both spouses, states that the marriage is irretrievably broken (Washington’s only ground for divorce), and lays out what you are asking the court to order for property, debts, and spousal support.⁴
FL All Family 001, Confidential Information Form. This collects Social Security numbers and other sensitive identifiers for both spouses and any children. The clerk keeps it separate from the public case file; only court staff and certain state agencies can see it. General Rule 22 requires this information to be kept out of publicly accessible documents.⁵⁶
FL All Family 119, Agreement to Join Petition (Joinder). The responding spouse signs this to confirm agreement with the petition. A signed joinder also removes the need for formal service of the summons and petition, saving time and the cost of a process server.
FL Divorce 231, Findings and Conclusions About a Marriage. This provides the factual and legal basis for the judge’s decision, covering jurisdiction, the separation date, whether the property division is fair, and the status of the marriage. The judge uses it to confirm the legal requirements have been met before signing the final order.⁷
FL Divorce 241, Final Divorce Order. This ends the marriage. It contains sections for property division, debt allocation, name changes, spousal support, and restraining orders where applicable. Once the judge signs it, the terms are enforceable.⁸
DOH 422-027, Certificate of Dissolution. This is a Washington Department of Health vital statistics form required for every dissolution. The court forwards it to the state registrar to record the end of the marriage.

The Findings and Conclusions (FL Divorce 231) and the Final Order (FL Divorce 241) have to match each other exactly. If the Findings say one spouse keeps the house and the Final Order assigns it to the other, the judge will send the packet back. Read them side by side before you file.

Additional Forms When You Have Minor Children

Cases involving minor children add several forms to the packet.

FL All Family 140, Parenting Plan. This is the core custody document. It sets which parent the children live with on which days, how holidays and school breaks are divided, who makes major decisions about education and healthcare, and how disputes get resolved. Be specific. Vague language like “reasonable visitation” invites future fights. Include pickup times, transportation, and rules for out-of-state travel.⁹
FL All Family 130, Child Support Order. This formalizes each parent’s financial obligation. The amount comes from the child support worksheets, and the order also addresses health insurance, uninsured medical expenses, and who claims the children on tax returns.¹⁰
WSCSS Worksheets, Child Support Schedule Worksheets. Both parents’ gross monthly incomes go in, along with deductions for taxes, other child support obligations, and health insurance premiums. The worksheets calculate the standard support amount using Washington’s economic table. Judges rarely deviate from the worksheet number in an uncontested case, so double-check the income figures.¹¹

Every child support order in Washington also has to address health insurance. If one parent has affordable employer-sponsored coverage, the court will typically order that parent to keep the children enrolled. If neither parent has access to affordable coverage, the court can order the parents to share the cost of a private plan or split uninsured medical expenses in proportion to their incomes.

Notifying Your Spouse: Joinder or Service

Even in a friendly split, the responding spouse has to be formally notified. There are two paths, and which one you take affects the timeline.

The faster path is the joinder. When your spouse signs FL All Family 119, the court treats it as proof both parties know about and agree to the case, and formal service is no longer necessary. This is the standard approach in a truly uncontested case.

If your spouse will not or cannot sign a joinder, you serve them with the Summons (FL Divorce 200) and the Petition (FL Divorce 201). Service usually requires a third party, not you, to hand-deliver the documents and then sign a Proof of Personal Service form (FL All Family 101). The 90-day waiting period does not start until service is complete or the joinder is filed, so delays here push everything back.¹

Where to File, What It Costs, and How the 90 Days Run

File the completed packet with the Superior Court Clerk in the county where either spouse lives. The statutory base filing fee is $200,¹² but mandatory surcharges brought the actual total to around $364 as of mid-2025. Your county clerk can confirm the current amount, since surcharges change from time to time.

If the fee would be a genuine hardship, you can ask the court to waive it using WPF GR 34.0100, the Motion and Declaration for Waiver of Civil Fees and Surcharges.¹³ A financial statement showing income, expenses, and assets goes with it. The judge decides. Receiving public assistance or earning below 200% of the federal poverty level generally meets the standard under General Rule 34.

After filing, you wait. Washington imposes a 90-day cooling-off period measured from filing and from service (or joinder), whichever event happens later.¹ File on January 1, serve on January 15, and the 90 days run from January 15. Once the waiting period passes, you present the Findings and Conclusions (FL Divorce 231) and the Final Order (FL Divorce 241) to a judge or court commissioner for signature.

Retirement Accounts Need Their Own Order

Retirement accounts trip up more uncontested divorces than almost any other asset. Writing “husband keeps his 401(k), wife keeps hers” in the Final Order is not always enough to actually transfer or protect the money.

For employer-sponsored plans governed by federal law (401(k)s, pensions, 403(b)s), a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) is typically required before the plan administrator will split the account or redirect benefits. A signed property settlement between the spouses is not enough on its own. A court must formally issue or approve the QDRO for the plan to honor it.¹⁴

Washington State public employee pensions administered by the Department of Retirement Systems (DRS) work a little differently. DRS will not divide a pension benefit unless a specific court order directs it, and the agency has its own requirements for what that order must contain.¹⁵ Contact DRS early. Submitting an order that does not meet their standards means starting over.

IRAs and Roth IRAs are simpler. They can be divided through a “transfer incident to divorce” without a QDRO, as long as the Final Divorce Order spells out the division. The receiving spouse rolls the funds into their own IRA, and no taxes or penalties apply when the transfer is done correctly.

Parenting Seminar Requirement

If the case involves minor children, most Washington counties require both parents to complete a court-approved parenting education seminar. The specifics vary. Names, approved providers, deadlines, and whether online courses are accepted all differ by county. Some counties call it a “Parenting Seminar,” others a “Child Impact Program” or “Children Cope With Divorce” class.

State law sets guardrails: spouses cannot be required to attend the same session, and the court must waive the requirement when domestic violence is present or when attendance would not be in the children’s best interests.¹⁶ The court can also waive the seminar for other good cause. Check your county’s local rules early, because some courts will not sign the final order until both parents have filed proof of completion.

Common Mistakes That Get Packets Rejected

Courts reject uncontested divorce packets constantly, and the reasons are almost always preventable. The most frequent problem is internal inconsistency: the Petition says one thing about the house, the Findings and Conclusions say something slightly different, and the Final Order says a third thing. Every form in the packet has to tell the same story. Read them as a set.

Missing signatures are the second biggest cause of rejection. Washington divorce forms are signed under penalty of perjury, and each signature block has to be completed by the correct party. A joinder your spouse signed but forgot to date, or a Findings and Conclusions missing the petitioner’s signature, brings the packet back.

Wrong form numbers are surprisingly common, especially when people follow outdated online instructions. Washington periodically updates and renumbers its forms. The Agreement to Join Petition is FL All Family 119, not FL Divorce 211, which is actually the Response to Petition used when the other spouse disagrees. The Parenting Plan is FL All Family 140, and the Child Support Order is FL All Family 130.³ Download forms directly from the Washington Courts website to be sure you have the current versions.

Forgetting the ancillary paperwork causes the last wave of delays. The Confidential Information Form (FL All Family 001) does not feel like part of the divorce itself, but the clerk will not accept a filing without it.⁵ The same goes for the Department of Health Certificate of Dissolution (DOH 422-027). If there are children, the child support worksheets have to accompany the child support order, because the judge will not approve a support amount without seeing the calculation behind it.

1
Washington State Legislature. RCW 26.09.030
2
Washington State Legislature. RCW 26.16.140
3
Washington State Courts. Court Forms – Divorce (Dissolution)
4
Washington Courts. FL Divorce 201 Petition for Divorce (Dissolution)
5
Washington Courts. Confidential Information (CIF)
6
Washington State Courts. GR 22 Access to Family Law Records
7
Washington Courts. FL Divorce 231 Findings and Conclusions About a Marriage
8
Washington Courts. FL Divorce 241 Final Divorce Order
9
Washington Courts. FL All Family 140 Parenting Plan
10
Washington Courts. FL All Family 130 Child Support Order
11
Washington State Courts. Washington State Child Support Schedule Worksheets
12
Washington State Legislature. RCW 36.18.020
13
Washington State Courts. Court Forms – GR 34 Request for Waiver of Civil Filing Fees and Surcharges
14
U.S. Department of Labor. QDROs – An Overview FAQs
15
Washington State Department of Retirement Systems. Marriage or Divorce
16
Washington State Legislature. RCW 26.12.172