The grounds for annulment in New York fall into two categories. A marriage is void from the start — as if it never happened — if it is bigamous or incestuous. A marriage is voidable, meaning valid until a court sets it aside, on any of six grounds: one spouse was under 18, one spouse lacked the mental capacity to understand the marriage, one spouse has suffered incurable mental illness for five or more years, one spouse is permanently and incurably unable to have sexual intercourse, the marriage was procured by fraud, or it was procured by duress. Which category your situation falls into controls who can file, how long they have, and what the court needs to see.
Void Grounds: Bigamy and Incest
Two situations make a New York marriage void from day one. The first is bigamy, where one spouse was already legally married to someone else when the ceremony took place. The second is incest, defined by statute to cover close blood relationships: parent and child, siblings of whole or half blood, and uncle-niece or aunt-nephew pairings.1New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 5 – Incestuous and Void Marriages
Because a void marriage is legally nonexistent from the beginning, no deadline applies. Either spouse, and in some situations a third party with legal standing, can ask a court to declare the marriage a nullity at any time.
Voidable Grounds
A voidable marriage is treated as valid unless and until a court annuls it. New York recognizes several distinct grounds, each with its own proof requirements and its own window for acting.2New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 7 – Voidable Marriages
Underage Marriage
New York’s legal age of consent for marriage is 18. If either spouse was under 18 at the ceremony, either party can seek an annulment. The window closes once the underage spouse turns 18 and continues to live with the other spouse voluntarily. That voluntary cohabitation after reaching legal age ratifies the marriage.
Mental Illness or Developmental Disability at the Time of Marriage
A marriage can be annulled if one spouse was unable to understand the nature and consequences of marriage because of mental illness or a developmental disability when the vows were exchanged. For developmental disability, a relative with legal standing can bring the action at any time during either spouse’s lifetime. For mental illness, the action can be brought during the period the illness continues, or even after the affected spouse dies while still mentally ill, provided the other spouse is alive.3New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 140 – Action for Judgment Declaring Nullity of Void Marriages or Annulling Voidable Marriage
Courts routinely require medical records or expert psychiatric testimony to support these claims. A general allegation of confusion or poor judgment won’t carry the day; the evidence has to show that the spouse could not comprehend what marriage meant at the moment of the ceremony.
Incurable Mental Illness for Five or More Years
Separate from capacity at the time of marriage, New York permits annulment when a spouse has suffered from incurable mental illness for a continuous period of five or more years. This ground covers a different situation entirely: the spouse may have been mentally healthy on the wedding day but later developed an illness that proved permanent and untreatable.
Physical Incapacity
If one spouse is permanently and incurably unable to have sexual intercourse and the other spouse did not know about the condition before the wedding, annulment is available. The catch is a strict deadline: the case must be filed within five years of the marriage date. This is one of the shortest windows in New York annulment law.
Fraud
Fraud is the most commonly litigated ground for annulment, and courts read it narrowly. The misrepresentation or concealment has to go to the heart of the marriage. Not just any lie qualifies — only one so fundamental it would have changed the other spouse’s decision to marry. Recognized examples include concealing an inability or refusal to have children, hiding a serious criminal history, or lying about immigration status to obtain a green card.3New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 140 – Action for Judgment Declaring Nullity of Void Marriages or Annulling Voidable Marriage
The spouse alleging fraud carries the burden of proof, and the standard is demanding. The court is looking for clear evidence that the deception directly undermined what the marriage was supposed to be. The time limit generally follows New York’s statute of limitations for fraud, and the clock can be affected by when the defrauded spouse actually discovered the deception. One warning: if you learn the truth and continue living with your spouse anyway, you may lose the right to annulment. Voluntary cohabitation after discovery reads as acceptance.
Duress
When one spouse was forced into the marriage by threats or coercion severe enough to override free will, the marriage is voidable. The coercion must have been present at the ceremony itself. Generalized unhappiness or family pressure that falls short of genuine compulsion is not enough. As with fraud, continuing to live together voluntarily after the duress ends can extinguish the right to annul.
Defenses That Can Defeat a Valid Ground
Even a solid statutory ground can be lost or challenged. The most powerful defense across all voidable grounds is ratification through voluntary cohabitation. If the petitioner kept living with the respondent after discovering the fraud, after the duress ended, or after reaching legal age, the court may find that the petitioner accepted the marriage despite the flaw. This defense derails annulment petitions regularly.
In fraud cases, the respondent’s best move is often to show that the alleged misrepresentation wasn’t material, or that the petitioner already knew the truth before the wedding. New York courts are skeptical of fraud claims built on minor omissions or post-marriage disappointments.
In mental capacity cases, respondents typically produce their own expert evaluations showing that the spouse understood what marriage meant at the ceremony. These cases become contests of competing psychiatric opinions. Contemporaneous evidence such as wedding-day video, coherent communications from that period, or testimony from guests can outweigh a retrospective evaluation.
Residency: You Also Have to Qualify to File Here
Meeting a ground isn’t enough on its own. New York’s Domestic Relations Law requires the case to satisfy one of several residency conditions, keyed to where the marriage happened, where the spouses lived, and where the events giving rise to the annulment occurred.4New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 230 – Required Residence of Parties
- If the marriage took place in New York, either spouse must be a current resident who has lived in the state continuously for at least one year before filing.
- If the spouses lived together in New York as a married couple, the same one-year continuous residency rule applies to either party.
- If the grounds arose in New York, either spouse must have been a continuous resident for at least one year, or both spouses must be New York residents at the time of filing (with no minimum duration for that second option).
- If none of the above applies, either spouse must have been a continuous New York resident for at least two years before filing.
Couples who married elsewhere, lived together in another state, and later moved to New York typically face the two-year wait unless the grounds themselves arose inside the state.
What Annulment Changes — and What It Doesn’t
Because an annulled marriage is treated as never having existed, the consequences differ from a divorce in ways worth understanding before you file.
Property. New York’s equitable distribution framework — the same one used in divorce — does apply to annulment actions. Courts weigh income, the length of the relationship, and each party’s contributions. But because the marriage is legally erased, the line between marital and separate property can be harder to draw, and outcomes sometimes look different from a typical divorce.
Spousal support. Maintenance is generally not awarded in annulment cases, since legally no marriage existed to create the obligation. Courts have discretion to order temporary support during the proceedings when a spouse would otherwise face severe hardship, but post-annulment maintenance is significantly less likely than in divorce.
Children. Children born during a marriage that is later annulled are fully legitimate under New York law.5New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 24 – Effect of Marriage on Legitimacy of Children Child support, inheritance rights, and other legal protections are unaffected. Custody and visitation follow the same best-interests-of-the-child standard used in divorce.
Health insurance. Once the judgment is signed, you may lose eligibility under a former spouse’s plan, depending on its terms. New York law requires the court to notify both parties about this before finalizing the judgment, and either party can request a 30-day continuance to arrange replacement coverage.6New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 255 Any settlement agreement must address each person’s coverage going forward.
Surname. The annulment judgment must include a provision allowing each party to resume a pre-marriage surname or any other former surname.7New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 240-A You will still need to update records with the Social Security Administration, DMV, banks, and other institutions using a certified copy of the judgment, but no separate name-change proceeding is required.