4. Take your application to court if you don’t file online
Question & Answer
How do I apply for a divorce with my partner?If you don’t meet the conditions to online, or if you don’t want to file online, you can file your application in person at a courthouse. If you’re asking for or , you must file your application at the courthouse closest to where your children live. These used to be called and .
To file in-person, you have to go to a Superior Court of Justice or a Family Court of the Superior Court of Justice in the municipality where:
- you’ve been living for at least a year,
- your partner’s been living for at least a year, or
- your children live, if you’re asking for decision-making responsibility or parenting time.
If you’re not sure which court to go to, you can call the family courthouse in your municipality to ask.
You need to take the following documents with you:
- 3 copies of your Form 8A: Application (Divorce)
- Form 36: Affidavit for Divorce
- 3 copies of your Form 25A: Divorce Order or 4 copies if you’re asking for support
- Registration of Divorce Proceedings form
- Original marriage certificate and a certified translation if it isn’t in English or French
- 2 stamped, self-addressed envelopes
You need to take more forms if you and your partner agree on your other issues and want the court to make orders about those issues. For example:
- Form 35.1: Affidavit (decision-making responsibility, parenting time, contact)
- Form 13: Financial Statement (Support Claims)
- Form 13.1: Financial Statement (Property and Support Claims)
- 2 copies of your Support Deduction Order
- Support Deduction Order Information Form
The issues your application. This means they:
- give your application a court file number and write the number in the box on the top right corner of the form
- sign, date, and place a court seal on your application
You must then write your court file number in the box on the top right corner of every page for all your other forms.
Pay your fees
The total cost to apply for a joint divorce is $632. You must pay $212 when you file your application. Later you pay $420 when the court reviews your divorce application.
You can pay by cash, cheque, or money order made payable to the Minister of Finance.
If you can’t afford to pay the fee, you can apply for what’s called a fee waiver if you have a low income. If you get a waiver, it means that you don’t have to pay most court fees. There is more information about fee waivers on the Ministry of the Attorney General’s website at www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca.