Amara, this is two matters at once, and one of them is on a clock
How the process works from exactly where you are standing: the stages of a no-fault divorce, what the immigration rules ask, the papers to start gathering, and the questions worth putting to any firm you speak to.
“We have been married four years and I came here on a partner visa. It has been over for months, we both know it, and we are mostly civil about it. But every time I get close to saying the word divorce out loud I stop, because I do not know if leaving him means leaving the country, and Sofia is three and everything she knows is here. I am not frightened of him. I am frightened of what the paperwork does to Sofia and me.”
- Amara, on the week she has been having for months
Two tracks, and they touch
What you are holding is a family matter and a status matter at the same time, and the reason you keep stopping is that you have been trying to answer both with one decision. They are separate processes, run by different institutions, on different clocks. The family track has a shape you can read in advance and waits that are fixed by law. The status track does not wait, and that is the part of this page that matters most: the rules do contain categories written for people whose partner relationship has ended, and categories in the immigration rules come with time limits attached. Which one, if any, fits you turns entirely on the dates printed on your own grants and on documents nobody here has seen. That is why we will not answer the question you actually came with, and why you should be wary of anyone who answers it from a form. You put this at a 9 out of 10 for how much it is taking over your day. That is what carrying two unfinished things at once does, and it is also the reason to put the immigration dates in front of somebody this week rather than next season.
⚠ You said you are not frightened of him. We have taken you at your word
We are leaving this here anyway, because it costs nothing and it is the one thing we would never want you to have to go looking for. If that ever changes, at any hour: 999 in an emergency, and the National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247, free and open 24 hours. It also changes the process below rather than pausing it - the mediation meeting that normally comes before an application can be exempted where someone is at risk. If you ever need that, call us and say so on the phone. It is not something to write on a form.
Where you are standing
Two
Tracks in play
A no-fault divorce with arrangements for Sofia, and a status question that runs on its own clock
Nothing filed
Stage reached
The stage with every option still open, and the one where preparation is worth the most
3 of 5
Papers to hand
Certificate, immigration documents, tenancy. The financial papers are your gap and the slowest to gather
26 weeks +
Fixed by law
20 weeks, then 6 weeks and 1 day. Statutory minimums in every no-fault divorce, however much the two of you agree
The stages, in the order they come
Before anything is filed
Get your own facts straight
- Put every immigration document you own in date order and write the sequence out on one page. The dates are the part that decides things, and a folder of photographs is not the same as a timeline.
- Start the financial papers now, because they take the longest and nobody can move without them.
- Nothing about money is settled until a court order says so, whatever the two of you agree between yourselves. That is not a warning about him; it is why the disclosure stage below exists at all.
The MIAM
The meeting that comes before applications
- A mediation information and assessment meeting is required before most applications about children or finances, unless an exemption applies. It is with a mediator, not with us.
- For two people who are mostly civil, this is not a formality to be endured. It is frequently where arrangements for a three-year-old actually get made.
- You book it. Availability is the only thing setting its timing, so it is one of the few clocks here you can move.
The divorce itself
No-fault, and on a fixed clock
- Since April 2022 nobody has to blame anybody. The court will not ask who left, and there is no advantage to be had in being the one who applies first on that ground.
- A minimum of 20 weeks runs from the application to the conditional order, then 6 weeks and 1 day from conditional order to final order.
- Agreeing with each other does not shorten either wait. It only makes everything happening alongside them easier.
The money, separately
The part that does not end with the divorce
- Financial claims are their own matter, with their own steps. The divorce ends the marriage; a financial order is what ends the claims.
- Disclosure runs on Form E: income, capital, pensions, debts, in full, from both of you.
- Your half of that is entirely within your control, and it is the half that decides how fast this part moves.
Arrangements for Sofia
Decided on what is best for her
- The test is what is best for the child, not what is fair between the adults. A court is only asked when parents cannot agree, which is what all the steps before it are for.
- Write down what her week actually looks like now - nursery, doctor, who does drop-off, who has her when. Everything downstream is built on that description.
- You told us you disagree on some things. Some things is a workable place to start from, and it is worth naming which ones before anybody else does it for you.
Alongside all of it
The status question, on its own clock
- This does not queue behind the divorce. It runs in parallel, at the Home Office, on its own terms.
- There are routes in the rules for people whose partner relationship has ended, and those routes have time limits. We are not going to tell you which one applies to you, because that is a documents-and-conflict-check question and doing it from a form would be guesswork.
- This is the single reason we would not have you sit on this for another few months while you think.
Which clocks are fixed, and which are yours
| Stage | What sets the timing | What you can influence |
|---|---|---|
| Booking the MIAM | Mediator availability once you ask for it | How soon you book, and how prepared you walk in |
| Application to conditional order | Fixed by statute at a minimum of 20 weeks | Nothing at all. Agreement does not shorten it |
| Conditional order to final order | Fixed by statute at 6 weeks and 1 day | When you apply for it, and whether the money is settled first |
| Financial disclosure on Form E | How fast both of you produce documents | Your half of it, completely |
| Arrangements for Sofia | The two of you, until a court is asked | Almost all of it, while you are both still talking |
| Home Office decisions | Published by the Home Office and changed often | Whether the application is complete on the day it goes in |
The papers to start gathering
- ✓Your marriage certificate. You have it. Find the original rather than the photograph of it.
- ✓Every immigration document with a date on it: each grant, each residence document or online record, entry stamps, and the letters that came with them. Then the one-page timeline that puts them in order.
- ✓A written history of the relationship: when you met, when you married, when you began living together, when it ended. One page. It is the document nobody arrives with and everybody is asked for.
- ✓Three months of payslips or accounts for you, and whatever you can properly access of the household's. This is your gap, and it is the slowest item on the list.
- ✓Twelve months of statements for every account with your name on it.
- ✓The tenancy, plus who is named on it and what it says about ending it.
- ✓Sofia's week, written down: nursery days and hours, doctor, who does the school run, who has her when.
- ✓Pensions, both of yours. They are the item people leave off the list, and a financial order deals with them once.
What to ask any firm you speak to, including us
- Who exactly will do the work, and what that person charges an hour.
- Is the fee for this stage fixed, and what takes it out of fixed.
- What is not inside the figure. Court fees, Home Office fees and the immigration health surcharge are paid to somebody else.
- Can this firm handle both halves of my situation, or will I be telling the story twice to two sets of people who do not talk to each other.
- What happens to my file if I run out of money halfway through.
- Might I be eligible for legal aid. We do not hold a legal aid contract, so if the answer might be yes we will say so and point you at the official checker rather than take your money.
- How often will I hear from you, and who do I call when it lands on me on a Sunday.
The questions people ask us in the first five minutes
Does starting a divorce affect my visa?+
This is the question, and it is exactly the one nobody can answer from a form. It turns on which route you are on, the dates on each grant, and documents we have not seen. What can be said is that it is not a question to sit on: the rules contain routes for people whose partner relationship has ended, and routes carry time limits. Bring the documents and have somebody read them.
Do I have to say it was his fault?+
No. Since April 2022, divorce in England and Wales is no-fault. Nobody has to blame anybody, and the court is not interested in who left.
If we agree everything between ourselves, is it over?+
The divorce ends the marriage. It does not end financial claims. Those end when a court makes a financial order, which is why the money is a separate matter with steps of its own.
Will Sofia have to choose?+
Arrangements for children are decided on what is best for the child, not on what is fair between the adults, and a court is only asked when parents cannot agree. A three-year-old is not asked to pick.
Can you tell me what I would get?+
No, and be wary of anyone who will. No number can honestly be put on it before both sides have disclosed everything they have, and a figure offered before that is a guess.
What is all this going to cost?+
A First Steps Meeting is £180 including VAT for 45 minutes, and it comes off our fees if you instruct us. Beyond that: an uncontested divorce through to final order is a fixed £1,450, the financial side is £275 an hour with a written estimate before every stage, and court fees, Home Office fees and the immigration health surcharge go where they go, never to us.
⚠ What this page is, and what it is not
This is general information about how these processes work, written from what you told us. It is not legal advice and it cannot be: nobody here has seen your documents, run a conflict check, or heard the half of any story that a form cannot hold. Reading it does not make us your solicitors. No solicitor-client relationship starts until we have both signed a client care letter. Please do not act on anything here, or hold off doing something because of it, without speaking to a qualified adviser about your own circumstances. And if the dates on your immigration documents are close, treat that as the reason to speak to someone this week rather than as a reason to worry alone.
Bring the documents. Forty-five minutes, one room, both halves of it
A First Steps Meeting is £180 including VAT for 45 minutes, and it comes off our fees if you go on to instruct us. We run the conflict check, read the immigration grants with the dates in front of us, and set out the order to take things in. Bring the one-page timeline, the grants, and the tenancy. If we are not the right firm for you, we will say so in the room and tell you who is.
You said the paperwork is what frightens you, not him. Paperwork is the part that answers to preparation: a timeline on one page, the grants in date order, and the financial papers you do not have yet. Do that much and you will walk into any meeting, ours or anyone else's, already ahead of where most people start. Start with the immigration dates. Of everything on this page, they are the part that does not wait.