Unlike a divorce, legal separation doesn`t have a residency requirement, which means you don`t need to be a California resident for at least six months or file in your county for at least three months. Many people who have recently moved to California and want to end their marriage opt for legal separation so they can begin the process without months of waiting. For California to have jurisdiction (capacity) to issue custody or access orders, children must always meet residency requirements, except in emergency situations. So if you need custody or visitation orders, you may want to explore other alternatives. A spouse may need immediate temporary orders, .B. for child custody or child support. If a spouse does not take legal action for legal separation in such situations, he or she may be placed in a difficult financial situation or the children may be at risk of violence or abduction. By bringing a legal separation action, the spouse concerned can obtain injunctions to stabilize his or her financial situation (by applying for child support and/or child support) and to protect children when they are in danger. This gives the spouse protection without waiting to meet California`s residency requirements. If the minimum time limits have not yet expired, the courts will not accept your request. If your spouse has lived in California for at least six months and in the same county for three months, you can file for divorce regardless of your residency status.

However, if none of you meet these requirements, you will have to take a different path. While you can`t apply for dissolution without adhering to residency minimums, you can apply for legal separation instead. The divorce or separation process can become very complicated, especially if you want to include support orders, custody orders, and division orders. You may be able to get help for your case or parts of the case from a lawyer or family law broker or your court`s self-help centre. Click here for help finding a lawyer. Just like a divorce, you can get a legal separation without giving a specific reason. The concept of “no fault” applies to legal separations in the same way as in divorce, and they are granted for two reasons: “irreconcilable differences”, which essentially means that the marriage is definitively broken and one or both spouses do not believe that the relationship can be saved, and “permanent legal incapacity to make decisions”, which is a very rare reason, to ask for legal separation. A couple may decide to apply for legal separation instead of divorce because: Is there a residency requirement to apply for domestic violence injunctions? In California, the courts do not require that either the spouse or partner show guilt or bad behavior to cause a divorce or legal separation. The state is a “not guilty” state in which a spouse or life partner must simply claim that the couple has “irreconcilable differences,” resulting in a marriage that is no longer viable. “Irreconcilable differences” mean that there are essential reasons for not continuing the marriage and giving the impression that the marriage should be dissolved. Only one spouse or partner is required to make this request; A divorce in California does not require both parties to agree or agree that their differences are irreconcilable. However, in order to achieve a legal separation for this reason, both spouses/life partners must agree or one of the spouses or partners cannot appear in the lawsuit.

The effect of that requirement confers on the defendant the power to prevent legal separation. Remember that after you start your case and file your divorce or separation documents in court, you are NOT done. You will need to file more documents to complete your divorce. The Completing your divorce or legal separation section will show you how to do this. California Family Code 2321 allows a party to “amend” their complaint (petition) once the residency requirement is met. Certain couples who have been married or in a registered partnership for less than 5 years may receive a “summary resolution” provided they also meet other requirements. A summary dissolution is an easier way to end your marriage or domestic partnership (or both). Learn more about aggregate dissolutions Every legal separation in California answers the same fundamental questions: Filing a legal separation application has no California residency requirements. You and your spouse can legally separate until enough time has elapsed to change your petition and file for divorce. Your other option is simply to wait for you or your spouse to meet the requirements. As this deadline approaches, waiting may not be a significant issue.

If you can`t wait, apply for legal separation until you qualify for a formal divorce. For a married couple to divorce in California, a person involved in the marriage must file an application to dissolve the marriage. This is a standard form in which the applicant, under penalty of perjury, must check a box stating that each party involved in the divorce has resided in the State of California for at least six months and also resides in the county in which they have been filing an application for at least three months. However, the law requires only one party to meet these residency requirements. If you don`t meet the residency requirements, but your spouse does, you can still apply in California. Partners who initially registered their domestic partnership in California do not need to meet the residency requirements to get a divorce. The relationship can be separated regardless of where the partners live. However, partners who have registered their family partnership in a state other than California must meet the same residency requirements as married couples.

Filing an application for legal separation also allows the spouse to apply for protection from automatic injunctions (ATROS) that come into force each time the legal separation or divorce is filed. We discuss ATRO in the previously linked article. Please take a look. Once you know you`re ready to file for divorce or separation without resolution, the rest of this section will help you follow the steps required to begin your case. And remember that if you are in both a same-sex marriage and a domestic partnership with the same person, you can dissolve both at the same time. Ask? Take the next step by contacting us or getting answers to your legal questions by posting on the divorce forum. Cristin Lowe, a divorce lawyer, answers every question. California Residency Requirements for Legal Separation California law governs who can file an application (Form FL-100) for divorce, legal separation, and annulment. If a person does not meet the legal residency requirements to bring one of these lawsuits, they must either wait to file another type of eligible lawsuit given the domicile of the filing party. Legal separations follow exactly the same three-part process as the divorce process.

For more information on this process, check out our review article on divorce. An annulment (or “nullity of marriage” or “nullity of domestic partnership”) occurs when a court declares that your marriage or domestic partnership is NOT legally valid. After an annulment, it is as if your marriage or domestic partnership never took place because it was never legal. Yes. We often deal with cases where a person does not yet meet the residency requirements for divorce, so we file an application for legal separation and plead “alternatively” for divorce (or dissolution of marriage) so that no other separate case needs to be filed….