Check that you can file
Texas asks that one of the two spouses has been a Texas domiciliary for the previous six months and a resident of the filing county for the previous ninety days. Both parts have to be true on the day you file, not the day you separated, and it doesn’t have to be the spouse who files. If you have just moved to Texas but your spouse qualifies, the case can still be filed here.
Agree on everything first
Uncontested means every issue is settled before the paperwork starts. Property, debts, retirement, the children, the schedule, and support.
If one item is still open, deal with it now rather than filing and hoping. Mediation exists for exactly that gap and usually closes it in a single session.
File the petition
One spouse files an Original Petition for Divorce. That person is the petitioner, which is a procedural label and carries no advantage.
Filing starts the sixty day waiting period. What that period stops is the court granting the divorce itself, not everything else. Temporary orders about the house, the children, the bills or safety can still be made during those sixty days, and in most counties a standing order takes effect the moment the case is filed and binds both of you straight away.
The other spouse responds
In an agreed case the other spouse usually signs a Waiver of Service instead of being formally served. Signing it waives the formality, not any rights to property or to the children. Two details decide whether it works. It can only be signed after the petition has been filed, and it has to say the signer received a copy of the filed petition. It also needs the signer’s mailing address and has to be sworn before a notary who isn’t a lawyer in the case. A waiver signed before filing is no good.
Draft the decree
The Final Decree of Divorce is the document that matters. It has to say exactly what you agreed. The language must be something a court will sign, and a bank or plan administrator will act on.
This is where most agreed divorces go wrong. A decree that says half the retirement account, without the order that actually moves it, transfers nothing.
The prove-up
After the waiting period, one spouse appears briefly to confirm the basic facts and ask the judge to sign. Some Travis County matters can be proved up by affidavit rather than in person.
It’s short. Agreed prove-ups are usually measured in minutes.
Afterwards
Get certified copies of the decree. Then do the follow-through: transfer titles and deeds, submit the retirement order, update beneficiaries, and separate the accounts named in the decree.
A signed decree ends the marriage. It doesn’t move the assets on its own, and the follow-through is what people forget.
If you’ve children
The decree has to include a full parenting plan. Conservatorship, the possession schedule, child support and medical support all have to be set out.
Texas has guideline child support figures, and courts expect the decree to explain any departure from them.
Common mistakes
- A decree that divides a retirement account without the separate order needed to move it
- Property described too loosely for a title company to act on
- A parenting plan with no geographic restriction
- Filing in the wrong county
- Forgetting to ask for a name change in the decree
Each of these is cheap to fix before the decree is signed. Each is expensive to fix afterwards.
Do you both need a lawyer
No. Many agreed divorces are done with one lawyer involved and some with none. What can’t happen is one lawyer acting for both of you, because your interests are legally opposed even when you agree on the outcome. A lawyer preparing an agreed divorce acts for one spouse only, and the other spouse is free to hire their own.
If your spouse won’t sign
Then the divorce isn’t uncontested, however close you feel. A waiver has to be signed freely and can’t be forced.
At that point the options are formal service and a contested track, or mediation to close whatever gap is stopping the signature.
Mediation is usually the cheaper of the two, and it’s often one session rather than several months.
