Choosing to end your marriage is a serious matter that you should not make lightly. Often, the “why is this happening?” takes over, and you fail to consider the basic questions of eligibility and procedure. Many spouses considering a divorce are not aware of the most basic eligibility requirements, including the residency requirements in Texas and other basic divorce criteria. A Houston divorce attorney can easily provide guidance through the process.
The basic residency requirements for divorce in Texas are simple: at least one of the spouses must have been living in Texas for a minimum of six months at the time the petition for divorce is filed with the court. The required venue is the local District Court for the county in which the resident lives, and a further requirement is that the resident has lived in that county for at least 90 days prior to filing. For people serving in the armed forces and their spouses, time spent outside of Texas may be still count as residency for these requirements, depending on the circumstances.
According to the Texas Family Code, if the proper residency requirements are met, you must still qualify for one of the seven grounds for divorce in Texas. A suit for dissolution of marriage must be based on certain criteria established by the law. These are:
- insupportability
- cruelty, where one spouse engages in “cruel treatment” of the other
- adultery, where a spouse engages in extramarital relations
- felony conviction, where one spouse has been convicted of a felony and served at least one year
- abandonment, where one spouse has left the other for at least a year
- living apart, where the spouses have lived separately for at least three years
- confinement in a mental hospital
Of these, insupportability is one of the most common because it does not require the spouses to establish blame, and it offers the option of a no-fault divorce. The only real requirement for a divorce under this “insupportability” is that the spouses’ relationship has deteriorated to the point where they are past the point of reconciliation and there is so much conflict that the marital relationship becomes untenable. Of course, every relationship is unique and there might be valid reasons to pursue a divorce under one of the other grounds. Contacting an experienced Houston divorce lawyer is the first step to making sure you qualify to file in the state of Texas.
