How long does a divorce take?

“How long will all this take?” is the question we hear most often, usually even before the question of cost. That makes sense: as long as the proceedings run, a lot stays up in the air, from your tax class to when your own life will feel normal again.

An honest answer has two parts. The first is a range. The second explains what decides where within that range you land.

The range: four to twelve months

The clock starts when the Scheidungsantrag (divorce petition) reaches the court. The first consultation comes before that and does not count. Before you can file, the year of separation must as a rule be over; so that year does not count either, even if it feels like part of the proceedings.

Within the range, proceedings by agreement regularly sit at the lower end. Contested proceedings, where maintenance, assets or the care of the children are negotiated as well, can stretch over several years. The difference arises beforehand, not in the courtroom.

Three levers set the pace

First: agreement. Every point you settle in advance drops out as a matter in dispute. That not only shortens the proceedings, it also lowers the Verfahrenswert (value of the proceedings) and with it the costs. If you both agree, a single lawyer is usually enough as well.

Second: the Versorgungsausgleich (pension rights adjustment). It runs automatically in almost every case. Both spouses fill in questionnaires, and the pension providers report back the entitlements acquired. In our experience this step slows things down the most, and not because it is difficult. It consists of many individual replies that nobody can speed up.

Third: the court’s workload. Nobody can influence that, not you and not us. And right now this third lever is clearly making itself felt.

How things look in Frankfurt right now

The Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main (local court) itself currently reports longer processing times. Registering new cases takes six to eight weeks at the moment. Pending cases can be delayed by up to two months. The court expressly asks people not to send status inquiries during this phase: every inquiry ties up capacity that is missing elsewhere.

For you, this means: for now, expect the upper end of the range. It changes nothing about the legal position, only about the wait.

The stages in detail

Behind the range are six steps, and each one has its own duration.

Petition and service. The petition reaches the court, is registered there and served on the other side. Within Germany that takes weeks. If the other side lives abroad, it quickly takes many times longer, and that is the most underestimated item of all.

The pension questionnaires. The court sends them to both sides. How long they sit on your desk is up to you.

The statements from the pension providers. The longest single item. Every statutory, occupational and private entitlement is requested separately, and the proceedings wait for the last reply to arrive. If you have had many employers, you will therefore wait longer.

The hearing. Once everything is in, the court sets a hearing date. This is where the workload shows.

The decision. It is usually announced at the hearing itself and then follows in writing.

Finality. And this is where the lever lies that almost nobody knows about.

Look at this chain and you quickly see where the time really goes. Two of the six steps depend on you, one on the other side, two on third parties, and only one on the court. The common assumption that the court is the bottleneck does not hold in most cases.

Waiving appeal saves a whole month

The decision alone does not make you divorced. That happens only once it becomes final, and until then the period for an appeal is running.

If both sides declare at the hearing that they waive their right to appeal, the decision becomes final at once. Without that declaration, the proceedings wait out the period, and a hearing that is over turns into one more month of marriage.

One hurdle is regularly overlooked in a one-lawyer divorce. Waiving appeal is a procedural act, so only a lawyer can declare it § 114 (1) FamFG. The exceptions in § 114 (4) FamFG cover consent to the divorce, but not the waiver of appeal. So if only one side has a lawyer, you cannot save the month while the other side sits in the courtroom unrepresented.

Two routes remain. Either the consenting side hires a lawyer for this hearing only, which limits the second lawyer to a single appointment, or you plan for the extra month from the start. It only gets expensive for anyone who thought about neither in advance and then waits for a date they believed was behind them.

A foreign connection changes the calculation

If the other side lives abroad, the timeline shifts at a point where you can do nothing: service.

Within the EU, service runs under the EU Service Regulation and can be planned. Outside the EU it goes through the judicial authorities of the receiving state, and that route can take months, in some countries longer than all the rest of the proceedings.

If foreign documents also have to be produced with an apostille and a certified translation, the start is pushed back again. Both can be handled alongside the Trennungsjahr (year of separation) if you start early enough; if you begin only once that year is over, you lose the time twice.

What else comes together in such cases is covered under International family law.

What the duration does not depend on

Three things are often mistaken for factors in the timing, and none of them is.

How you get advice. Whether the first consultation takes place at our office or by video changes nothing about the proceedings; see Online divorce or in person?.

Where the practice is based. The court with jurisdiction follows from § 122 FamFG, regardless of where your lawyer is based; see Does the lawyer have to be in my city?.

The question of fault. German law does not ask who caused the separation. Arguing about it drags out the proceedings without changing the outcome.

What you can do yourself

There is exactly one point where you can influence the waiting time, and it is regularly underestimated:

• Send back the questionnaires for the Versorgungsausgleich (pension rights adjustment) early and complete. Every follow-up question from the pension providers costs weeks that nobody can make up.
• Gather documents before they are requested: marriage certificate, the children’s birth certificates, proof of income, pension record.
• Settle disputed points out of court, if necessary through a divorce settlement agreement. Whatever is settled beforehand, the court no longer has to assess.
• Do not file too early. If the Trennungsjahr (year of separation) has not yet ended by the hearing, the petition can be dismissed; then everything starts over.

If you would like to know what this means for your situation, tell us where you stand. The first consultation costs at most €226.10 including VAT; if we take on your case, this fee does not apply.