Four steps, in the order they happen. You file it yourself, and every field the form wants in your own hand is left for you to write.
Answer plain questions once. Your answers are placed onto the Agency's published forms and shown back to you in red, so you can see which box each one went into. What you take away is a marked draft — the fields that must be in your own hand are left blank — which you check, complete and file in your own name.
Want an end-to-end solution? A licensed professional can handle it all.
You can offer your finished draft to a licensed professional registered here and carry on with them directly — your answers travel across as data, so nothing is entered twice. They can stay with you for the rest of the process, and work across every document your case calls for rather than only the one you started with. In practice that can mean reading through what you have drafted, telling you what else the office will expect to see alongside it, and staying with you to the day it is handed in. What any one of them takes on, on what terms and for what fee, is settled between you and them.
1Say which situation you are inWhich procedure applies is decided by where each of you is now and where the marriage is registered — not by which is quickest or cheapest. The first question settles it, and everything after it follows from the answer.Not sure? The starting positions page describes the usual ones in plain terms.
2Answer plain questions, once eachFacts are asked once and reused everywhere they appear. Where two forms ask the same thing at different levels of detail, you give the finer one and the coarser is worked out from it — so the number of visits on one form cannot disagree with the list of visits on another.You can stop at any point. A half-finished case is kept as it stands.
3See where each answer landedYour answers are placed onto the Agency's own published forms and shown back to you in red, so you can see exactly which box each one went into. Fields the form requires in your own hand are left blank on purpose, and listed with the reason.
4Ready to file it yourself? A licensed professional can review it firstWhat you have is a draft you print, sign and file yourself, in your own name, and the fields the form wants in your own hand are left blank for you. Before you go, one thing worth knowing. A bundle handed back is usually handed back over something small: a name spelled two ways across two documents, a date recalled instead of checked against the paper it came from. That is rarely carelessness. It is not knowing what an examiner reads for — and the wait that follows is counted in months rather than days. So if you would like a qualified pair of eyes first, you may offer your draft to a licensed professional registered here. They see it read-only, can work across every document your case calls for rather than only the one you started with, and tell you whether they are available to take it on. The engagement, its terms and its fee are between you and them.Optional, and off by default. You can withdraw an offer at any time.
Start a draftAn account comes first — an email address, and a link we send to it. It is what a case belongs to, and without one there is nobody a case belongs to.
Register and save your progress
Your answers are saved as you go, so you can close the tab and pick up where you left off — a case belongs to an account, and that is what keeps it yours.
A case goes to one licensed professional at a time, and either of you may end it whenever you choose — for any reason, or none. Nothing is owed, nothing is charged, and nothing is recorded against either of you. Your files stay yours, and you are free to approach someone else the same day.
Why one at a time
Sending one case to every professional at once would turn a professional engagement into an auction: chosen on price rather than on fit, with several people reading the same file so that one of them is instructed. The fee for this work reflects who is answerable for it. One at a time keeps that intact — and the right to withdraw is what keeps one at a time from becoming a trap.
Get professional guidance as needed with real licensed professionals.
Nothing you write is visible to anybody else unless you offer a case for review, and you can withdraw that offer at any time.
