Divorce Application Form Australia: Which Forms You Need

The forms you need for an Australian divorce depend on whether you're filing jointly or alone, whether you have children under 18, and whether your spouse cooperates with service. The FCFCOA (Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia) uses standardised forms that are generated through or uploaded to the Commonwealth Courts Portal.

A common misconception: you don't fill out paper forms and mail them to a court. The Application for Divorce itself is generated through the portal's online form — you answer questions, the portal produces the document. The supporting forms (affidavits, service documents) are prepared separately, signed before a witness, and uploaded as PDFs.

Every form is free to download from the FCFCOA website. You don't need to buy templates or form kits.

Forms for Every Divorce Application

These forms are required regardless of whether your application is joint or sole:

Application for Divorce. Generated by the Commonwealth Courts Portal after you complete the online questionnaire. Contains your personal details, marriage and separation dates, residency information, and Part F (child welfare arrangements if applicable). You don't fill this in by hand — the portal creates it from your answers.

Affidavit for eFiling Application (Divorce). Also generated by the portal. This is the sworn statement confirming the facts in your application are true. It must be printed, signed in front of a Justice of the Peace or solicitor, and scanned back as a PDF for upload. In a joint application, both spouses sign.

Marriage certificate. Upload your original or an official copy from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Additional Forms for Specific Situations

Affidavit — Translation of Marriage Certificate. Required if your marriage certificate is not in English. A NAATI-certified translator prepares the English translation and signs this affidavit confirming its accuracy. The translation and the affidavit are uploaded together.

Application for Reduction of Payment of Divorce Fee. If you're applying for the reduced filing fee of $390 (instead of the standard $1,170), complete this form and upload copies of your concession card or financial hardship documentation before proceeding to payment.

Affidavit (separation under one roof). If you and your spouse lived in the same home during any part of the 12-month separation period, you'll file a sworn affidavit detailing how your domestic arrangements changed. A corroborating third-party affidavit from someone who witnessed the changed living situation is also required.

Forms for Sole Applications (Service Documents)

If you're the sole applicant, you must serve documents on your spouse and then prove you did so. This requires a specific set of forms:

Acknowledgment of Service (Divorce). You pre-fill Parts A and B with the case details. Part C is left blank for the respondent to sign after they receive the documents. Upload the signed version to the portal after service.

Affidavit of Service by Hand (Divorce). Completed by the person who physically served the documents (not you — the applicant cannot serve papers personally). The server describes how they identified the respondent, the date and location of service, and any conversation that occurred. Signed before a JP or solicitor.

Affidavit of Service by Post (Divorce). Used instead of the hand-service affidavit if documents were mailed and the respondent returned a signed Acknowledgment of Service by post.

Affidavit Proving Signature (Divorce). Required when the server who handed over the documents didn't personally know the respondent. You (the applicant) swear that you recognise the signature on the Acknowledgment of Service as your spouse's. A photocopy of the signed acknowledgment is annexed.

Forms for Contested or Complicated Cases

Response to Divorce. Filed by the respondent if they contest the divorce. This is the only form the respondent files, and it can only challenge the separation date or the court's jurisdiction — not the decision to divorce itself.

Application in a Proceeding. Used when you need to ask the court for a specific order during your divorce, such as substituted service (serving via email or social media) or dispensation of service (waiving the service requirement entirely when you can't locate your spouse).

Common Form Mistakes

Signing the affidavit before the portal form is finished. The portal generates the affidavit from your completed form. If you sign an earlier version, the documents won't match and the court rejects the filing.

Not having the witness sign the annexure note. When you attach documents to an affidavit (like the signed Acknowledgment of Service), both you and the JP must sign the annexure note linking that document to the affidavit. A missing signature on the annexure invalidates the attachment.

Uploading the wrong file format. The portal accepts PDFs only. Word documents, JPEGs, and PNGs will be rejected at upload.

The Queensland Divorce Filing Process Guide maps every form to the exact step in the filing process where you need it, explains how to prepare each one, and flags the common errors that lead to rejections.

See more Queensland guides →