How to Download Your Divorce Order in Australia

The Court No Longer Mails Paper Certificates

If you're expecting a red-sealed divorce certificate to arrive in the post, it won't. The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (FCFCOA) stopped issuing physical paper certificates when family law matters moved to the Commonwealth Courts Portal. Your divorce order is now a digitally sealed PDF that you download yourself from the portal.

This document — bearing a digital security watermark and electronic court seal — is the official legal proof that your marriage has been dissolved. It's what you present to government agencies, banks, and other institutions when updating your records after divorce.

When Your Divorce Order Becomes Final

Your divorce is not final on the day the court grants it. Under Section 55 of the Family Law Act 1975, a divorce order becomes final exactly one month and one day after the date of the order. If the court made the order on 10 June, it becomes final on 11 July.

During that one-month-and-one-day waiting period, either party can appeal the decision (though appeals of uncontested divorces are extremely rare). You cannot remarry, and the divorce order is not yet available for download from the portal. Once the order takes effect, it's uploaded to your case file on the portal and becomes available to download.

This date also starts the 12-month countdown under Section 44(3) of the Family Law Act for filing property settlement or spousal maintenance proceedings. That deadline is strict.

How to Download Your Order

1. Log into the Commonwealth Courts Portal at comcourts.gov.au using your existing credentials.
2. Navigate to your case file. Your divorce application will appear under your matters. Click into it to view case documents.
3. Look for the Divorce Order. It will be listed among the case documents once it has taken effect (i.e., after the one-month-and-one-day period). The document is a PDF with a digital seal.
4. Download and save the PDF. Keep multiple copies — on your computer, in cloud storage, and as a printed hard copy. You'll need to present this document to multiple agencies.

If you can't see your case file, you may need to link your portal profile using the client number assigned when you filed your application. The court registry can help with this — contact the National Enquiry Centre using the current contact details on the FCFCOA website.

Divorce Order vs Divorce Certificate

These terms are sometimes used interchangeably in everyday conversation, but they refer to different things:

• Divorce order: The formal court document that dissolves your marriage, issued by the FCFCOA. This is the document you download from the portal. It's the primary legal proof of your divorce and is what most Australian institutions (TMR, banks, the passport office) require.

• Divorce certificate: A separate document that some people request as additional proof. Under the old system, the court issued stamped certificates. Now, the digitally sealed divorce order serves the same purpose. If an institution specifically asks for a "certificate" rather than an "order," the downloaded PDF from the portal will satisfy the requirement in almost all cases.

If you divorced before the portal transition and need a copy of your older divorce documents, you can request them from the court registry for a fee.

What to Do With Your Divorce Order

Once you have the finalised order, your post-divorce administrative tasks begin. The order is the key document you'll present when updating your name on your Queensland driver licence, applying for a passport name change (with the potential fee waiver if your passport has two or more years validity remaining), separating your Medicare card, and notifying your bank and superannuation fund.

The Queensland After-Divorce Checklist sequences these updates in the order that prevents identity mismatches and form rejections — starting with your driver licence as the foundation document and working outward to every other agency and institution.

See more Queensland guides →