Ontario Divorce Forms List: Every Form You Need to File

Ontario divorce paperwork is scattered across government websites, court portals, and ministry registries — and none of them give you a single, unified list of what you actually need to file and in what order. Most self-represented litigants end up downloading the wrong version of a form, skipping one entirely, or filing documents in the wrong sequence and getting their package bounced by the court clerk.

Here is every form involved in an uncontested Ontario divorce, organized by the stage where you need it.

Stage One: Opening Your Court File

The first filing is where you formally ask the court to start your divorce proceeding. You need these documents ready before you submit anything:

Form 8A — Application (Divorce): This is the originating document. It identifies both spouses, states the ground for divorce (almost always one-year separation under section 8(2) of the Divorce Act), and lists any claims for support or property. The legal names on Form 8A must match your marriage certificate exactly — including middle names. A single discrepancy (even a missing middle initial) will trigger a clerk rejection.

Registration of Divorce Proceeding: This is a federal form, not provincial. It feeds into the Central Registry of Divorce Proceedings (CRDP) in Ottawa, which checks whether either spouse has another active divorce case anywhere in Canada. The court submits it internally, but you fill it out and include it with your Stage One package.

Original Marriage Certificate: Not a church certificate or a photocopy — the official government-issued certificate from the province or country where the marriage was registered. If the certificate is in a language other than English or French, you need a certified translation from a member of the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario (ATIO).

Form FW-A-3 (Fee Waiver Application): Only needed if you cannot afford the $224 filing fee. The fee waiver is decided under the Administration of Justice Act, and you will need to provide income documentation.

You submit this package through the correct electronic portal: the Ontario Courts Public Portal for Toronto-region filings, or Family Submissions Online (the JSO portal) for everywhere else in the province.

Stage Two: Service of Process

After the court issues your application (stamps it with a court file number and seal), you must formally serve the other spouse. You cannot do this yourself — Rule 6 of the Family Law Rules requires special service for originating documents.

Form 6 — Acknowledgement of Service: If you serve by mail instead of personal delivery, the respondent must sign and return this form to confirm they received the documents. Mail service only counts if Form 6 comes back signed.

Form 6B — Affidavit of Service: After service is complete, the person who served the documents (not you) swears this affidavit confirming when, where, and how they delivered the papers. They must sign it before a commissioner for taking affidavits — available for free at any Ontario family court counter, or through a licensed notary (typically around $21).

Form 10 — Answer: You do not fill this out. You include a blank copy of Form 10 in the service package so the respondent knows how to respond if they choose to. If they do not file an Answer within 30 days (or 60 days if served in the United States, or 90 days internationally), they are noted in default and lose the right to participate further.

Stage Three: The Judgment Package

Once the answer deadline passes and the CRDP clearance certificate arrives (usually 4 to 6 weeks after Stage One), you file the judgment package asking the judge to grant the divorce.

Form 36 — Affidavit for Divorce: This is your sworn statement confirming the marriage details, separation date, grounds, and — critically — any name discrepancies between your application and the marriage certificate. If names differ even slightly, you must explain the reason under oath in this affidavit or the judge will return the file.

Form 25A — Divorce Order (Draft): You prepare a typed draft of the actual order you are asking the judge to sign. The court expects this to be cleanly formatted and consistent with everything in your Form 8A. The judge reviews the entire paper file in chambers (no court appearance for uncontested divorces) and either signs the order or returns it with corrections.

Form 36A — Certificate of Clerk (Divorce): The court clerk completes this form confirming that no Answer was filed and that procedural requirements (CRDP clearance, proper service) were satisfied.

The Stage Two filing fee is $445, payable through the same portal you used for Stage One.

Final Step: Proof of Divorce

Form 36B — Certificate of Divorce: The divorce order does not take effect until 31 days after the judge signs it (the statutory appeal window). After that window closes, you request Form 36B from the court registry. This certificate is your legal proof that the marriage is dissolved — it is required to remarry or update official identification documents. The fee is $25.

Conditional Forms for Specific Situations

Not every divorce requires these, but if your situation involves children, property, or financial disclosure, they become mandatory:

Form 35.1 — Affidavit (decision-making responsibility, parenting time, contact): Required when a case includes a claim respecting decision-making responsibility, parenting time, or contact for a child. Under section 11(1)(b) of the Divorce Act, the judge must be satisfied that reasonable child support arrangements are in place before granting the divorce. This affidavit details each child, proposed parenting arrangements, and any prior family court involvement.

Form 13.1 — Financial Statement (Property and Support Claims): Required when either spouse claims property division (NFP equalization) or spousal support alongside the divorce. You list all assets and liabilities at two dates: the date of marriage and the valuation date (usually the separation date). Every financial account number must be redacted before filing — unredacted personal identifiers cause an immediate rejection under Rule 1.2.

Form 13B — Net Family Property Statement: A more detailed supplement to Form 13.1, specifically breaking down the NFP equalization calculation. Each spouse's net family property is calculated separately, and the spouse with the higher NFP pays half the difference to the other.

Where to Get the Forms

All Ontario family court forms are available as free fillable PDFs from the Ontario Court Services website. You can also access them through the Steps to Justice platform or the CLEO Guided Pathways tool, which walks you through individual forms with plain-language help text.

The forms are free. What they do not provide is a unified sequence telling you which form goes where, when each one needs to be sworn or commissioned, and how to assemble them into your continuing record — the physical or digital binder that Rule 9 of the Family Law Rules requires for every document filed in family court.

Keeping It All Straight

The most common reason self-represented filings get rejected is not a wrong answer on a form — it is an assembly error. Missing tabs in the continuing record, documents filed in the wrong volume, or forms that reference a name spelled differently than the marriage certificate. Between 40% and 57% of family court litigants in Ontario are self-represented, and the system was not designed for laypeople navigating it alone.

The Ontario Divorce Filing Process Guide walks through every form in the exact sequence the court expects, with pre-filing validation checklists that flag the specific errors clerks catch most often. It is a fraction of what even the cheapest flat-fee lawyer charges, and it covers the entire process from Stage One filing through obtaining your Certificate of Divorce.

See more Ontario guides →