How Do You Amend A Legal Separation To A Divorce In California?
California law makes it very easy to amend a legal separation to a divorce. The only real obstacle is the heightened residency requirement, which doesn’t exist for legal separation. Otherwise, either spouse can simply refile their legal separation paperwork and check the “dissolution” and “amended” boxes. Meet residency requirement. To file for divorce in California, at least one spouse must have been a resident of the state for six months and a resident of the county in which it’s filed for three months. Once this basic requirement is met, a legal separation can be easily amended to a divorce. File amended petition (if petitioner). If you were the spouse who filed the original petition for legal separation, you can amend it to divorce by refiling the same form (FL-100) filled out to reflect the terms of your legal separation with the boxes checked for “dissolution” and “amended.” File amended response (if respondent). If you were not the spouse who filed the original petition, but you
