Minnesota Divorce Papers: Every DIV Form Your Uncontested Case Needs

By the FormsPal Editorial Team · Updated November 1, 2026 · 13 min read

Search "Minnesota divorce papers" and plenty of what comes back makes it sound like the paperwork itself is a purchase. It isn't. The Minnesota Judicial Branch publishes the entire DIV-series divorce packet, from the opening petition through the decree. Every page of it is downloadable straight from its website.

What slows a self-filed Minnesota case down is almost never getting hold of a form. The hard part is picking the right track out of three genuinely different ones. After that, you keep the same names, county, and dates consistent across a packet that can run to forty pages once children are part of the case.

This page walks through the actual papers an uncontested Minnesota case uses, roughly in the order you'll touch them, and notes where each one comes from. Our Minnesota filing guide covers the step-by-step mechanics of getting a completed packet to the court, and our Minnesota divorce cost breakdown covers what the whole process runs, forms and fees together.

The core papers, form by form

An uncontested Minnesota divorce still runs on real paper. The Judicial Branch assigns one DIV-numbered form to each stage of the case rather than folding everything into a single generic petition. Exactly which forms apply depends on your track, covered next. Here is the backbone a standard-track case files.

Every one of these is published as a real Minnesota court PDF rather than a scanned image, so it prints cleanly and reads the same whether you fill it out by hand or have it completed for you.

Form catalog: the Minnesota Judicial Branch's divorce and dissolution forms index, the publisher of every DIV-series document named on this page.

Two rows in that table hide a decision rather than an extra document: which petition form applies, covered in the next section, and which decree form applies, covered further down. The Summons and the Certificate of Representation and Parties go with every standard-track case, children or not. The Financial Affidavit belongs only to the standard petition with children.

Summary, joint, or standard: picking your track

Minnesota doesn't hand every couple the same divorce packet. It branches into three tracks before you file a single page, and which one fits your case changes both the paperwork and how quickly a court can finish it.

Check summary eligibility first, since it's the shortest path by a wide margin. The list is genuinely strict, and all eight conditions have to hold at once:

• no living minor children of both spouses
• neither spouse pregnant
• married under eight years
• no real estate
• no more than $8,000 in marital debt apart from car loans
• marital assets of $25,000 or less, including car equity
• no more than $25,000 in nonmarital assets for either spouse
• no domestic abuse

Some couples agree on everything but don't fit that narrow box. Say they've been married nine years or own a house. They usually move to the joint petition instead. It still skips service of process, even though it doesn't skip a judge's review.

The standard petition is what a case defaults to whenever one spouse would rather file first and have the other formally notified. It also fits when the two of you aren't ready to sign the same document together yet. For how the 30-day summary clock and the rest of the calendar play out once you've filed, see our Minnesota divorce timeline guide.

Summary dissolution eligibility and the DIV202 packet: the Judicial Branch's summary dissolution forms packet, and the underlying eligibility conditions at Minn. Stat. Section 518.195.

The petition, or joint petition, closely

Whichever track you're on, one document does the real legal work of opening the case, or on the summary track, opening and closing it in the same filing. It earns a closer look than the rest of the packet.

Residency comes first. At least one spouse must have lived in Minnesota, been domiciled here, or been a member of the armed forces stationed here for at least 180 days immediately before the case starts. There's no separate county residency period. County only decides venue, so you file in the district court of whichever county either spouse currently lives in.

Next, the ground. Minnesota is a pure no-fault state. The petition pleads irretrievable breakdown of the marriage relationship, and that's the only ground the statute recognizes (Minn. Stat. 518.06). Minnesota has abolished the traditional defenses to divorce, including condonation, connivance, collusion, recrimination, insanity, and lapse of time. So neither of you has to prove fault. If one spouse denies under oath that the marriage is broken, the court needs evidence that you have lived apart for 180 days or that there is serious marital discord.

From there, the petition or joint petition states how you're asking the court to divide property and debts. Minnesota's standard is a just and equitable division of the marital property, without regard to marital misconduct, and not necessarily an equal split. The division is weighed against factors like the length of the marriage, each spouse's income and earning capacity, and any contribution as a homemaker (Minn. Stat. 518.58). If children are part of the case, the petition also states what you're asking for on custody, parenting time, and support.

The caption at the top of every page carries more than just your county. Minnesota organizes its District Courts into ten judicial districts. So a caption is expected to carry a judicial district number alongside the county name. Getting that number right on every page matters as much as getting the county right.

Bringing your spouse into a standard-track case

The joint and summary tracks skip this step entirely, since both spouses are already parties to the case the moment they sign. A standard-track case works differently. Filing the petition alone doesn't finish anything. Your spouse still has to be formally brought in before the case can move toward a decree.

Minnesota gives a cooperative spouse a path around a sheriff or process server. They can sign a Waiver of Service (CIV022B) after receiving a Notice of Lawsuit and Request for Waiver (CIV022A). Signing confirms they got the papers and don't need to be formally served.

If that is not workable, personal delivery is the fallback. The sheriff, a process server, or any other adult who is not a party to the case hands the summons and petition to your spouse. You then file an Affidavit of Personal Service (DIV503 without children, DIV903 with children) to prove it.

Mailing the papers on their own does not serve your spouse. The mailed packet counts only once your spouse signs and returns the waiver, and that signed waiver is the proof of service. It also changes the clock. A spouse who signs it has 60 days to answer, counted from the day you sent the request. Personal service gives 30 days instead. A case uses one of these routes, never more than one.

If your spouse still won't sign anything or respond at all, the case doesn't stall. It moves to the default path instead. You file a Default Scheduling Request (DIV1202), and along with the request you file two affidavits:

• an Affidavit of Default (DIV410 or DIV815)
• an Affidavit of Non Military Status (DIV408 or DIV808), confirming your spouse isn't an active-duty servicemember protected from a default judgment under federal law

One extra step can come first. It applies if your spouse appeared in some way other than filing an answer and has not waived notice. In that case, you first give them at least 14 days' written notice on a Notice of Intent to Proceed to Judgment (DIV812). Whoever mailed the notice signs an Affidavit of Service by Mail (DIV504 without children, DIV904 with children) to prove it went out.

From there, the court may decide the case as a default and sign the Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, Order for Judgment, and Judgment and Decree (DIV407 or DIV807) that you prepare. A case with minor children needs a default hearing first.

If you have children together

Children change which petition you file. It is DIV802 instead of DIV402 on the standard track, and DIV1702 instead of DIV302 on the joint track. Children also add papers on top of the core packet.

The standard with-children petition (DIV802) comes with a Financial Affidavit (FAM102) that discloses each parent's income. The affidavit has its own instructions, FAM101. It is served and filed together with the Summons and Petition.

Choose the joint route instead, with the with-children petition (DIV1702), and FAM102 drops away. You still have to file proof of income under the Form 11.2 Cover Sheet for Non-Public Documents (CON112). That proof means items such as pay stubs for the most recent three months and your most recent federal tax return.

The statewide list for the joint petition does not include FAM102. But Minnesota law requires a financial affidavit, FAM102 or a substantially similar one, when child support is set. So ask your county's court administration whether it wants FAM102 with a joint petition.

Public assistance adds two more forms. If either spouse receives public assistance or applies for it during the case, Minnesota requires you to notify the county public authority. You do that with a Notice to Public Authority (DIV813). The court forms pair it with an Affidavit of Service to Public Authority (DIV816) that proves it was delivered. On a joint petition, the county attorney for the public authority signs off before the case is filed.

One honest thing belongs here. Minnesota law allows an uncontested decree without a final hearing in three situations (Minn. Stat. 518.13, subd. 5):

• Without minor children, a signed written stipulation is enough.
• Without minor children, a default also works once your spouse was served, never appeared, and 20 more days have passed after the answer deadline.
• With minor children, both spouses must sign and acknowledge a stipulation, and every party must have a lawyer.

If you're self-represented and filing the standard petition with children, expect a court hearing. On the joint petition with children (DIV1702), the court approves the decree without a hearing when both spouses are represented by lawyers. Otherwise the judge decides whether a hearing is needed. The court must schedule a hearing whenever the proposed decree does not appear to be in the children's best interests. For the full breakdown of what changes and why, see our guide to a Minnesota divorce with children.

The filing fee and the fee waiver

Minnesota publishes its DIV-series forms for anyone to download and complete. Filing them carries a separate cost. The Judicial Branch's fee schedule sets a $390 base fee for a dissolution filing. That is a $340 base fee under Minn. Stat. 357.021 plus the $50 surcharge under Minn. Stat. 518.005. It is the same whether or not children are part of the case, and the same for a summary dissolution.

That base isn't the total. Add your county's own law library fee on top of it, and the number people actually pay lands somewhere between $390 and $405. Hennepin comes in at $402, and Ramsey and Dakota at $405. Confirm the current total for your county on the Judicial Branch's district court fees page, linked in the sources below.

Filers who can't cover that get a real alternative: the Affidavit to Request Fee Waiver (FEE102), paired with its own instructions page, FEE101. You ask by swearing that you cannot afford the fees and that you have good reasons for your request. The court grants the waiver if it finds your case is not frivolous and your affidavit is not untrue.

Public assistance, legal-aid representation, or income at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty guideline creates a presumption you qualify. It is a presumption, not a strict cutoff. A judicial officer decides the request under that court's own review procedure. For the fuller cost picture, including what a Minnesota attorney typically charges for a similar case, run the divorce cost calculator with Minnesota preselected.

Filing fee: the Minnesota Judicial Branch's district court fee schedule, which publishes the base fee and each county's own law library add-on separately.

How the papers reach the court administrator

Minnesota calls the person who receives your filing the court administrator rather than a clerk, and your packet may reach that office electronically or on paper. The statewide eFile and eServe system (eFS) is mandatory for attorneys, government agencies, and guardians ad litem. It is optional for anyone representing themselves, who can instead file on paper in person or by mail. Paper filing at the district court administration counter works everywhere across the state's 87 counties and 10 judicial districts.

Where you file follows the same residency rule covered earlier: the district court of the county where either spouse currently lives, not where you married.

A case with real estate needs one more document outside the core DIV packet. When the decree describes real estate, the court directs a party to prepare a Summary Real Estate Disposition Judgment. That is Minnesota Uniform Conveyancing Blanks Form 80.1.2 from the Department of Commerce, rather than a Judicial Branch form.

The summary judgment is an alternative to recording the whole decree, and it keeps your other case details out of the public land records. A judicial officer signs it, and a certified copy goes to the County Recorder. Any real estate interest at all, including an inherited share, takes the summary track off the table.

Blank forms or prepared forms

Filling out these forms yourself, without paying anyone, is a completely legitimate way to end a marriage in Minnesota. The court system expects self-represented filers, and every core petition and the fee waiver has its own instructions. The court does not require you to have a lawyer, but it expects you to know and follow the law just as a lawyer would.

What it costs is your own time. You work through a packet that can run past forty pages once children and a stipulated decree are both involved. You also carry the risk that a court administrator sends something back over a date or a spelling that doesn't match from page to page.

Since the state already makes every form public, access to the paperwork isn't what a service like FormsPal charges for. What we sell is picking the right track and the right forms for your specific facts. Then we fill every one of them so your names, your county, and your case details read identically from the first page to the last.

That work runs a flat one-time fee, $69 if you want the completed paperwork on its own or $199 with support included. It is separate from whatever the court itself charges to file it. For a walk through what an agreed case looks like from the first form to the signed decree, see our uncontested Minnesota divorce guide.

Once genuine disagreement enters the picture, this page and the paperwork on it stop being the right fit. That might be who keeps the house, how a retirement account splits, or a custody term neither of you will budge on. A contested case needs a judge to resolve what the two of you couldn't. A Minnesota family law attorney representing one side of that dispute serves a purpose no self-help form was ever built for.

The papers here, and FormsPal's Minnesota service, are built for the agreed case only, and this guide says so plainly rather than pretending otherwise.

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