Simplify the Process of Getting a Divorce Certificate in Massachusetts
Post-divorce, moving forward with your life often requires dividing up property or proving your legal divorce with a divorce certificate. If you were living in Texas, Arkansas, or Nevada, you'd have to follow their process for requesting this document. Still, as a person seeking a divorce certificate Massachusetts has on file, you have a particular process to follow.
Having a divorce certificate handy for remarriage, refinancing a property, or handling immigration status issues is key in many cases. That being said, not everyone knows where in Massachusetts can I get my divorce certificate copy. Let's look at how to request a copy of divorce certificates Massachusetts issued.
The Difference Between Divorce Certificates and Divorce Decrees
The first thing to remember is that you don't usually have to submit a divorce decree for a lot of applications and documentation later on. In most cases, obtaining legal copies of marriage and divorce certificates in Massachusetts is enough for proceedings like:
- Remarriage documentation
- Refinancing or selling joint property
- Making immigration paperwork complete to move forward
The divorce decree has information about your court case and may include things like custody arrangements. On the other hand, you can know what a divorce certificate looks like in MA by how simple they are. In most cases, when you request a copy of the divorce certificate, Massachusetts sends a document that mentions the following:
- Jurisdiction
- Date
- Names of those who were divorced
How Long Will It Take To Get Your Divorce Certificate in Massachusetts?
The probate court you have to request your divorce certificate from can have an impact, as can which state. Ideally, Massachusetts folks would hope our divorce certificates would be processed faster than California or Florida, but it really depends.
Expect a wait time of around two weeks unless your probate court has a different length of time listed.
How to Obtain Divorce Certificate Massachusetts by Yourself
absolute and copies of a judgment of divorce, which are longer and more involved. Obtaining them requires following their request process.
Getting a Divorce Certificate in Person
- Type in your information into PFC 18, the form that allows you to request copies from Massachusetts forms.
- Find your costs, usually $20 for a certificate of divorce absolute, and prepare an attorney's check, money order, bank certified check, or bank cashier's check to give, with the check addressed to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
- Look up the Probate and Family Court location where you want to request the copy.
- Attend during their open hours and make your request.
Getting a Divorce Certificate by Mail
- Input information into PFC 18 to generate the PDF you'll need to print.
- Get an acceptable form of payment (cashier's check, bank certified check, money order, or attorney's check) and make sure it's prepared in the amount of $20 unless you request multiple copies of multiple certificates or records.
- Address the envelope to your Probate and Family Court, where your divorce was finalized.
- Wait for at least two weeks; if you haven't received your record, you can consider calling the court to confirm that the request was at least received.
| City/County/State Office | Contact Address and Phone Number |
| Massachusetts Vital Records | 150 Mount Vernon Street
1st Floor Dorchester, MA 02125-3105 Phone: 866-300-8535 Fax: 866-550-2067 |
Solve Divorce Certificate Massachusetts Instantly With the Help of DoNotPay
Handling this process yourself can be complicated. For instance, people in New York often are asking where to get the original divorce certificate NYC issued, when really what they want is a divorce certificate PDF NYC has available, or they actually need a NY divorce certificate certified copy. tries to simplify it, but there are still a lot of steps.
With DoNotPay, you can simply send in the basic information and handle the process. You save all the effort of going back to the probate court where your divorce took place or looking it all up and sending physical documentation. We make the process painless, and you can get on with your new life, a certificate in hand.
How to get a copy of a divorce certificate using DoNotPay?
If you want to get a copy of a divorce certificate but don't know where to start, DoNotPay has you covered in seven easy steps:
- Go to the Certificates of Divorce product on DoNotPay.
- Select whether the certificate belongs to you or a relative/loved one. If it belongs to someone else, enter the details of both people on the certificate and select/upload evidence that proves your relationship with them. If the certificate is yours, enter the details of your spouse.*Please note: some states only allow people named on the certificate to apply.
- Enter the city, state, and county where the divorce certificate and original divorce certificate were issued as well as the dates they were issued on.
- Indicate what you will be using this certificate for, and choose whether you need an authorized or certified copy.
- Enter your contact information and shipping address—upload copies of your government-issued identification, such as a driver's license.
- Choose whether you would like to sign this form or not electronically. Once we generate the form, verify that all information is correct.
- If you need the document to be notarized, schedule a notarization appointment using our Notary product. Otherwise, proceed to our Mail Checks product and let DoNotPay mail in your request form with a check on your behalf.
Why Use DoNotPay to Solve the Divorce Certificates in Massachusetts
If you've been through this process before, you might be throwing your hands up and asking, "When do I receive the ?". It's understandable - bureaucracy can cause stress and be frustrating.
DoNotPay, however, isn't frustrating - we're here to take on those silly, frustrating tasks so that you don't have to. Work through our simple, clear interface to get the ball rolling, and then rest easy knowing that the process is:
| Fast | We get started immediately. |
| Easy | We don’t bury information you need deep in a complex set of instructions - it’s just the facts. |
| Succesful | We take ownership of the process and see it through to the end. |
You don't have to print anything, you don't have to mail anything, and you get your results just as much as anyone who marches into Probate Court themselves.
We pride ourselves on being the resource you need when you're knee-deep in the many documents needed to get remarried, buy or sell property, or handle immigration plans. Submitting all your requests for different documentation centrally through the DoNotPay interface is a great way to save yourself a bunch of trouble!