Divorce in Wyoming: what to expect
What a divorce in Wyoming actually involves: how property is divided, how long you must have lived there, what you have to prove, how long it takes, and what the court is deciding about the children. Wyoming is an equitable distribution state. The court divides marital property fairly, which is not the same as equally, and the difference is where the argument happens.
See a different stateWyoming
Every line below is taken from the statute or the court, and the citation is next to it so you can check us. It is still not advice about your case. The same statute produces very different outcomes on different facts, and the parts that decide your outcome — the length of the marriage, who earned what, whose name is on what — are not on this page because we do not know them. Use this to know what questions to ask, not to predict an answer.
Wyoming at a glance
Every row is cited. Where a row says we could not confirm it, that is exactly what it means — we went looking and would not guess.
| Question | The answer in this state | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Property division | equitable distribution | Wyo. Stat. § 20-2-114 |
| How it works in practice | In granting a divorce, the court shall make such disposition of the property of the parties as appears just and equitable. | Wyo. Stat. § 20-2-114 |
| Residency requirement | At least one spouse resided in Wyoming for at least 60 days immediately before filing | Wyo. Stat. § 20-2-107 |
| Waiting period | A divorce decree may not be entered less than 20 days after the complaint is filed | Wyo. Stat. § 20-2-108 |
| The no-fault ground | Irreconcilable differences in the marital relationship (§ 20-2-104). The only other ground is a spouse’s incurable insanity with at least two years’ confinement in a mental hospital immediately before filing (§ 20-2-105) — not a fault ground. | Wyo. Stat. §§ 20-2-104, 20-2-105 |
| Filing fee | $160 statewide district-court filing fee for commencing a civil action (divorce has no separate fee); the $40 court-automation and $10 indigent-legal-services amounts are components of the $160, not add-ons | Wyo. Stat. § 5-3-206(a)(i) |
| Alimony | Called ‘alimony’. The court may award either party reasonable alimony out of the other’s estate having regard for the other’s ability to pay, including assigning real estate or its rents for life or decreeing a specific sum; the statute lists no factors, duration formula or cap. | Wyo. Stat. § 20-2-114(a) |
| Custody standard | Best interests of the child, considering statutory factors (commonly described as 10), including the quality of the relationship each child has with each parent and each parent’s ability to meet the child’s needs | Wyo. Stat. § 20-2-201 |
| Any parenting-time presumption | No statutory presumption about equal time found | — |
Grounds: what you have to say happened
The no-fault ground in Wyoming is: Irreconcilable differences in the marital relationship (§ 20-2-104). The only other ground is a spouse’s incurable insanity with at least two years’ confinement in a mental hospital immediately before filing (§ 20-2-105) — not a fault ground.. Wyo. Stat. §§ 20-2-104, 20-2-105
There is effectively no fault-based route here. Which means the affair, the drinking, or whose fault it was is generally not the question the court is deciding, however much it matters to you.
What is unusual about Wyoming
The things that surprise people who assumed their state works like the one they read about.
- Wyoming’s 60-day residency requirement is one of the shortest of the 25 states researched.
- Wyoming has no fault grounds at all. The only ground besides irreconcilable differences (Wyo. Stat. § 20-2-104) is a spouse’s incurable insanity with two or more years of confinement (§ 20-2-105), which is not a fault ground — unlike states such as North Dakota or Oklahoma that retain long lists of traditional fault grounds.
How long you were married. Almost every alimony statute in the country turns on it, and most have unwritten thresholds judges apply. Whose name is on what. It matters far less than people expect in a community property state and far more than people expect for a house bought before the marriage. Whether either of you brought money in. Separate property stays separate until it is mixed with marital money, and then the argument is about how thoroughly. The questions that decide it are here.
Compiled 31 August 2026 from Wyoming statutes and court sources, each linked in the table. Re-read line by line against the statutes on 3 September 2026; every row above was confirmed or corrected at the official source that day. Statutes change, and several states have changed theirs recently. Tell us if we have one wrong.
Keep reading
- The Wyoming divorce kit — forms, fees and deadlines
- Legal help in Wyoming you can afford
- Who gets what — the questions that decide it
- What a Wyoming divorce costs
- What two households cost
- What people wish they had known