Annulment Vs. Divorce: A (2025) Guide

What Is a Divorce?

A divorce is the legal process for terminating a lawful marriage. In other words, the marriage is valid, and at least one of the spouses wants a court to dissolve it. A divorce is the natural end to many valid marriages. Without a divorce, the spouses remain married even if they live separately and hold themselves out as single.

This has important implications. Suppose that a married couple no longer wants to remain together. Without a divorce, they remain legally and financially bound.

They cannot marry other people. They may also be responsible for each other’s debts, depending on the state and the nature of the debt. They may still inherit from each other in the absence of a will directing otherwise. Any death benefits from Social Security or workers’ comp might go to the estranged spouse instead of another beneficiary.

What Is Annulment?

An annulment is a legal process for declaring an end to an invalid marriage. What does it mean to annul a marriage? An annulment means your invalid marriage never existed. If your marriage is invalid, annulment is the only option for ending it.

In other words, you must prove you were married to get a divorce. If you cannot prove a valid marriage, you cannot file a divorce. What qualifies a marriage for annulment will vary from state to state. An invalid marriage might occur for the following reasons:

Under the Legal Marriage Age

Every state has a minimum marriage age. Four states — California, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Oklahoma — allow exceptions to their minimum age for young people who have obtained judicial approval or were previously emancipated. If a marriage violates the state’s marriage age statute, either spouse can seek an annulment.

Bigamy

Spouses cannot be married to other people. Every state outlaws bigamy, and the Edmunds-Tucker Act prohibits polygamy at the federal level. Thus, a marriage where one or both spouses were previously married can only happen legally under the following circumstances:

• The married spouse obtained a divorce
• The other spouse died
• The prior marriage was annulled

This restriction applies regardless of the location of the other spouse. For example, if someone was legally married in another country, the fact that they never obtained a divorce or annulment from a living spouse will render any subsequent marriage invalid.

Too Closely Related

The term “consanguinity” refers to how closely two people are related. States vary in the level of consanguinity permitted in a marriage. New York, for example, allows first cousins to marry. By contrast, Pennsylvania prohibits marriage between relatives who are first cousins or closer.

Remedies for Annulment vs. Divorce

How does an annulment work? It will be as if your marriage never existed. This is different from a divorce, where the court must unwind the legal and financial relationships between the parties before granting the divorce.

In this respect, an annulment is often less “messy” than a divorce. The judge only needs to look at one issue — was the marriage valid? Other issues regarding the parties’ children or property get put on the back burner until the court resolves the validity issue.

Additionally, a spouse has a limited time to seek an annulment. Colorado only gives a spouse six months to annul for fraud or up to two years to annul for underage marriage.

Thus, spouses will know relatively early in the marriage if they will face an annulment. Again, this could make annulments less messy because the spouses will have less time to build a life together.

Finally, some states, like Colorado, allow third parties to seek an annulment. The other spouse in a bigamous marriage can seek to annul the later marriage. This provides others affected by the invalid marriage a potential remedy.

On the other hand, divorce also provides certain benefits. Divorcing spouses have a structure to resolve matters surrounding their property and children. Divorce also allows spouses to seek alimony. An annulment does not award alimony and uses different rules to divide property since there was never a valid marriage.

Filing for an Annulment

Only one spouse needs to file an annulment. The filing will explain the grounds for the invalidity of the marriage. It also sets out the remedies sought after the annulment is granted. In many cases, the court will simply give each party the property they bought.

If they have children together, the parents still have the right to participate in their lives. Although it is not built into the process, the court will handle the custody determinations like it would for any other child born out of wedlock. Each parent will have a chance to petition for physical and legal custody.

Physical custody will determine the child’s living arrangements. It will usually involve the child living with each parent for part of the time. Legal custody determines who participates in the decisions affecting the child’s upbringing. The parents often share joint legal custody so both can have a role in the child’s life.

Can You Annul a Divorce?

There are some limits to what an annulment can accomplish. You cannot annul a valid marriage. Divorce is the only way to resolve a marriage that meets all the legal requirements.

You cannot annul a divorce. Once a divorce is granted, you cannot go back for an annulment. When comparing annulment vs. divorce, divorce is only granted for valid marriages, and you can only seek an annulment for an invalid marriage.

On the other hand, if a court finds that your marriage was valid or that you waited too long to file for the annulment, you can always seek a divorce instead and seek a judgment from a court or a divorce settlement.

Contact ConsumerShield for More Information

When you are in an unhappy relationship, you have many options for ending it. Under certain circumstances, annulment may provide an answer. ConsumerShield can help you by helping you find a family lawyer to advise you. Contact us for a free case evaluation.