Your Certificate of Divorce is your official proof of divorce.

It is sent by the Court once your divorce is finalised. In most cases, this is one month and one day after the divorce hearing, however, you should not assume the divorce will be granted at the first court hearing. For example, you may be told at the hearing that you need to provide more information.

If you intend to remarry, you must give the marriage celebrant a Notice of Intended Marriage at least one month before the wedding date, and comply with other requirements of the Marriage Act 1961. As soon as the divorce order is granted, the marriage celebrant may accept the Notice of Intended Marriage. You must show the Certificate of Divorce to the marriage celebrant before the wedding can take place.

If you need a replacement certificate you will need to contact the Family Law Courts on 1300 352 000. They will advise you if a replacement can simply be printed or whether it needs to be extracted from the archives. This will determine the fee you will need to pay. Once you have contacted the Family Law Courts you need to complete a 'Document Request Form'. It is a Word document and you can find a link to it here.

You can file the completed form at any registry by post, facsimile or in person. If you are unable to file the form yourself, you may authorise another person to do it on your behalf. It will take 7 to 10 working days to receive your copy by mail from the time your form and fee are received (longer if you are overseas).