How Long After Marriage Can You Get an Annulment? The Usual Answer Is Right About a Third of the Time

There is no single deadline, and in most cases the clock does not start on your wedding day. Of the nineteen annulment grounds in Texas Family Code Subchapter B, New York Domestic Relations Law § 140, and California Family Code §§ 2210–2211, only six carry a filing limit measured from the date of the marriage: Texas allows 30 days when the ceremony fell inside the 72-hour license waiting period (§ 6.110(b)), 90 days for a next friend filing for an underage spouse (§ 6.102(c)), and one year for a concealed divorce (§ 6.109(b)); New York allows five years for physical incapacity (DRL § 140(d)); California allows four years for force and four for physical incapacity (Fam. Code § 2211(e) and (f)). The other thirteen grounds run from the day you discovered the problem or the day duress ended, or carry no calendar limit at all and are cut off instead by voluntarily living with your spouse after you knew.

The clock starts at discovery, not at the wedding

Ask a statute how long you have and it asks a question back: counting from what? New York computes the fraud limit "from the time the plaintiff discovered the facts constituting the fraud," under CPLR § 214(7), the three-year limitations provision. California gives four years "after the discovery of the facts constituting the fraud" (Fam. Code § 2211(d)). Texas sets no period at all for fraud, duress or force, ending the claim instead once the petitioner "has voluntarily cohabited with the other party since learning of the fraud or since being released from the duress or force" (§ 6.107). Three mechanisms, and the wedding date triggers none of them.

I used to build these timelines the way I build a procurement chronology, from the date of the instrument itself: the award, the contract, the wedding. I stopped advising that around 2019, after reading Texas Subchapter B and counting how many grounds mention the marriage date at all. Four of seven do not.

The habit had already cost me. Early on the records beat I built a challenge window from the date an award notice appeared in the official bulletin rather than the date the losing bidders were notified, and wrote that the standstill was still open. The EU remedies rules run that standstill for ten calendar days from dispatch of the award decision; it had closed two days earlier. A correction ran the next week, and the bidder working from my dates had nothing left to file.

Work out your own deadline in four steps

1. Fix the state of filing. Texas hears an annulment if the marriage took place there or either party is domiciled there (Fam. Code § 6.306). New York applies its matrimonial residency rules to annulment as well as divorce, one or two years depending on the connection (DRL § 230). California imposes no residency requirement on a nullity petition.
2. Fix four dates from your own records: the marriage, the day you discovered the ground, the day any duress or force ended, and the day you resumed living together after either of those. In Texas add the license issue date, since § 6.110 turns on the gap between issuance and ceremony.
3. Read the statutory filing limit for your specific ground, not for annulment in general. The table below gives it for six grounds across three states.
4. Test the cohabitation bar before relying on any of it. A ratified marriage cannot be annulled even when the calendar still looks open.

Texas: three grounds run on a calendar, four run on your conduct

Texas lists seven annulment grounds. Three carry an explicit filing deadline.

Section 6.110(b) is the source of the "cancel it within 30 days" folklore. It applies where the ceremony was held during the 72-hour period after the license was issued, and bars suit after the 30th day following the marriage. It is narrower than it looks: § 2.204 exempts active-duty service members, Department of Defense staff and contractors, holders of a judicial waiver, and anyone who completed a premarital education course under § 2.013 in the previous year. If the waiting period never bound you, the 30-day ground never existed for you.

Section 6.109 covers a spouse who was divorced from someone else within the 30 days before your ceremony and concealed it; suit is barred after the first anniversary. Section 6.102(c) bars a next friend's suit for an underage spouse unless it is filed within 90 days of the marriage, and § 6.103 shuts a parent or guardian out after the eighteenth birthday. That ground reaches few current cases: since 2017, § 6.205 makes a marriage void if either party is under 18 unless a court removed the minor's disabilities of minority.

The remaining four grounds carry no number of days at all: intoxication at the ceremony (§ 6.105), permanent impotency (§ 6.106), fraud, duress or force (§ 6.107), and mental incapacity (§ 6.108). Each ends when the petitioner voluntarily cohabits after the effects wore off, after learning of the condition, or after release from the duress. One outer limit covers all of them: § 6.111 blocks any challenge to a voidable marriage after either party has died.

New York: three years from discovery, five from the wedding

New York keeps its limits in one provision, DRL § 140, and borrows one number from the procedural code.

Fraud is the borrowed one. Section 140(e) allows the defrauded spouse to sue "within the limitations of time for enforcing a civil remedy of the civil practice law and rules," and CPLR § 214(7) supplies three years, computed from discovery rather than from the ceremony. Force and duress carry no fixed period under § 140(e), which permits an action "at any time," subject to the ratification bar below. Physical incapacity is the one New York ground tied to the wedding: § 140(d) requires the action to be "commenced before five years have expired since the marriage," and only where the incapacity continues and is incurable.

Three states, one question, three different clocks

| Ground | Texas | New York | California | |---|---|---|---| | Fraud | No fixed period; barred once you cohabit after learning of it (§ 6.107) | 3 years from discovery (CPLR § 214(7)) | 4 years from discovery (§ 2211(d)) | | Force or duress | No fixed period; barred once you cohabit after release (§ 6.107) | Any time, unless you cohabited before filing (§ 140(e)) | 4 years from the marriage (§ 2211(e)) | | Prior marriage still in force | Void, not voidable; no deadline (§ 6.202) | During the other party's lifetime (§ 140(a)) | During the other's life, or by the former spouse (§ 2211(b)) | | Under 18 at the ceremony | 90 days for a next friend (§ 6.102(c)) | No fixed period; barred by cohabitation after consent age (§ 140(b)) | 4 years after the age of consent (§ 2211(a)(1)) | | Physical incapacity or impotency | No fixed period (§ 6.106) | 5 years from the marriage (§ 140(d)) | 4 years from the marriage (§ 2211(f)) | | Ceremony too soon after the license | 30 days (§ 6.110(b)) | No equivalent ground | No equivalent ground |

One of those numbers is about to move. California's Assembly Bill 1134, the Coerced Marriage Act, was chaptered as Statutes of 2025, chapter 633, on September 4, 2025. It adds Family Code § 2211(g), letting a court accept a nullity petition filed after the four-year period on the force ground upon a showing of good cause. That subdivision becomes operative on January 1, 2027, so any California guide written before September 2025 is quoting a limit with an expiry date on it.

Annulment or divorce, and why marriage length does not decide it

A short marriage does not create a right to an annulment, and a long one does not destroy it. Divorce ends a marriage that was valid; annulment declares that a valid marriage never formed, which is why every ground turns on a defect existing at the ceremony rather than anything later. In a no-fault state you can get a divorce without proving anything about your spouse's conduct. You cannot get an annulment without proving a listed ground.

Speed favors annulment in two of the three states here. Texas requires a 60-day wait before granting a divorce (§ 6.702(a)), exempts annulments from any waiting period (§ 6.702(b)), and does not apply its six-month divorce residency rule (§ 6.301) to annulment jurisdiction (§ 6.306). California demands six months in the state and three in the county before a dissolution (§ 2320(a)) and will not make one final until six months have run from service (§ 2339(a)); a nullity carries neither condition. New York offers no advantage at all, since DRL § 230 governs both.

Money runs the other way. If the marriage never existed, the community property machinery has nothing to divide. California softens that: under Family Code § 2251 a court that finds a party believed in good faith the marriage was valid must declare that party a putative spouse and divide the quasi-marital property on request, and § 2254 permits a support order for that person. Without a good-faith finding, an annulment can leave a spouse with materially less than a divorce would.

Does staying together end the claim?

Ratification does more work in these statutes than any deadline. Texas bars annulment for fraud, duress or force once the petitioner has voluntarily cohabited after learning of the fraud or being released from the force (§ 6.107). New York refuses annulment for fraud where the parties cohabited "with a full knowledge of the facts constituting the fraud," and for force or duress where they cohabited at any point before the action began (§ 140(e)). California uses the same construction in § 2210(d).

The strongest argument against everything above is that elapsed time decides these cases anyway. Grant it: the longer you stay after you know, the more conduct there is to characterize as ratification, and a filing made two years on usually comes from someone who kept living with their spouse. What the correlation does not do is become the rule. A spouse who moved out the day she found the undisclosed marriage certificate can file in month eighteen. A spouse who stayed one weekend after the same discovery may already be barred in month two.

Where a single ambiguous night falls on that line I cannot help you, and I would rather say so plainly. I have never appeared in a United States family court and I do not practice law. What I can vouch for is the text of limitation provisions and the reconstruction of trigger dates from records, my work for more than two decades on procurement files.

What the national numbers will not tell you

The National Center for Health Statistics recorded 672,502 divorces and annulments for 2023 across 45 reporting states and the District of Columbia, a rate of 2.4 per 1,000 population. They are one combined line. The agency states on its marriage and divorce page that "the collection of detailed data was suspended beginning in January 1996," which is why no federal source reports grounds, or what share of that figure was annulments. When a guide calls annulments vanishingly rare, ask where the count came from.

Frequently asked questions

What qualifies you for an annulment in Texas?

Texas Family Code Subchapter B lists seven grounds: underage marriage, intoxication at the ceremony, permanent impotency, fraud, duress or force, mental incapacity, a divorce concealed within the 30 days before the wedding, and a ceremony held inside the 72-hour license waiting period. You must prove one. Regret is not a ground.

Can you annul a marriage after four months?

Usually yes, if you have a ground. Most grounds carry no four-month cutoff. New York allows three years from discovery of fraud, California four years, and Texas sets no fixed period for fraud at all. The exception is the Texas 72-hour license ground, which expires 30 days after the wedding.

What are the two most common grounds for annulment?

Fraud and a prior existing marriage. Both appear in the Texas, New York and California statutes, and both describe what a spouse usually discovers after the ceremony. No official ranking exists: the National Center for Health Statistics stopped collecting detailed marriage and divorce data in January 1996, so grounds are not counted federally.

What makes a marriage qualify for annulment?

A defect present at the moment of the ceremony, not a problem that developed later. Void marriages, such as bigamous or closely related ones, were never valid. Voidable marriages, such as those induced by fraud, duress or intoxication, stay valid until a court says otherwise and can be ratified by living together.

Can you get an annulment without the other person?

Yes. You need proper notice, not agreement. If your spouse cannot be located after a diligent search, Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 109 allows citation by publication, and Rule 244 then requires the court to appoint an attorney ad litem. Such a judgment stays open to challenge for two years.

What is the time limit for annulment in New York?

It depends on the ground. Fraud gives three years running from discovery, under CPLR § 214(7). Physical incapacity must be commenced within five years of the marriage, under DRL § 140(d). Force or duress has no fixed period, but any voluntary cohabitation before you file bars the claim under § 140(e).

Does continued cohabitation affect a voidable-marriage claim?

It usually ends it. Texas bars annulment for fraud, duress or force once the petitioner has voluntarily cohabited after learning of the ground (§ 6.107). New York and California apply the same test and require full knowledge of the facts before cohabitation counts. Living together before you knew does not bar you.