I am dealing with an annulment and we are well into the second year waiting. Everything has been turned into the diocese. Everyone has responded. Everything is done. Now we are just waiting on the diocese.
How long did yours take? If you are currently in the process, how long have you been waiting? What is a reasonable amount of time to expect to wait?
-Corruich
Call Gloria Allred.
My friends took about a year.
My husband’s annulment of his first marriage took about 9 months. The times can vary from diocese to diocese. You could always call the tirbunal or your advocate and find out where you are in the process.
Assuming that I don’t hear from the Tribunal before then, this spring will be 2 years. In late summer/early fall of last year (2010) I was sent a letter telling me that all evidence had been compiled and asking me if I would like to review it before the process moved forward. I chose not to (too emotional for me). That was the last I heard… though every day I go to my mailbox wondering whether or not today will be the day that I find out if a 20+ year marriage was an illusion.
In our diocese it is 1-1.5 years on the average.
How long was your marriage? It can take longer if you have been married 15 years or more. In my case, it took two years before the final decision was confirmed.
It was my wife’s former marriage. It lasted about a year and it ended about 15 years ago or so.
We are protestants trying to come to the Catholic church, but are having to get this issue resolved first. We were told that it can take up to three years in the Diocese of Fort Worth.
The really hard thing is that it is going to start impacting my children. I have a child who is working towards his first reconciliation and first Communion. However, we are not sure if they are going to let him do any of that. We are also expecting another child soon and are not sure if they are going to let us get the baby baptized.
-Corruich
The Sacramental status of the parents should not preclude the children from being baptized or receiving Eucharist. However, that being said - neither of you can be God parents to someone else’s children or sponsor someone else’s child in confirmation as long as you cannot receive Sacraments.
It took my DH about nine months to obtain an annulment but it was fairly straightfoward (they married before the girl was really old enough to understand about marriage and it was quickly annulled by our diocese).
I can honestly say that getting the annulment so we could have our marriage convalidated by the Church was the best decision we ever made, although it seemed to take forever (and ours was a very short process!)…
Keep up the faith and keep praying.
Im wanting to become Catholic as through reflection I’ve come to believe it is the true Church however i’ve been married twice.
I now know that I have to try and get an annulment of my first marriage, but I’m already civilly married and have been for 7 years … what do I do I can’t stop having marital relations with him while I wait up to 3 years for my annulment! It would wreck my current relationship before they’ve reached a decision.
Plus if they found my first marriage valid I’m stuffed unless I live a life of celibacy… it feels like I’m done before I’ve begun … I could never have the Eucharist and would be living in mortal sin perpetually.
its distressing to say the least
Go ahead and get started. Keep praying. Nothing will get done unless you start.
About a year and three months to final finding. Happened to come in on the thirtieth ‘anniversary’, nearly to the day.
The actual decree of nullity process started for me in March 2011 however my ticker reflects the day my xh and I separated as for me that was the day I made the decision that I would be seeking a decree of nullity. Well, actually it was about three days later when I found his psychological paperwork dating back to childhood and found out our marriage never stood a chance. So yes, these things sometimes take time. This seems to be an old thread though.
I’m at 2.5 years, still at the diocesan level and no end in sight. Anybody who thinks it’s a rubber stamp process may use me as a poster child for the opposition.
We are currently at 15 months, still waiting for final decision.
I came to this forum because I am in a similar situation. My fiance was a lapsed Catholic and is now planning to re-enter the Church. He and his now ex-wife had a child out of wedlock. He married her in July 2012 so that he could join the Air Force and retain rights to his daughter. If one is sworn into the military as a single/divorced parent, they have no rights whatsoever to their dependents. So, essentially, he married her for her paperwork and had no intention of staying married from the beginning. It’s a vicious thing, but he truly felt he was choosing the lesser of two evils. He desperately loves his daughter, and he wants to be sure she ensured all of the benefits the military provides.
Now we wish to be married, and we have looked into the annulment process because I am Catholic. He has NOT been confirmed (I guess his parents never got to that back in the day), so I wonder how long this process may take. If he goes to confession and receives the Sacrament of Confirmation, if I understand correctly, he is fully received back into the Church. Does that affect the annulment process at all? I can’t stand the thought of it being over 2 years before we are able to wed over 7 months of being married, which was altogether miserable. They didn’t live together, her name never changed, and they never really even saw each other. It was just a piece of paper.
Oh, and I have never been married. I think that’s probably significant. Please help! I cannot and will not marry him without the Church’s blessing, but my heart deflates at the thought of such a lengthy deferment.
THANK YOU, and the Shalom of Christ with all of you!
My annulment took 23 months. It was worth every month spent waiting for it.
He needs to speak to the priest. There are a lot of factors.
The only people who can answer you with any confidence are your priest and the members of the Tribunal. I would encourage you to meet with your pastor and get going on this - and don’t let any piece of paper either from your priest or from the Tribunal “sleep overnight” in your house - fill it out the minute you receive it, and get it on to its next destination the same day - don’t let any delays in the process be because you forgot to turn it in on time.