New Hampshire Divorce Residency Requirements

 To file for a New Hampshire divorce, one of the requirements must be met:

• Both spouses must be residents of the state when the divorce is filed for, 

• the spouse filing for divorce must have been a resident of New Hampshire for 1 year immediately prior to filing for divorce and the other spouse was personally served with process within the state; or

• the cause of divorce must have arisen in New Hampshire and one of the spouses must be living in New Hampshire when the divorce is filed for.

A New Hampshire divorce may be filed for in a county where either spouse resides.

New Hampshire Divorce Grounds

The grounds for a New Hampshire divorce are:

• irreconcilable differences which have caused the irremediable breakdown of the marriage;

• impotence;

• adultery;

• abandonment and not been heard of for 2 years;

• imprisonment with a sentence of more than 1 year served;

• physical misconduct or reasonable apprehension of physical misconduct;

• desertion without support of spouse by husband for 2 years;

• cruel and inhuman treatment;

• habitual intemperance (drunkenness) for 2 years;

• living separate and apart without cohabitation (wife left without husband's consent for 2 years);

• mental abuse;

• when either spouse has joined a religious society which professes that the relationship of the husband and wife is unlawful and refuses to cohabit with the other for 6 consecutive months;

• when the wife of any citizen of New Hampshire leaves the state without her husband's consent and lives elsewhere for 10 consecutive years without returning to claim her marriage rights; and

• when the wife lives in New Hampshire for 2 years and her husband becomes the citizen of a foreign country without supporting the wife.

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