My wife and I lived in Austin for two years before moving to NYC in May, 2012. We still carry Texas driver's licenses and never formally cha...

Question

My wife and I lived in Austin for two years before moving to NYC in May, 2012. We still carry Texas driver's licenses and never formally changed our residency. However, we did sell our house in Austin back in December, 2012. We currently rent an apartment in NYC. Is it possible for us to still file for divorce in Texas?

Answer

Probably not. Texas law requires at least one of the spouses to have been a resident of the state for the preceding 6 months, and to have lived in the county you plan to file in for at least 90 days immediately prior to filing for divorce.

If you sold your Texas home in 2012, and have not resided within the state since then, it is unlikely that the court would consider you to still be a resident of the county, even if you argued that you were living in New York temporarily, and intended to return to Texas in the future.