I can explain in old terms, as per process in June 2021. Obviously terms are changed- but I believe process is same in England and wales still
so, we wrote our consent order, solicitor crated legal draft officially form that, , we filled in financial declaration forms etc before the Decree NISI (interim order?). Everything ready but not dated. Forms sat with my solicitor with all signatures.
once we got Decree Nisi, I instructed my solicitor to upload forms onto the court website. In those days petitioners couldn’t access that part of system , only solicitors, or we could have used snail mail ourselves and I didn’t want to risk paper work going missing in post. So paid solicitor to upload direct. She post dated forms and uploaded. Confirmed court now had them
(NOTE: if uneven split you will be well advised to show you’ve both had legal advice on implications of what you’re signing before you sign. The consent order can include names of both solicitors. You only ned 45 mins or so with solcitor if you’re already happy with what you’ve both agreed)
the decree NISI (interim) granted was very earliest you could submit the documents to the court.
at time we only had to wait 40 days for decree absolute (law now changed to 26 weeks I think) , so waited until email prompt to say i could now apply for that.
at 40 days I applied. The decree absolute came through in a couple of days with the “sealed” consent order at SAME time. We really didn’t wait long for our court, but I understand form these threads some courts take longer to grant decree absolutes after applications.
my understanding is the court will review the consent order and financial declaration at some point in that 40 day wait (cooling off) period so they’re ready to go with sealing immediately.
I have heard some people say they had to wait a day or so more after decree absolute (final order ) but it isn’t always case
BUT: you do need to be careful you’ve checked the box in the original petition to say you want the court to make a financial order at SAME time. I found that confusing as I wanted the court to merely seal the consent order we’d made, not make their own financial agreement for us. But, it transpires you still need to tick it to say you want them to seal it at same time.
best advice?
Go to link in header to ADVICE NOW guides. They explain process and triggers and timings. Download and read. They’ll be up to date based on new process.
the other place is the government divorce site- I found them pretty helpful.
I do remeber having to draw out the whole timings piece with my ex on a large flip chart for us to try to make sense of it using the ADVICE NOW guides, so can understand it isn’t clear immedately 🙄🤷🏼♀️