Short answer: there is no single nationwide deadline for getting an annulment, and the length of your marriage by itself usually does not decide whether you qualify. What matters is (1) the legal ground you are claiming and (2) your state's deadline for that specific ground. Some grounds have no deadline at all. Others must be raised within a set time after you discover the problem, not after the wedding. So "Can I annul after 1 year?" or "after 2 months?" almost always answers itself only once you know your ground and your state.
Annulment is a court order declaring that a valid marriage never legally existed. That is different from divorce, which ends a marriage the law agrees was real. Because marriage and annulment are governed almost entirely by state law, the rules below describe the common framework you will see across the country, but the exact deadlines live in your state's statutes. Treat any specific number of months or years as something to confirm for your state.
Void vs. voidable: this decides whether a clock is even running
Most states sort annulment grounds into two buckets, and the bucket usually controls the time limit.
Void marriages (often no real deadline)
A void marriage was never legally valid from the start, so many states let you challenge it at essentially any time. Common examples:
- Bigamy - one spouse was already married to someone else.
- Incest - the spouses are too closely related under state law.
- Marriage that violates a fundamental legal prohibition in that state.
Because the law treats these as never-marriages, the passage of time (1 year, 5 years, 20 years) often does not bar you. You may still need a court order to make it official, for example to clean up property, inheritance, or benefits questions.
Voidable marriages (a deadline usually applies)
A voidable marriage is valid until a court annuls it, and only a spouse (sometimes a guardian) can ask. These grounds typically carry deadlines. Common voidable grounds include:
- Fraud going to the essence of the marriage (for example, concealing an inability or refusal to have children, hiding a current pregnancy by someone else, or marrying solely for immigration or money with no intent to be married).
- Duress or force - you were pressured or threatened into saying "I do."
- Lack of capacity - intoxication, or a mental state that prevented real consent.
- Underage - one spouse was below the legal age and lacked required consent.
- Physical incapacity - inability to consummate the marriage, where that was unknown to the other spouse.
The deadline usually runs from discovery, not from the wedding
This is the single most misunderstood point, and it is good news for many people asking "can I annul after years of marriage?"
For grounds like fraud, many states start the clock when you discovered (or reasonably should have discovered) the fraud, not on your wedding day. So if your spouse hid something major and you only learned the truth in year three, your filing window may open in year three. Continuing to live together as a couple after you learn the truth can be treated as forgiving ("ratifying") the marriage and can defeat the annulment, so timing still matters.
For grounds like being underage or intoxicated at the ceremony, the clock often runs from when the person reaches legal age or becomes sober and aware. Again, freely continuing to live together after the impediment is gone can waive the ground.
Bottom line on the popular searches: "after 1 year," "after 2 years," "after 2 months," or "before a year" are not the real test. The real test is: which ground do you have, and how long does your state give you from the triggering event for that ground?
So can I get an annulment after 1 year? After 2 years?
- If your ground is void (bigamy, incest): time is usually not a barrier, so yes, often even after many years.
- If your ground is fraud you only recently discovered: yes, you may still qualify after 1 or 2 years, because your deadline may have started recently, as long as you act promptly after learning the truth.
- If your ground is something you knew about at the wedding and you stayed in the marriage anyway: waiting a year or two can hurt you, because long cohabitation after the fact suggests you accepted the marriage.
- "Before a year" / "after 2 months": a short marriage does not automatically qualify for annulment. Many people want an annulment simply because the marriage was brief, but you still need a recognized legal ground. A two-month marriage with no qualifying ground generally ends by divorce, not annulment.
There is a persistent myth that a marriage under a certain length (say, 30, 60, or 90 days) can be "automatically" annulled, or that you must annul within the first year. That is not a federal rule and is not true in most states. A few states have specific short windows for certain grounds, but a brief marriage is not, by itself, a ground.