You can file bankruptcy twice, and there is no limit on how many times you can file in a lifetime. What the law controls is when you can receive a discharge in the second case. Filing bankruptcy twice is governed by waiting periods that run from two to eight years depending on the chapter combination, plus separate rules that can weaken or eliminate the automatic stay if a prior case was recently dismissed. File before the clock runs out and the court will accept the petition, but you usually walk away without your debts wiped out.
How Long You Have to Wait Between Filings
The waiting period is measured from the filing date of the prior case to the filing date of the new one, and it depends on which chapter you used each time.
- Chapter 7 after Chapter 7: eight years.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 727 – Discharge
- Chapter 13 after Chapter 7: four years.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – Discharge
- Chapter 13 after Chapter 13: two years.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – Discharge
- Chapter 7 after Chapter 13: six years, with an important exception below.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 727 – Discharge
Nothing physically stops you from filing before the applicable period expires. The clerk will take the petition and the case will open. What you lose is the discharge, which is the whole reason most people file. Without it, the case may still liquidate non-exempt property in a Chapter 7 or run a repayment plan in a Chapter 13, but the debts remain fully enforceable when it’s over.
The 70 Percent Repayment Exception
The six-year wait between a Chapter 13 and a later Chapter 7 has a built-in escape. If your Chapter 13 plan paid 100 percent of your allowed unsecured claims, the six-year bar doesn’t apply at all. It also doesn’t apply if the plan paid at least 70 percent of those claims, provided the plan was proposed in good faith and represented your best effort.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 727 – Discharge
This is worth checking before you assume you have to wait six years. If your completed plan hit the 70 percent threshold, you may be able to file a Chapter 7 much sooner. The court looks at your actual payment record and whether the original plan reflected a genuine effort at repayment.
Filing Before the Waiting Period Runs
In a Chapter 7 filed too soon, the court will deny discharge. The trustee can still administer assets, creditors can still file claims, and you can lose non-exempt property, all without erasing what you owe. Filing early usually accomplishes nothing.
Chapter 13 is a partial exception. You can complete a repayment plan even if you’re not eligible for a discharge, which lets you use the bankruptcy process to cure a mortgage default or restructure a car loan. What you don’t get is the wiping out of any remaining balance at the end. That distinction matters for the strategy discussed further down.
Debts From a Prior Denied Discharge
If your first case ended with the court denying discharge because of fraud, concealment of assets, or destruction of records, any debt that was listed or could have been listed in that case is permanently non-dischargeable in every future filing. The same rule applies if you waived discharge in the earlier case.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge This is different from a dismissal; a denied discharge follows the debts forever.
The Automatic Stay Is Weaker the Second Time
The automatic stay is what stops garnishment, foreclosure, repossession, and collection calls the moment a case is filed. For first-time filers, it lasts through the whole case. For repeat filers, Congress built in limits designed to shut down serial filings.
One Prior Dismissal in the Past Year
If you had one bankruptcy case dismissed in the year before your new filing, the automatic stay expires 30 days into the new case. You can ask the court to extend it, but you must file the motion before those 30 days run out and show that the new case was filed in good faith. The court presumes bad faith if your circumstances haven’t materially changed, or if the prior case was dismissed because you missed filing deadlines, ignored court orders, or failed to perform under a confirmed plan. Overcoming that presumption requires clear and convincing evidence.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
Two or More Prior Dismissals in the Past Year
If two or more of your bankruptcy cases were dismissed within the past year, no automatic stay goes into effect at all when you file the new one. Creditors can keep pursuing foreclosure, garnishment, and collections as though you never filed. To get any stay protection, you have to move for one within 30 days of filing, and you face the same good-faith presumption.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
People who file, get dismissed, and refile to stall a foreclosure discover that the statute anticipates exactly that pattern.
The 180-Day Bar After Certain Dismissals
Two situations block you from filing again at all for 180 days:
- The court dismissed your prior case because you willfully failed to obey court orders or willfully failed to appear at required hearings.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 109 – Who May Be a Debtor
- A creditor filed a motion to lift the automatic stay, and you responded by voluntarily dismissing your case.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 109 – Who May Be a Debtor
During those 180 days you’re not eligible to be a debtor under any chapter. If you file anyway, a creditor can challenge your eligibility and any stay you thought you had will not protect your property from lien enforcement.6United States Courts. Chapter 7 – Bankruptcy Basics The 180-day bar applies to cases dismissed without a discharge; if your first case ended in a full discharge, the standard waiting periods above are what govern.
Chapter 20: The One Time Early Refiling Is Deliberate
There is a scenario where filing a second bankruptcy before you can get a discharge is the point. Informally called Chapter 20, it involves filing a Chapter 7 first to wipe out unsecured debts like credit cards and medical bills, then filing a Chapter 13 to handle secured debts, even though the four-year wait means no discharge will issue in the Chapter 13.
The mechanics: the Chapter 7 clears the unsecured obligations, freeing up income. The Chapter 13 then supports a repayment plan for secured debts, brings the automatic stay back into play (subject to the repeat-filer limits above), and gives you time to cure a mortgage arrearage or catch up a car loan. Because the unsecured debt is gone, your entire plan payment can go toward what’s actually secured.
In some circuits, Chapter 20 also enables lien stripping. If a home is worth less than the balance on the first mortgage, a second or third mortgage becomes wholly unsecured and can be removed through the Chapter 13 plan. The stripping happens through the plan’s valuation rules rather than through discharge, so the missing Chapter 13 discharge doesn’t defeat it.
This is a real strategy with real risks. New debts that arise during the plan won’t be discharged if the case fails. Courts scrutinize Chapter 20 filings for good faith. It’s not something to attempt without a bankruptcy attorney.
What You Still Have to Do a Second Time
Every filing requires a fresh credit counseling session with an approved nonprofit agency within the 180 days before you file. A certificate from your prior case cannot be reused.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 109 – Who May Be a Debtor You’ll also need to complete the debtor education course (sometimes called the financial management course) again before discharge issues in the new case, assuming you’re eligible for one.
Filing fees also apply again. A Chapter 7 petition costs $338, and a Chapter 13 petition costs $313 under the current federal fee schedule.7United States Courts. Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule Chapter 13 filers can request installments. Attorney fees typically run around $1,200 to $2,500 or more for a Chapter 7, and higher for a Chapter 13 because the case runs three to five years.
A second filing also stacks on your credit report. A Chapter 7 stays on the report for ten years from the filing date, and a Chapter 13 for seven. Two filings mean overlapping marks and a longer stretch of impaired credit, and lenders who might have overlooked one bankruptcy tend to react more harshly to two, especially if they were close together.