Wrong assumption. It’s just a paragraph that someone wrote and that others apparently liked and copied (with possible copyright violations occurring
). The actual statute, Virginia Code section 20-91, lists all the causes for divorce. Paragraph (A)(9) is the one for no fault divorce, and subparagraph (a) is the substance of the rule, as follows:
(9) (a) On the application of either party if and when the husband and wife have lived separate and apart without any cohabitation and without interruption for one year. In any case where the parties have entered into a separation agreement and there are no minor children either born of the parties, born of either party and adopted by the other or adopted by both parties, a divorce may be decreed on application if and when the husband and wife have lived separately and apart without cohabitation and without interruption for six months. A plea of res adjudicata or of recrimination with respect to any other provision of this section shall not be a bar to either party obtaining a divorce on this ground; nor shall it be a bar that either party has been adjudged insane, either before or after such separation has commenced, but at the expiration of one year or six months, whichever is applicable, from the commencement of such separation, the grounds for divorce shall be deemed to be complete, and the committee of the insane defendant, if there be one, shall be made a party to the cause, or if there be no committee, then the court shall appoint a guardian ad litem to represent the insane defendant.
As the statute makes clear, in order to get the 6 months period instead of the year, there must be a separation agreement and there must not be any minor children born of both parents or that have been born of one parent and adopted by the other, or adopted by both. In short, you are forced to the longer one year period if you either don't have a separation agreement or if there are minor children common to both parents (either due to birth or adoption). So in this case, I think the OP and his spouse could take advantage of the shorter period if they enter into a separation agreement as they have no minor children in common.