How to Complete and File a Petition for Legal Separation in Illinois

To file a petition for divorce in Illinois, complete the Illinois Supreme Court’s standardized petition form (with or without children, depending on your family), submit it electronically through eFileIL to the circuit court in the county where you or your spouse lives, pay the county filing fee or apply for a waiver, and then arrange for formal service of the petition and summons on your spouse. Illinois is a no-fault state, so the only ground you have to allege is irreconcilable differences.¹

Confirm You Qualify to File

Before you fill anything out, check two things.

At least one spouse must have lived in Illinois, or been stationed here in the armed forces, for 90 continuous days. The statute allows the residency requirement to be satisfied either before you file or by the time the court enters its judgment, so you can file the petition before the 90 days are up, but a judge will not sign a final judgment until the clock has run.¹ If you have minor children, the children generally must have lived in Illinois for at least six months before the court can make custody decisions.²

You also need to know the only allowable ground. Illinois eliminated fault-based grounds. Your petition alleges that irreconcilable differences have caused an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage and that reconciliation has failed or would not be in the family’s best interests.¹ You do not need to prove adultery, abandonment, or misconduct, and you do not attach evidence. Checking the box is enough.

Information You Need Before Opening the Form

Gather this before you start the PDF. Missing pieces slow you down or force a refiling.

Full legal names and current addresses for both spouses. The court uses these to confirm jurisdiction and issue the summons.
The date of the marriage and the city, county, and state where the ceremony took place.³
For each minor child born to or adopted by both spouses: initials (not full names), ages, and current addresses. Do not put children’s dates of birth on the petition. Cook County is an exception — it requires full names.³
A general picture of marital assets and debts, enough to describe the relief you want. Exact balances come later through a mandatory Financial Affidavit, not on the petition itself.

Which Petition Form to Use

The Illinois Supreme Court publishes standardized divorce forms that every circuit court in the state must accept.⁴ Download the version that fits your family from the Illinois Courts forms page: “Petition for Divorce with Children” or “Petition for Divorce without Children.” The fillable PDFs are built for self-represented filers.

If your marriage is short, small, and childless, look at the joint simplified dissolution form before choosing the standard petition. Eligibility is covered below.

Filling Out the Petition

Most of the petition is a series of checkboxes telling the court what relief you want it to grant. Check every box that applies:

Division of marital property and debts. Illinois follows equitable distribution, so the judge divides property fairly based on statutory factors, not necessarily 50/50.⁵
Allocation of parental responsibilities and parenting time. Required if you have minor children. It covers both decision-making authority and the physical schedule.
Child support, if you are asking for financial support for the children.
Maintenance (spousal support), if you want the court to consider periodic payments from one spouse to the other.³
Restoration of a former name, if you changed your name at marriage. Requesting it here is cleaner than adding it after judgment.

The petition ends with a verification under 735 ILCS 5/1-109. When you sign, you certify under penalty of perjury that everything in the document is true and correct to the best of your knowledge.⁶ Review every answer before you sign and date it. False statements can bring sanctions.

The Joint Simplified Dissolution Option

Some couples qualify to file a single joint petition and skip most of the discovery and litigation that a standard case requires. To use the simplified procedure, all of the following must be true when you file:⁷

No children born to or adopted by the couple during the marriage, and the wife is not currently pregnant by the husband.
The marriage has lasted under eight years.
Neither spouse owns an interest in real estate.
Total marital property is under $50,000 after subtracting debts against those assets.
Combined gross annual income is under $60,000, and neither spouse individually earns more than $30,000.
Combined retirement accounts total under $10,000 and are held only in individual retirement accounts.
Both spouses waive maintenance and have already signed a written agreement dividing all assets worth more than $100 and allocating debts.

The simplified petition is on the same Illinois Courts standardized forms page. When every requirement is met, the case can often be resolved in a single court appearance.

Filing Electronically Through eFileIL

Illinois requires nearly all civil filings to go through eFileIL, the state’s electronic filing system.⁸ You do not file directly with the circuit clerk’s office. Instead, you file through an approved Electronic Filing Service Provider (EFSP). Several EFSPs offer free filing, including Odyssey eFileIL, Odyssey Guide & File, 1 eFile, and FileTime.⁹ Others charge a convenience fee for extra features. Pick one, create an account, and upload your completed petition as a PDF.

Filing Fees and Fee Waivers

Filing fees are set by county. For reference, Jackson County charges $177 for a divorce filing,¹⁰ and DuPage County charges $343. Contact your local circuit clerk for the exact amount. The EFSP collects the fee during submission.

If you cannot afford the fee, submit an Application for Waiver of Court Fees. The standardized form is on the Illinois Courts website and asks about your income, expenses, and government benefits.¹¹ The judge decides whether to waive the fee fully, partially, or not at all.

Local Requirements and the Summons

Some counties want supplemental paperwork alongside the petition. Cook County, for instance, requires a Domestic Relations Cover Sheet with every initial filing in the Domestic Relations Division. Check your county’s circuit clerk website before submitting. You will also need to file a Summons form so the clerk can issue notice to your spouse.

Serving Your Spouse

After the clerk accepts your filing, you must formally deliver the petition and summons to your spouse. The case cannot move forward until service of process is complete. The summons tells the Respondent they have 30 days from the date of service to file an Appearance and a Response.¹²

You have three main options:

The sheriff’s office in the county where your spouse lives or works. This is the most common route. You provide the documents and address and pay a service fee. Cook County charges $60 per defendant for e-filed service or $95 for paper filing; other counties charge similar amounts plus mileage.¹³
A licensed private process server. You can hire one without a judge’s permission, and it is often faster than the sheriff, especially when your spouse is hard to catch at one address.¹⁴
An unlicensed adult 18 or older who is not a party to the case. This requires a judge’s order appointing that person as a process server before service can happen.¹⁴

Whoever serves the documents then files a proof of service with the court. Until that proof is on file, the case sits.

When You Cannot Find Your Spouse

If your spouse has disappeared or is avoiding service, you can ask the court for permission to serve by publication. You file an affidavit stating that after diligent inquiry you cannot locate the defendant, or that they have left the state and cannot be personally served. The clerk publishes a notice in a newspaper in the county where the case is pending, including the case number, the names of the parties, and the response deadline. If your spouse’s address is even approximately known, the clerk must also mail a copy of the notice within 10 days of the first publication.¹⁵ Publication is a last resort; judges expect to see real efforts at personal service first.

What Kicks In Once the Case Is Open

Filing the petition and serving your spouse are the first two steps. A few obligations start running as soon as the case is on file.

Both parties must eventually file a standardized Financial Affidavit backed by pay stubs, tax returns, and bank statements. Requests for temporary maintenance or child support cannot proceed without it, and intentionally or recklessly filing inaccurate information triggers mandatory sanctions, including payment of the other side’s attorney fees.¹⁶

If you have minor children, both parents must file a proposed parenting plan, jointly or separately, within 120 days after the petition for parental responsibilities is served.¹⁷ Both parents also have to complete an approved parenting education program of at least four hours under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 924, no later than 60 days after the initial case management conference.¹⁸ File the completion certificate with the court. Judges can sanction parents who skip the program without good cause.

Either spouse can also ask the court for temporary relief while the case is pending, including interim maintenance or child support, restraining orders to prevent a spouse from draining accounts or hiding assets, and interim attorney fees when one spouse controls most of the household income.¹⁶

1
Illinois General Assembly. 750 ILCS 5/401 – Dissolution of Marriage
2
Tazewell County, Illinois. Getting Started – Dissolution of Marriage/Civil Union (Divorce With Children)
3
Illinois Legal Aid Online. Getting a Divorce With Children
4
Office of the Illinois Courts. Divorce, Child Support, and Maintenance
5
Illinois General Assembly. 750 ILCS 5/503 – Disposition of Property and Debts
6
Illinois General Assembly. 735 ILCS 5/1-109 – Verification by Certification
7
Illinois General Assembly. 750 ILCS 5/452 – Joint Simplified Dissolution Procedure
8
State of Illinois Office of the Illinois Courts. eFileIL
9
Office of the Illinois Courts. Illinois E-Filing Service Providers
10
Jackson County Circuit Clerk. Fee Waiver Information
11
Office of the Illinois Courts. Approved Statewide Forms – Fee Waiver for Civil Cases
12
Illinois Courts. Summons (Divorce)
13
Cook County Sheriff’s Office. Serving Process (Summons)
14
Illinois Legal Aid Online. Serving a Summons
15
Illinois General Assembly. 735 ILCS 5/2-206 – Service by Publication
16
Illinois General Assembly. 750 ILCS 5/501 – Temporary Relief
17
Illinois General Assembly. 750 ILCS 5/602.10 – Parenting Plan
18
Illinois Courts. Rule 924 – Parenting Education Requirement