To file for divorce in DuPage County, you or your spouse must have lived in Illinois for at least 90 days, after which you prepare a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage and a Summons, file them electronically through an approved e-filing service, pay the filing fee or request a waiver, and then arrange for your spouse to be formally served. From there the case moves into financial disclosure, any temporary orders you need, and (if you have children) a parenting plan, mandatory parent education, and mediation if you can’t agree.
Confirm You Meet the Residency and Grounds Requirements
Either you or your spouse must have lived in Illinois, or been stationed here with the armed forces, for at least 90 days before the court can enter a final judgment. You can file the petition as soon as that threshold is met.1Illinois General Assembly. 750 ILCS 5/401
Illinois is a no-fault state. The only ground is irreconcilable differences. You don’t have to prove adultery, cruelty, or anything else. If you and your spouse have lived separate and apart for six continuous months before the judge enters the final judgment, the law presumes irreconcilable differences exist.1Illinois General Assembly. 750 ILCS 5/401
Check Whether You Qualify for a Joint Simplified Dissolution
Before you start the standard process, see whether your situation fits the joint simplified dissolution. It cuts paperwork and court time significantly, but the eligibility rules are strict. All of the following must apply:
- No children were born to or adopted by you during the marriage, and the wife is not pregnant.
- You’ve been married fewer than eight years.
- Total marital property, minus debts, is worth less than $50,000. Neither spouse owns real estate or has retirement benefits, except IRAs totaling under $10,000 combined.
- Combined gross annual income is under $60,000, and neither spouse individually earns more than $30,000.
- Both spouses permanently waive any right to maintenance.
- You’ve exchanged all asset, liability, and tax return information and signed a written agreement dividing everything worth more than $100.2Illinois General Assembly. 750 ILCS 5/452
Most couples won’t qualify. If yours doesn’t, the standard process below is what you’ll follow.
Gather Your Documents and Information
Before filling out a form, pull together the records you’ll need both to complete the petition and to file the Financial Affidavit the court will require from both spouses. The affidavit covers monthly income and expenses, debts, and all assets including bank accounts, real estate, vehicles, and retirement benefits.3Illinois Legal Aid Online. Financial Affidavit Easy Form Supporting documents include recent pay stubs, the last two years of tax returns with W-2s and 1099s, bank statements, and documentation of debts.4Illinois Supreme Court. Financial Affidavit (Family and Divorce)
You’ll also need the basics: full names, dates of birth, and addresses for both spouses and any minor children, and the date and place of your marriage.
Prepare the Petition and Summons
The main document is the Petition for Dissolution of Marriage. Illinois has two versions, one for couples with minor children and one for couples without. You’ll also need a Summons, which formally notifies your spouse that the case has been filed. Both forms exist as Illinois Supreme Court standardized versions that every Illinois court must accept.5Office of the Illinois Courts. Approved Statewide Forms – Divorce, Child Support, and Maintenance
DuPage County also publishes its own pro se packets (one with children, one without) through the 18th Judicial Circuit Court’s website. You can download forms from the DuPage County Circuit Clerk’s forms page or the statewide Illinois Courts forms site.6DuPage Courts. Pro Se Court
File Electronically and Pay the Fee
You cannot bring paper forms to the clerk’s office. Illinois requires electronic filing for all court documents. You submit everything through an approved Electronic Filing Service Provider. Two common ones, Odyssey and i2File, don’t charge extra for their platform.7Office of the Illinois Courts. E-filing is Required in Illinois You create an account, upload your completed forms, and pay the filing fee through the system. Once the clerk accepts the filing, the court assigns a case number.
DuPage County’s current filing fee is published on the Circuit Clerk’s fee schedule. Check it before you file, because amounts change.8DuPage County Circuit Clerk. Fee Schedule
If you can’t afford the fee, apply for a waiver using the Application for Waiver of Court Fees. You qualify automatically if you receive SSI, TANF, SNAP, or General Assistance. Otherwise, the court weighs your income, expenses, and assets to decide whether paying would be a hardship. You can file the waiver application at any point during the case.9Illinois Supreme Court. Application for Waiver of Court Fees (Civil)
Serve Your Spouse
After filing, your spouse must be formally notified through service of process. This is not optional, and it has to follow the rules. Under Illinois law, a summons can be served by delivering a copy to your spouse personally, or by leaving it at their usual residence with a household member who is at least 13 years old. In the second case, the server must also mail a copy to that address.10Illinois General Assembly. 735 ILCS 5/2-203 Most people in DuPage County use the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office or hire a private process server.
Once service is done, you need proof. That’s either the sheriff’s return of service or an affidavit from the private process server. File it with the court through the e-filing system. Without proof of service on the record, the case cannot move forward.
If your spouse is actively avoiding service, or you genuinely cannot find them, Illinois allows service by publication in a newspaper as a last resort. You’ll have to petition the court for permission, and the judge will want to see that you made a diligent effort to locate them first. If your spouse lives in another country, service may need to follow the Hague Service Convention.
What Happens After Filing
Once served, your spouse has 30 days to file an appearance or response.11Illinois Courts. Supreme Court Rules If they do nothing, you can ask for a default judgment, though the judge still has to find the terms fair. Early on, the court will schedule a case management conference to set deadlines and discuss how the case will proceed.
Temporary Orders
A divorce can take months. In the meantime, either spouse can ask the court for temporary orders on urgent issues: temporary child support or spousal maintenance, a restraining order preventing the other spouse from hiding or selling marital property, exclusive possession of the family home (granted only when the well-being of a spouse or child is at risk from continued shared occupancy), and an order preventing either parent from taking the children out of state for more than 14 days.12Illinois General Assembly. 750 ILCS 5/501
Financial Disclosure
Both spouses must file the Financial Affidavit with the court and exchange it with each other.4Illinois Supreme Court. Financial Affidavit (Family and Divorce) The court relies on these affidavits to divide property and calculate support. Underreporting or hiding assets here is where cases go badly wrong and sanctions follow.
If You Have Minor Children
Illinois no longer uses the words “custody” and “visitation.” The current framework is the allocation of parental responsibilities, which splits into decision-making responsibility (major decisions about education, health, religion, and extracurricular activities) and parenting time (the schedule of when each parent has the child). The court allocates both based on the child’s best interests, considering each parent’s wishes, the child’s adjustment to home and school, and each parent’s past involvement in decision-making.13Illinois General Assembly. 750 ILCS 5/602.5
Mandatory Parenting Education
If your divorce involves minor children, both parents must complete an approved parenting education program of at least four hours. It covers the effects of divorce on children and addresses parenting time and decision-making. Courts expect you to finish it as soon as possible after the case is filed, and a judge will only excuse it for good cause.
Mandatory Mediation for Parenting Disputes
If you and your spouse cannot agree on a parenting plan, the court will order mediation before the dispute goes to trial. A neutral mediator works with both parents to try to reach a compromise on decision-making and parenting time. The exception is when mediation would be inappropriate because of domestic violence, substance abuse, mental impairment, or undue influence by one spouse over the other.
DuPage County Resources and Where to File
Filing without an attorney is common, and DuPage County has help available. The DuPage County Bar Association runs a Domestic Relations Pro Se Help Desk with free consultations by Zoom. DuPage Legal Aid and Prairie State Legal Services provide additional assistance for those who qualify by income.6DuPage Courts. Pro Se Court
All filings go through the DuPage County Circuit Clerk’s Office. The courthouse is at 505 N. County Farm Road, Wheaton, Illinois 60187, though document filing itself happens electronically.14DuPage Courts. County Courthouse Even if you plan to handle the case yourself, an hour or two with an attorney early on is often worth it. Divorce touches taxes, retirement accounts, real estate, and parenting arrangements at the same time, and mistakes in any of those areas tend to be expensive and hard to undo.