Illinois
Illinois Legal Aid Website
Illinois Legal Aid has a very helpful guide to the IL Name Change process on their website.
They created an online form tool to help you fill out the legal forms.
Additionally, Illinois Legal Aid may be able to provide free attorney representation if you qualify as low-income.
Forms
Some people understand forms really well. Some do not. If you just want the forms, these are all the necessary forms to change one's name in Illinois. If you need more guidance, refer to the thoughts laid out below.
Motion to Waive Notion and Publication
Name Change Petition
The legal forms for Illinois name changes include desciptions of what the questions are asking on the left side.
They are different from Missouri in that, Missouri requests knowledge about money judgements to decide the name change while Illinois wants to know more about criminal history. If you become concerned about questions 10-13, feel free to reach out to talk through the process more.
On the bottom, the witness can be anyone in our group or friends that are willing to be a witness. No certification is needed to be a witness.
Here is the link where the form can be found, completed, and printed before filing as pro se documents with the court. Click Here.
Name Change Order
Enter the county you are submitting, name, and case number given to you by the clerk. The rest will be done by the judge.
This document is a form that the judge will use to confirm or deny the name change. Essentially you would be bringing this document to make the judge's life easier instead of them printing it off.
Here is the link where the form can be found, completed, and printed before filing as pro se documents with the court. Click Here.
Request for Publication
Enter the county you are submitting, name, and case number given to you by the clerk.
In Illinois, you must publish the court date for your name change hearing. That is different in Missouri which publishes after the judge has already decided. The information for the date and time will be given by the clerk when you bring the petition.
Here is the link where the form can be found, completed, and printed before filing as pro se documents with the court. Click Here.
Motion to Waive Notice and Publication
This will be considered a new court case, so you will not put a case number at the top. The clerk will assign a new one.
You do NOT need to publish your legal name change if you are the victim of a crime based on:
You believe that notice or publication will put the person whose name would be changed at risk of physical harm or discrimination
Many queer people face discrimination for being who they are. If this pertains to one, they can protect themselves by not publishing
You have or have previously been granted a protective order.
If you are publishing in either Madison or St. Clair County, there main legal newspaper for both is Belleville News-Democrat - use: https://bnd.column.us/place/
Here is the link where the form can be found, completed, and printed before filing as pro se documents with the court. Click Here.
Order to Waive Notice and Publication
Enter the county you are submitting, name, and case number given to you by the clerk. The rest will be done by the judge.
This document is a form that the judge will use to confirm or deny the publishing case. Essentially you would be bringing this document to make the judge's life easier instead of them printing it off.
Here is the link where the form can be found, completed, and printed before filing as pro se documents with the court. Click Here.
Waiver of Court Fees
In Illinois, if you receive government benefits like SSI or SNAP, you qualify for the waiver of fees.
If you are not on government benefits, you may still qualify. You can move onto number 4 to proceed with explanations.
Here is the link where the form can be found, completed, and printed before filing as pro se documents with the court. Click Here.
Order to Waive Court Fees
Enter the county you are submitting, name, and case number given to you by the clerk. The rest will be done by the judge.
This document is a form that the judge will use to confirm or deny the financials of the case. Essentially you would be bringing this document to make the judge's life easier instead of them printing it off.
Here is the link where the form can be found, completed, and printed before filing as pro se documents with the court. Click Here.
Filing Fees
There are two ways to pay for the name change process:
A person can pay for it themselves or get the funding from community. Make sure you have the funds in CASH (debit/credit not accepted). The process costs
St. Clair County
Filing Fee: $314.00 (court staff by phone 11/2/21)
Madison County
Filing Fee: $314.00 (court staff by phone 11/2/21)
The courts have an option for people to waive fees. This process is outlined above.
Next Steps
YAY! You filled out all the forms. Now, you can go to the county circuit court and get it done. Once they are turned in, the clerk will give you a court date to appear for a judge to grant the name change. The publishing happens before the court date for Illinois. After that, you can appear in court.
You may also eFile online in the state of Illinois. The eFile will give you the court date also.
If you eFile, the courts in Illinois recommend you type everything out and format in the following way: any of these forms, you will need to "flatten" the form so it cannot be changed after you complete it. You flatten the form in one of two ways:
If you used Adobe Acrobat or Reader to complete your downloaded form (recommended), go to the "File" menu at the top, select "print", and choose "Adobe PDF" or "Print to PDF" from the dropdown menu. You will be told to save the form. This saved form will be "flattened" and you can e-file it.
If you did not use Adobe Acrobat or Reader, your computer will select a software that will allow you to fill out the forms. You will need to look for a "Save as PDF" option. Depending on the software you use, this option may be found in the print dialog box under your "Print" menu option.
Before e-filing any "flattened" form, be sure to open the file to make sure that it looks is filled out.
After everything comes back, proceed to the "After the Courts" tab to look at getting other documents changed over.
Some notes about changing your name on your Illinois state ID or Drivers License:
A name change requires you to apply for a corrected driver license/state ID.
A corrected license/state ID involves a change to the information on the original license/ state ID, such as name or address. To obtain a corrected license/state ID, you must visit a Secretary of State facility to turn in your incorrect license/state ID and provide acceptable identification.
An applicant applying for either a duplicate or corrected driver's license or ID card must present:
One document that satisfies Group A, and one document from Group D if requesting an address change.
An applicant who requests a change in name, date of birth, Social Security number or gender must provide identification to link the change from the previous information to the new information