Illinois

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.

Name Change Petition

Name Change Order

Request for Publication

Motion to Waive Notion and Publication

Order to Waive Notice and Publication

Waiver of Court Fees

Order to Waive Court Fees

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.

  1. You do NOT need to publish your legal name change if you are the victim of a crime based on:

    1. You believe that notice or publication will put the person whose name would be changed at risk of physical harm or discrimination

      1. Many queer people face discrimination for being who they are. If this pertains to one, they can protect themselves by not publishing

    2. 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:

  1. 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

  2. St. Clair County

Filing Fee: $314.00 (court staff by phone 11/2/21)

  1. Madison County

Filing Fee: $314.00 (court staff by phone 11/2/21)

  1. 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:

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.