Divorce is never easy. However, if you and your soon-to-be ex-spouse agree on the major issues, you may be eligible for an expedited form of divorce called dissolution of marriage, otherwise referred to as a joint simplified divorce. This option can help condense the process of divorce down from years long to mere months, in most cases.

Eligibility Requirements

Relatively few couples meet all of the requirements for a joint simplified dissolution of marriage, but if you qualify, your divorce may be concluded not in months or years, but in just a few weeks. According to the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage, you are eligible if:

Proponents of marriage equality see the right to marry as fundamental to human dignity. However, very few advocates tend to think about the things that go along with marriage— namely, divorce. While in Illinois, same-sex couples have been permitted to marry and divorce in the same manner as opposite-sex couples for a number of years, the law was much slower to change in other states. While same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide in the summer of 2015, it can sometimes be an enormous hassle for same-sex couples to obtain a divorce, especially if there are children involved.

Is Divorce Possible?

All 50 states now recognize the legality of same-sex marriage, which means there must be a legal process for dissolving such marriages. The reality, however, is that many states have yet to update their divorce-related statutes to include gender-neutral language. Therefore, if you live in Illinois or were married in Illinois, it may be best to obtain your divorce in Illinois as well, even if you or your spouse now lives in another state.

When you and your spouse are in the process of getting divorced, it may be because one of you conducted an extramarital affair. If you are cheated on, it can destroy your faith in the other person forever, and you may think that it gives you leverage in a divorce proceeding. However, in Illinois, any emotional damage you may have suffered is not going to have any effect on your divorce, with rare exceptions in the most unusual cases.

Marital Misconduct

Marital misconduct is defined in Illinois as any conduct that undermines the marital relationship. Most of the time, this is applied to extramarital affairs and conduct that destroys trust, but it may also include conduct that is economically dangerous or wasteful. For example, a man spending his and his wife’s retirement account savings on a new car would likely qualify. In Illinois, economic misconduct can also be referred to as dissipation of marital assets, but whether it affects property distribution depends on when the dissipation occurred. Dissipation may also simply not be worth pursuing as a claim against your former spouse, given that the money’s provenance must be established and it may cost more than was spent simply to prove you have a claim to those funds.

Today’s world is a globally connected one. More and more people are marrying citizens of other countries and moving to other countries to be with their spouses. If you marry a foreign national and want to live with them in the United States, your spouse will likely need to become a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR, or ‘green card holder’), and may one day become a citizen. However, if your marriage does not work out, your spouse may experience significant immigration problems.

Before Approval

If you and your foreign-born spouse intend to make your home in the United States, there is a specific procedure you must follow in order for your husband or wife to obtain legal status in this country. A U.S. citizen spouse must submit an application called an I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, in which they promise to sponsor their foreign spouse. This means vouching for his or her character and also promising that he or she will not require public assistance benefits or become homeless.

Sometimes, things simply go bad. It is thankfully rare, but it is not unheard of that someone would have to file for bankruptcy and divorce at the same time. If this happens to you, you may question whether or not to file for both at the same time, or if not, which matter to pursue first. Illinois divorce laws and bankruptcy laws make the answer to that question fairly clear.

Which to File First?

Illinois divorce law and bankruptcy law essentially make filing both petitions at the same time impossible. When you file for bankruptcy, you generally hand over your assets to the care of a bankruptcy trustee for sale or disposition as necessary to pay off your creditors. Once you have commenced a bankruptcy filing, you may not make unilateral decisions about your property. Technically it is no longer yours. Thus, there is nothing for a family court judge to divide.