This sequence comes from the same verified data as the kit: every fee and deadline in it was read from the Illinois agency page that publishes it. Last verification in this sequence: 2026-08-29. Requirements are re-checked weekly.
Do Social Security first, or you'll do the DMV twice: licensing agencies verify the name against your Social Security record, so updating them out of order means a second trip. The 8 steps below are the Illinois sequence in the order the agencies themselves require. The first is open in full; the rest are in the kit.
Order certified copies of your marriage certificate before you start anything else.
Every agency below either keeps a certified copy or inspects one. Ordering them first is what keeps the rest of this from stalling for weeks in the middle — running out of copies mid-chain is the classic multi-week delay.
Fee: No statewide fee, and the one published state figure does not buy the right document. Illinois marriage certificates are issued by the county clerk of the county where the marriage occurred, and each county sets its own price. The Illinois Department of Public Health does sell a $5 "verification" — its page says "Verifications cost $5 and can be requested by mail, by fax, or in person" — but a verification confirms the facts of a marriage and is not a certified copy, so it is not the document a Driver Services facility accepts as proof of the name change. Order the certified copy from the county clerk.
Source: dph.illinois.gov — read 2026-08-29.
What to do here, the fee, the deadline and the official source are in the kit.
What to do here, the fee, the deadline and the official source are in the kit.
What to do here, the fee, the deadline and the official source are in the kit.
What to do here, the fee, the deadline and the official source are in the kit.
What to do here, the fee, the deadline and the official source are in the kit.
What to do here, the fee, the deadline and the official source are in the kit.
What to do here, the fee, the deadline and the official source are in the kit.
7 more steps — each with what to do, the fee, the deadline and the official source — plus your forms filled in, the documents list for every visit, and the certified-copy count, in the kit.
At least $6 in agency fees across the 8 steps; 4 of the offices set their own fee, and the kit says which. The kit is a single $19 on top of that, once.
Yes. 1 of the 8 steps carries a hard published deadline, at Illinois Secretary of State — Driver Services Department. The kit states each deadline and puts it on your timeline.
Each agency publishes its own list of acceptable documents, and several overlap. The kit lays them out per visit, tells you how many certified copies to order so you are not couriering one original between agencies, and fills in the official forms for you.
The kit does the rest. Answer seven short steps and get this sequence with your forms filled in wherever the agency's form allows it, the documents list for each visit, the certified-copy count, and the after-the-ID checklist — as one typeset PDF.
Start the QuestionsChanging your name after a divorce instead? Read the Illinois divorce guide, or browse every state's guide.
RenameKit is a document-preparation service, not a law firm, and is not affiliated with any government agency. Every form we prepare is available free from the agency that issues it. The linked sources are the authority; if a page and this guide ever disagree, the agency's page wins — and our weekly check exists to make that disagreement short-lived.
You have answered some of them. Leaving now clears those answers — there is no account holding them, so nothing is saved until you reach your kit.