Q: how long do you have to be separated for it to be considered legal
A:
If you are referring to divorce, Illinois has irreconcilable differences as a grounds.
You do not have to be separated to have irreconcilable differences. However, if the parties have lived separate and apart for 6 months, there is an irrebuttable presumption of irreconcilable differences.
A: It can never be a Legal Separation unless a specific Judgment for Legal Separation is entered by a court. You can live apart for 70 years, and all you are is living apart. Time does not make a separation "legal" only a Judgment can do that.
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