Retained rights of residence. Date of submited divorce application vs date of separation

[jankano]

Hi,

I am an EEA citizen and my soon to be non-EEA ex-wife is planning to apply for pre-settled status using Retained rights of residence route.
So the situation is as follows:
1) We are married for ~4.5 years (from July 2016);
2) I have permanent residence in UK;
3) We have lived together in UK for at least a year;

So technically that ticks all the main boxes. We have been living separately for more than two years now, so we used "Separation" as a basis for our divorce. This caused the problem. The divorce application now states two points:

"1) The applicant decided that marriage was over on 01 October 2018;
2) The applicant and responded started living apart on 01 October 2017;

The most recent date is considered legally the date of separation"

It is impossible to choose a later date to make it three years in the divorce application form. I would appreciate any help from someone who has gone through this or would have any subject knowledge. Does the Home Office look at the "legal date of separation" as stated above or at the date of divorce proceedings initiation when considering the "3 years of marriage" period?

Thank you in advance.

[CR001]

Date of divorce decree absolute, ie the date the marriage was officially dissolved.

You need to be divorced and have the evidence to prove it,to apply to retain rights of residence.

[jankano]

Date of divorce decree absolute, ie the date the marriage was officially dissolved.

You need to be divorced and have the evidence to prove it,to apply to retain rights of residence.

Thank you for your reply!
As I am aware, Home Office does not require necessarily Decree Absolute among the needed documents, but accept evidence of communication with the Family court showing that divorce proceedings have been set in motion. So does it mean that in this case, it is the date when it has been filed for divorce that is taken into account?