Change of name after married

[stuartfarm]

Hi all ,

Looking for a bit of advice here ( i did a search - promise !! but couldn't find a suitable answer)

Just been sorting out my soon to be wifes papers - We get married on Janurary 08 in Oroquieta.

Should my wife adopt my surname as soon as possible or will will cuase delays when we apply for visa ( i guess she has to send passport way to be changed)

I want to go with her to Embassy whilst I still in Phills ( I leave January 20th)

I belive we can get Secpa Papers that will allow us to apply for visa before we actually get Marriage certificate

Is it an option for her not to change her name ? or will this just cause even more problems at visa office / immagration

I just want her to be able to come here as soon as possible

[Durkhaima]

Hello there. I applied for a Spouse Visa using my old passport in my maiden name. UKVACS didnt require me to renew my passport as it is still valid until 2010 which is a year after my Visa expires. We chose not to renew my passport using my husbands name because we were pressed for time and DFA was pissing us about with so many requirements. A word of advice: once you get married and you get the marriage certificate, immediately request for a Marriage Certificate on "Official Paper" from NSO. They are so laid back there you will probably get the one in official paper after a month. You cant file the Spouse Visa Application until you have it. Congratulations on your forthcoming marriage. God bless...

[LadyJ]

Changing the surname on your wife's passport is not really necessary, as long the passport is valid and she can show the Marriage Certificate to the embassy is good enough.

But If she do this soon rather than later then It'll be less hassle in the futture when she apply like opening a bank account in the UK, etc.

[Tiggers0608]

Durkhaima and LadyJ are right, Your wife does not need to changed her surname immediately she can use her old passport as long as its still valid and not yet expired and she can only apply for spouse visa if you have your NSO marriage cert. some may take a while, others only waited for 28 days for the
NSO to release it on secpa paper.

Best wishes to both of you

[A_flyer]

Stuartfarm, as said by others, you can do it later. The only problem is that doing it from abroad is expensive (IE 140€ for changing the passport at the Philippines Embassy in Paris, around P2000 in the Philippines if I remember well).

Another thing, to avoid difficulties at immigration it's important to keep the same passport from the visa application till the arrival in the UK. Same name should appear on all papers (passport, visa, tickets). It eases boarding and immigration at departure and arrival.

So if your wife have time before to wait the recording at NSO to get the NSO sepca marriage certificate (required by DFA for the change of name on the passport) and the leadtime (I would say 2 months to be sure) to get the new passport before starting the visa application process then go for it. If not, she have to keep her actual passport... if its validity is sufficient (I would really suggest a minimum validity of 1 or 2 years). For travels, usually the validity should be 6 months over the visa validity and return travel date (if applicable of course).