British Expatriate Network

I was hoping one of you good people may have been through a similar scenario that I find myself faced with.

My current UK passport expires in March - when I got married I decided to keep hold of my passport in my maiden name until all my paperwork with the INS had been finalized. Now that I have my permanent resident card and am registered with the INS with my married name, I'm ready to renew my passport and also have my name changed on it. My question is, do I have to submit my original marriage certificate as proof of the change of name? I'm curious what other people have done.

If anyone has any pearls of wisdom, I'd appreciate getting your advice.

Thanks

ISTR that you have to send in the original marriage certificate. I guess a notarised copy may suffice, check with the embassy.

Remember that you're dealing with the British Embassy for this, so not only will they be helpful, polite and efficient, they also won't lose any of your documents (unlike certain branches of the federal government I could mention) wink

I was just researching this yesterday, as I've done the same thing, not wanting to pay $100 just to get a name change on a not-so-new passport.

Here's the info you need

http//www.britainusa.com/consular/other_show.asp?SarticleType=25&Other_ID=213#five

"You should send your current passport and if

a) your name has changed through marriage, you must enclose the full original civil marriage certificate bearing a raised seal. You should also enclose evidence of termination of any previous marriages."

So yeah, you need an original copy. It says elsewhere on that site that photocopies and notarised copies aren't ok

http//www.britainusa.com/consular/other_show.asp?SarticleType=25&Other_ID=231#two

Hope your application goes smoothly.

Thanks Jememennie - I did just that

Washington are very quick to process the change of name in the passport - it took just 2 weeks as I recall - and they returned my old passport, new passport and original marriage certificate safely.

Josie