We also received excellent service using the postal system.

Our applications were posted to Durham on 8th August, we received our old passports back on 14th and new ones on the 16th. The passports are valid from 13 August. The spare months have been added so they expire in February 2018.

Lots of clean pages to start filling with Visas and stamps!

i'm getting married next saturday does anyone know if you have to pay to change your name on your passport i only renewed it last November!

Are you travelling abroad on honeymoon, if so is your trip booked in your new name? If this is the case you may have a problem.
As I understand the law in this case you will need to pay for a new passport under your married name, it's unfortunate that you only recently renewed your passport as the passport office will I think only give you credit for 9 extra months on your new passport.

when we got married a couple of years ago to the advce was (but it may have now changed) either keep your passport as is and carry wedding cert or if you chanage your passport you have to pay a full fee no concession except and extra 9 months on it. Tina plummed to change as it made life easier for the future but she lost 7 years of the old passport.

Adrian & Tina

The simplest thing is always to book travel tickets etc in whatever name is in your passport. There is no requirement for women to change their name on marriage and the only reason most women do change the name in their passports is because they choose and want to be known by their husbands surname but there is no legal requirement to do this. You can continue to keep your bank accounts, National Insurance etc in your 'maiden' name too.

Similarly, you don't have to marry your man in order to adopt his surname either! You don't even have to change it by Deed Poll - for nearly all purposes making a Statutory Declaration that in future you want to be known as ... is a cheaper and easier way of doing it.

SM

sent off my parents passport forms last thursday the 16th august and got the new passports back today 23rd august really impressed with the speed of this

Sma, good points, but to change your name in your passport you will need to provide proof of change of name etc.

If you are just talking in general, then of course your advice is sound.

Very few women do not take their husbands surname.

The important thing to remember is that applying for passports, credit cards etc. Are all reliant on your biographical footprint and therefore if you change your name for one thing, then you may lose out when applying for something in another.

My reply was in response to doveholidays1703 query. She is about to get married and asked whether she HAD to change her surname in her passport as she had not long renewed it. Whether to change or not will always be a personal decision but in her situation there is no legal need for her to do so until her passport needs renewing so long as she always books any holiday under the same name as the one in her passport as as long as she takes along a copy of her marriage certificate for any situation where she needs to prove her identity but might be using her husband's surname.

As long as we all have the paper trail to prove that we are the person any document applies to we can call ourselves what we want. the conventions on this are changing all the time. In the past most married women even lost the use of the own first name in formal situations. They became Mrs John Smith and strict traditional etiquette says that only widowed or divroced women should use the title Mrs with their own first name. Of course these days we can't and genrally don't automatically assume that Mts Jane Smith once had a husband but doesn't any longer. These things are a matter of social convention not legal requirement and in the increasingly diverse society that we now are in the UK many women don't follow this convention.

For example, Quakers tend not to do so now or in the past, mainly because they never used titles so Quaker married women never called themselves Mrs and continued to be known by their own name on marriage. So much so that the wife of the founder of the Religious Society of Friends never took the name Mrs George Fox but continued to be known as Margaret Fell, Fell being the surname she had long used as her first husband's widow. Likewise many Moslem women don't take their husbands surname on marriage and whilst many adopt their husbands' name in this country for the convenience of not having to explain why their children have a different surname to them, many don't bother to change it on passports or bank accounts etc.

I am an academic and would never dream of changing my name and neither would many of my colleagues because it's important that we continue to use the name we first started publishing under. The trend for later marriage means that women academics have already established their reputations under their father's surname before they marry and to change your name mid-career could be disastrous these days. I have one colleague who has kept her passport in her 'maiden' name, publishes for work as 'Maiden-Married' and has her kids registered under her husband's name on their birth certificates but used her 'maiden' name on said certificate even though she is married to their father because that is the convention where she was brought up.

There are myriad combinations of what names we can take and choose to be known as and as long as we have the paper trail and can always prove that we are who we say we are there is no legal need to go through the rigamarole of changing everything on marriage but I do know one man who decided to do this to show just how much he loved his new wife, though it might have had more to do with the awful name his father had saddled him with at birth under the old conventions and he was more than glad of the excuse to ditch it :-) I also know another who took the name Ben Pink Dandelion to make a political point at a particular stage in his life but that's another story :-)
SM

SMa Actually the question that iloveholidays1973 asked was did she have to PAY to change her name on her passport not did she HAVE to change her name, which led me to believe that she will be taking her husbands name.

Thanks for that Judith.

The answer is, as noted. Yes.

£66.

Hi, I am hoping someone can help me with some info please. I got married in cuba (ages ago) and need to change the name on my passport. Is the cuban marraige certificate accepted by the passport office or do I need to get it translated aswell? It is stamped by the british embassy so I am not too sure. Thanks
becky

Micky/Becky,

Strictly speaking, any document in a language other than English should be sent in with an accompanying translation from a recognised translator.

That said, you could just send in the Cuban marriage certificate without the translation and the officer dealing with it may be able to get the relevant information from it without the need for a translation.

Like I said, they may ask for a translation, but if they accept it without one then you will have saved yourself a translators fee.

Assuming you are in no rush to travel, it's worth trying this first.

Hope this helps.

Our passports run out March 2008 and we are thinking of going to Gran Canaria in October 2007. I have heard that some countries require you to have a certain amount of time left on your passport. Will I be ok to travel to GC or will I have to renew my passport?? I call upon your wealth of knowledge (heeeeeeeeeeeelp) .

Spain only require that your passport be valid for the length of your holiday, but the airline you are travelling with or the tour company that you have booked with (if not travelling DIY) may have their own requirements for passport validity. You need to check with them.

Hi my son went yesterday to Malaga his runs out in Jan 08,checked on foreign office web it says validity of length of stay e.mailed Thomsons they said fine as long it is valid.As Gran canaria is spanish this should apply there also,shouldn't it?

Can anyone recommend a visa agency to obtain a visa for china, i will be going for two weeks in October. Thank you Elaine

We got married in the Dominican Republic and our marriage certificate is in Spanish. I never got it translated and had no trouble getting my name changed on my passport.

I phoned a travel agent today and they say that we need to have at least 6months left on passport when we return. Passports run out 04/03/2008. Holiday would finish 05/10/2007. They said the only country that may allow us to travel to is mainland Spain.

They said the only country that may allow us to travel to is mainland Spain.

Mike ... as far as official entry requirements for Spain (including the Balearics and Canaries) are concerned, passports require to be valid only for the duration of your stay.

Any minimum passport validity period for Spain would only be imposed by some airlines or tour operators, rather than by Spanish authorities. Unless you wish to renew your passports beforehand, just check the passport policy of the companies you are considering using to ensure that none have a minimum 6 month validity requirement. Those who do have such a requirement will probably apply it to all destinations, including Spain.

The travel agent which you spoke to today might be best avoided.

David