changing passport to married name

I keep meaning to ask: what is the process for changing my name on my passport to include my married name without applying for a whole new passport? Thanks for your help!

I did this in the states, it was really easy, just printed a form off the internet and sent the passport with the form to send off and got it back two weeks later.  Just so you know they only have an amendment at the back saying your new name, they don't actually change the front of it to reflect the name change.  I really thought that they would have.

Apparently if you live in the UK and want to amend your US passport you have to use a special courier service, which charges alot of money to collect your documents & hand-deliver them to the US embassy for you. As it only costs me about £5 to go into London and back I thought I'd drop everything off myself. I didn't make it clear to them that I was just there to drop things off, and they ended up amending it then and there, which was fine by me. I was there about 2 hours altogether I think. If you're not stupid like me, you might want to make an appointment instead of just showing up  But if you live in or around London and want to get it over with quickly, I recommend that option (print off the form stacey mentioned). I wanted to apply for my FLR asap so was happy to get the passport changed in only a day.

I live in the UK and just posted all the required documentation in. I believe I sent it recorded delivery but it cost less than £2. I got everything back within 3 weeks. Dont know if things have changed. This was four years ago.

The courier service costs £26 and you should have your documents back within two weeks.  If you only have a little time left on your passport, you can just wait to change your name when you apply for your next one (that's what I'm doing!).

Lola,
Be careful in doing that though.  If you make a travel reservation under your new name and your passport hasn't been amended the airline may prevent you from travelling.  To avoid this, be sure that all travel reservations are made in your old name until your passport get's updated.

My wife and I planned a dive trip to Palau for 16 months, and almost didn't get to go b/c of that passport issue,  we eventually were allowed to depart after my wife went home and got our marriage license from the safety deposit box.
Stephan

Yeah, we always make my reservations in my maiden name.  I've asked, though, and I'd just need to take along my marriage certificate to prove my married name, if we ever did reserve tickets in that name.

Just so you guys know you can either use the courier service or Royal mail sepcial delivery. The choice is yours. If you do use Royal Mail special delivery just make sure you send with everything a prepaid return special delivery envelope.

Since this is something that is done by the mail service you can't make an apointment for change of name by marriage. If you do go to the Embassy expect to sit and wait anywhere from one to four hours. It all depends on how busy it is and how quickly they get through the apointments. The Embassy does not have a drop off service. if you come by with an application for visa pages, amendment by marriage, or passport renewal expect to sit there until your paperwork is processed.

Right now an amendment by marriage submitted by mail should be back with you before a weeks time. As the summer season gets closer it will start taking around two weeks due to the amount of applications being recieved.

My passport is still good for 4 more years so I really didn't want to have to get another one right off. Thanks for the info. I'll fill out the form and send it in soon (well, relatively!) Thanks again!