I have a question that fits here too. I am going to have a hyphenated name on my marriage license so would I have to change the name on my passport too or since i am using my present last name and my fiances last name should that be okay as far as legalities in the US and the UK are concerned?
in Chicago, at the British Consulate, and also at the airport, i asked them about this issue... having a passport with your maiden name on it...
you have a couple of different options:
1) book all plane tickets under the name that is currently on your passport (your maiden name). although married, you still have a right to use your "old name".
2) book tickets under your
married name, but also have an official copy of your marriage certificate with you. (you would
NOT be able to use the ticket/return ticket if you lost/misplaced that certificate, though, so
make sure that you don't misplace it! the airlines are
VERY strict about this!!!
3) update your passport with your married name.
i have no idea how long this process takes, so if i were you, i would find out, and then do it as soon as you return from your next trip when you won't be needing your passport for a while.
Peedal said that you need to download a form DS-19, fill it out, and mail it in with your passport.
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here is what happened to me early this past December...
i booked my ticket to fly from England to the U.S. over the internet. i automatically filled in the form with my married name, as i have been doing everywhere else. (i was just married in July 2003.)
well, my trip to the states was to get my marriage visa. the copies of our marriage certificate were to be mailed to my mother in the states, and had only been requested days before i was to leave, so we didn't have a copy of it yet.
i was checking in at Heathrow, and they typed my name in as it read on my passport (my maiden name) they said that they didn't have me on the flight. i tried to give them my confirmation #, but they said they didn't need that. (which makes me wonder why they even give you one in the first place...
)
finally, i realised what i had done, and i told them that i had put my married name on the ticket. although i had my husband standing next to me with plenty of identification of his own, i had no I.D. of
my own to prove that it was
my name.
we explained the circumstances, and also showed the stack of paperwork that we had prepared for my visa application. they said it wasn't valid proof, as it had been filled out by hand, in ink, and we still had nothing official...
meanwhile, i missed my flight.
they were going to make my husband drive back to Derbyshire, get a copy of our marriage certificate, FAX it back to them, and
then... after that i could take the next flight. that would've been at least 6-10 hours later...
anyway, i started crying, feeling so bad for being a moron, and putting my married name on the ticket. they said that it was against policy to change the ticket to my "other name", and refused. they also explained their policy of the tickets being non-refundable, so we had wasted about $700 on a ticket that i couldn't use.
we ended up talking to about 4 more people from the airline in a managerial position, until, finally, the last woman said that having all of those filled out forms was proof enough for her. she finally changed the name on my ticket back to the same one that is on my passport, and i was free to go.
that was about 1 1/2 hours of dicking around.
sooo... yes, it is VERY important to make sure whatever name that you use is the same as the one on your passport, OR have an official copy of your marriage certificate onhand. otherwise they won't even let you check in.
with all of this heightened security recently, they don't mess around...
