Name Change Advice Needed

Hi! I was wondering if anyone could give me a bit of advice. My sweetie's coming over from England on August 2nd, the following day we're applying for the marriage license, and getting married on August 8th. I was considering changing my name. Mine's Benton, his is Pickles. I've had many a joke attributed to "if you hyphenated your name....ha ha.....bent on pickles" simply because I've always had a love of dill pickles. Go figure. lol Anyway, a couple weeks after the wedding, roughly, we're going to LA to get my spouse visa. I want to go ahead and hyphenate my name or change it to his entirely. When we go for the visa, the name on my passport would be my maiden name, my plane ticket is in my maiden name, I'm assuming by others' experiences that the visa would be in my maiden name as well. If on the marriage certificate my name is officially Benton-Pickles or Pickles, would that pose any problem with the visa, plane ticket, or otherwise? I'm assuming I could just show customs, e.t.c. my marriage certificate, and it'd be ok. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!! 

You won't show "customs" anything - actually, if your passport and your plane ticket are in your maiden name, then you won't show anybody anything.  As long as the passport & reservation names match, that's fine.

I don't know about US marriage certificates, but I think it will just show your maiden name.  My UK one doesn't show me as "Mrs Married Name."  You would show the marriage certificate if the names DIDN'T match to show you'd gotten married but hadn't changed your passport yet.

I had my passport in my maiden  name, and then had my visa issued to me in my maiden name as well. Not what I wanted but we were up against some time so I couldnt change my passport. but anyhow, if your passport is in your maiden then your visa will be too, and you can get plane tickets in your married name, which I did, but make sure you have a copy of your marriage license and photo id. I had my drivers license in my married name by then. The next thing you do is when you get to the UK plan a trip to the head office in london, and then they issue you a stamp of some sort in the back of your passport that says your legal name is ______. I still havent made it over there yet but thats what the chicago consulate told me to do when I got my visa. That will suffice till your passport expires.  Also if you plan to work, youlll need a national insurance number. Call the national insurance phone number and set up an appointment as soon as you can, because I arrived 20th of may and didnt call for a couple of weeks and when I did, the soonest they could take me was  july 1st. Thats just the interview, you have to wait 3-4 weeks to actually get the number. But waht they dont tell you is that some employers will hire you with out the number and some wont.  I interviewed for a great job and they turned me down because I hadnt received it yet. But back to my point , at the national insurance number interview, they seemed a bit funny that my maiden name was on my visa and passport, but the thing is my maiden name was O'Brien. My passport said OBrien whilst my visa said O'Brien. I know its soooo picky but they questioned me on it., and as usual gave them the same schpeel, " most information forms dont take to kindly to apostrophes", they said oh ok, but when it asked for any previous names, she put them both down, "just in case". lol anyhow its all sorted now and quite painlessly really. best of luck!

Thank you so much for your advice. So, basically, I can go ahead and take his name or hyphenate mine, and not have any problem with the visa, passport, e.t.c.? All I really need to do is, once I'm in England, go to the US embassy and get the name changed on my passport and social security card? Don't want to seem at all dim, I guess my pre-wedding nerves and worries are getting to me. lol    Anyway, thank you again for your help, it's very much appreciated. 

yes thats it. but as for ur social security number you need to get that changed when you get married in the states if possible. it is really simple, just go by your local ss office and tell them you have gotten married, and want to change your name on your social, they will do a quick interview to see the documents, mind you real ones will only do for them not copies, then they just send it to you in the post. simple as

You can change the SS card in the UK as well, through the American Embassy.  I did it for me and my kids and it was very easy - and got the cards back quickly as well.

And for the next question, you won't have to tell the IRS about your name change, because they'll be able to cross-reference with the SS number.

Just wanted to say a quick thank you for clarifying this for me. I swear, I was a bundle of nerves until I found this site/forum!! It's been the greatest help I have found in learning about this whole visa process.  Thank you!

When notifying National Insurance, your bank and your job about your new name, does it matter which order you notify them in? And do I have to wait to get a response from one before I can notify another?

For example, I suppose it's best to notify NI first.  Does this mean that I have to wait until I get my NI card back with my new name before I tell my job, because if my job makes the change in their records before the change goes through National Insurance, then my National Insurance information won't match what my job has on record.

The same with the bank.  Do I have to wait after notifying my bank before notifying my job, to make sure that the information has gone through and my bank has the right name on file, so that there won't be a problem with my job being unable to deposit my payslip because the name my job has for me doesn't match the name the bank has on my account?


Also, once I tell National Insurance, does that mean that Inland Revenue is automatically notified, or do I have to send the separate notification?

I applied for my first job in my married name.  I opened my bank account about two weeks later (in married name).  Then I applied for and received my NIN about four weeks later (in married name).  My job never asked for proof my my married name, but I did have to show my marriage certificate to the bank and the NIN interviewer.

No need to contact IR -- they'll find you if they need you!   

I've already been working under my maiden name, and my bank account is under my maiden name.  My National Insurance Card has my maiden name.   I wanted to take care of getting a job, NIN and finances sorted out before changing my name. (I also have a UK credit card and utility bills under my maiden name,but changing the name on those is lesser priority.)

When I applied for my NIN, I had to sign a statement that I choose to use my maiden name.

So, how do you take care of this stuff when you're already working and have a bank account and National Insurance Number under your maiden name?

I told my bank & my work at the same time.  It  took the bank over a year to get it right even though they took a copy of my marriage certificate    I didn't bother to tell Inland Revenue, never occurred to me until after Ethan was born I rang them to ask about tax credits and then realised they still had me listed under my maiden name.  They didn't seem bothered about it though. 

I told my bank & my work at the same time.  It  took the bank over a year to get it right even though they took a copy of my marriage certificate   

I guess this means that your work having your married name and your bank having your maiden name didn't make a difference?

Well my bank did have my married name on their records, they just couldn't get it together it to actually change it on the correspondence they sent me, but I don't see why it should make a difference unless you get paid by cheque.

Yeah, if you already have a job, a bank account, and an NIN, I'd just change them whenever -- I don't think the timing will matter in the long run.

For some reason, I don't think IR is too detail-driven -- I still get stuff from them with the WRONG NIN printed on it.    I send letters correcting them and they send me stuff with a DIFFERENT WRONG NIN on it.  Awesome!