My BRP and my passport is in my maiden name. I want it changed to my married name. How would I go about doing this and would I have to get a new visa stamped in my new passport? Any information or advice would be helpful…Thanks!
Your BRP can ONLY be in the name on your passport. So, if you want to change the name on your BRP, you MUST change your name on your passport first
However, it is a long, expensive process to do this, and possibly not worth it. It's much easier and cheaper to change your name BEFORE you apply for the spousal visa, not after.
- first, you need to apply for a change of name in your passport. This costs $110 and takes about 4 weeks
- once you have your new passport, you have 3 months to change your name on your BRP or you can be fined £1,000 and have your visa curtailed
- in order to change your name on your BRP, you must fill out a form send off your new passport (with the new name) and your BRP for processing
- this costs £168 and can take anywhere from about 2-6 months for processing, during which you will be without your passport and BRP and cannot leave the UK
See here for changing your passport name:
https://uk.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/u-s-passports/change-name-on-u-s-passport/And here for changing your BRP name:
https://www.gov.uk/change-circumstances-visa-brp/youre-in-the-uk-and-have-a-brpIn all, I would allow potentially up to about 7-8 months to change your name on your passport and BRP (minimum 3-4 months).
Or, you can just do nothing and keep both of them in your maiden name until a few months before you apply for your next visa, so you can just change the passport name and apply for the new visa in the new name without needing to change your current BRP.
I also have another question…My husband and I want to work abroad. What is the time limit we would be able to stay outside of the country? I was granted the spousal visa using the savings method therefore we aren’t concerned about the wages. But we aren’t sure if I would be allowed to reside outside of the country as I have only been here for 5 months. I have tried searching, but have come across varying answers. Some people have stated that I must work for a british company if we want to go abroad. Would this be the same for the saving method?
Basically, you must be able to show that:
a) the UK has been your main/permanent residence for whole of the 2.5 years
and
b) you have lived TOGETHER for the 2.5 years
and
c) you had good reasons for living abroad (i.e. working overseas with your UK company, or military deployment overseas)
So, you can live in a different country during your visa, as long as you are living together the whole time (or you have a very good reason why you could not live together), but you would need to be able to show that you maintained your UK home/residence as your main residence.
For the next visa, you will need to provide evidence of living together for the whole time, by way of bills and official mail at the same address as each other. So if you do end up abroad, you will need to be able to show evidence of your address there.
