name change through marriage

Hello everyone I'm confused about something and hopefully you can help me out. I just got married on 9th October to my British husband (I'm American)  I am currently living in the UK on a marriage visa (limited leave to remain) and I plan to live in the UK for good. I am being traditional and taking my husbands surname but I don't know ways to go about doing that in the UK. I've asked around and people have said theres nothing I need to do about changing it besides informing banks and what not about my surname changing. On my limited leave to remain visa application I put my last name as Stevens (my husbands name) but my visa still says my maiden name and what confused me even more was on the front of the envelope that they sent my passport, marriage certificate ect in it said Mrs Dorney... Dorney is my maiden name. I originally thought that on our marriage certificate it would say my name as Alison Stevens but it doesn't, it says my maiden name. I was also told to sign my marriage certificate with my maiden name. I don't have any documents or anything which proove that I have changed my name so I don't even know if I can really call myself Alison Stevens. Do I have to do something official to change my name? If you have any information please help me, it'd be greatly appreciated.

Well I’ve done nothing and am known by my husbands last name.

We had issues with the bank, but after providing the marriage cert with my maiden name on it, they accepted my passport (maiden name)

I will be getting the change of name stamp in the back of my passport when I find the time to send it in.

You'll need to get your social security card changed.  You can do that at www.ssa.gov.  Just download the form, send it to the US Embassy in London w/ your passport and marriage certificate.

If you want to change the name in your passport, there's a courier service (you can find it on the Embassy's website).  I'm not bothering with that until my passport expires, though.  Just not worth the bother at the moment (so we book all of my tickets in my maiden name).

There's nothing to do officially over here.  I just put Mrs. Married Name on everything here--bank account, credit cards, UK tax stuff, etc.

If you're working over here under your married name, you'll need to make sure you get your SS card changed so that there's a smooth paper trail with your US taxes, etc. 

Yep, there's not a lot to do here. Which, in my case is making it even easier to avoid making a final decision about my name. I got married 23 Oct with every intention of hyphenating my name but am having the HARDEST time remembering to say it or write it or anything. 

i wonder how long this takes.......

if i sent in my passport now, i'd need in mid january!

I could be wrong, but I only think it takes about a week..maybe 10 days.  I know there's a thread about it around here somewhere!

i wonder how long this takes.......

if i sent in my passport now, i'd need in mid january!

If you are getting an entire new passport it will take about two weeks, most of the times just over one week.

If you are just getting an amendment it will take about a week, on rare occations up to two depending on the amount of work the Embassy recieves.

i thought so too.  might have to scrounge it up!

I did my name change by walking into the Embassy in London- was out within the hour!

I did my name change by walking into the Embassy in London- was out within the hour!

Be warned that the Embassy now has an appointment system. So you can in theory just walk in during their open hours, but you may be there for several hours waiting for all the apointments to be seen first.

I know that you can take care of the legal stuff at the U.S. embassy in London, but what do I do about my "history" under my old name. It will be almost my 40th birthday when I marry, and I have an extensive work history.

So, for example,  suppose my name is changing from Sweetpeach Jones to Sweetpeach Smith.  If an employer tries to contact my old job in the U.S. and look at the employment record of Sweetpeach Smith, my old HR department isn't going to know who that person is; all their records will show me as Sweetpeach Jones.  The same if someone tries to contact the university I went to for proof that I graduated.  Sweetpeach Jones got a university degree; not Sweetpeach Smith.

I'm sorry if this is a silly question. I never planned on getting married till I met my fiance and never really thought about these things before.

I definitely want to change my name. My new surname just goes perfectly with my first name.

You could always do Jones- Smith.

You will need to let people know what your maiden name was and be prepared to show your marriage certificate as proof if necessary; all my old employment references, qualifications etc are in my maiden name and when I applied for a job last year I just gave them a copy of my marriage certificate as evidence of the name change, it wasn't a problem.

You could always do Jones- Smith.

I don't want to. I'm taking the name because it is alliterative. (I don't care about tradition.)  Hyphenating it or using my maiden name as a middle name ruins it.

The London US Embassy did the amendment to my passport in less than a week.

Oh, and I must be a HUGE rarity...but, the NY UK Consulate put my spousal visa in my MARRIED NAME.  Am I the only one this has happened to???  I mean, I'm thrilled that they put it in my married name, since everyone else has mentioned that their visas were issued in either their maiden name or their previously married name (in the case of a divorce).  How come I'm different?