Questions about changing spouse last name

[irafikov]

Hi Forum!

I have a question about changing last name for my future spouse.

We are getting married this month and want to submit application asap. Both of us traveling back to Russia. I am from Canada and she is coming from Tunisia. We are staying in Russia for 2 weeks for wedding ceremony. Unfortunately, 2 weeks is not enough time to change her Russian internal and foreign passports together with all visas in order to change her last name to my last name.

This is our plan of actions:

• After our wedding, we are planning to get marriage certificate with her having my last name as we want to change her last name in the future as soon as she is back to Russia from her contract in Tunisia which will happen in about 3 months. In Russia marriage certificate has to have husbands last name if we want to change wife's last name to husband's.
• We are planning to submit her application with her having her maiden/birth last name, however marriage certificate will have her future/my last name. Of course, we are going to mention to immigration in writing that we are planning to change her last name in the future and that’s why our marriage certificate has future/my last name.
  • This is basically my first question: Can we submit an application with her maiden/birth last name, however marriage certificate will have her future/my last name?
• As soon as she is back from Tunisia and inside Russia, she is going to apply to change her internal and foreign passport together with all visas, which could take couple of months to do. After she will get all her new passports with new and my last name, we were planning to inform Canadian immigration about her new last name.
  • This takes me to my second question, can we change last name of my spouse while application is in progress?

Thank you very much in advance for your help and answers.

Have a great weekend!

 

[zardoz]

Hi Forum!

I have a question about changing last name for my future spouse.

We are getting married this month and want to submit application asap. Both of us traveling back to Russia. I am from Canada and she is coming from Tunisia. We are staying in Russia for 2 weeks for wedding ceremony. Unfortunately, 2 weeks is not enough time to change her Russian internal and foreign passports together with all visas in order to change her last name to my last name.

This is our plan of actions:

• After our wedding, we are planning to get marriage certificate with her having my last name as we want to change her last name in the future as soon as she is back to Russia from her contract in Tunisia which will happen in about 3 months. In Russia marriage certificate has to have husbands last name if we want to change wife's last name to husband's.
• We are planning to submit her application with her having her maiden/birth last name, however marriage certificate will have her future/my last name. Of course, we are going to mention to immigration in writing that we are planning to change her last name in the future and that’s why our marriage certificate has future/my last name.
  • This is basically my first question: Can we submit an application with her maiden/birth last name, however marriage certificate will have her future/my last name?
• As soon as she is back from Tunisia and inside Russia, she is going to apply to change her internal and foreign passport together with all visas, which could take couple of months to do. After she will get all her new passports with new and my last name, we were planning to inform Canadian immigration about her new last name.
  • This takes me to my second question, can we change last name of my spouse while application is in progress?

Thank you very much in advance for your help and answers.

Have a great weekend!

Why not just keep her current name? Canada does NOT require a wife to take her husband's name. In fact, in Quebec it's not permitted.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Hi Forum!

I have a question about changing last name for my future spouse.

We are getting married this month and want to submit application asap. Both of us traveling back to Russia. I am from Canada and she is coming from Tunisia. We are staying in Russia for 2 weeks for wedding ceremony. Unfortunately, 2 weeks is not enough time to change her Russian internal and foreign passports together with all visas in order to change her last name to my last name.

This is our plan of actions:

• After our wedding, we are planning to get marriage certificate with her having my last name as we want to change her last name in the future as soon as she is back to Russia from her contract in Tunisia which will happen in about 3 months. In Russia marriage certificate has to have husbands last name if we want to change wife's last name to husband's.
• We are planning to submit her application with her having her maiden/birth last name, however marriage certificate will have her future/my last name. Of course, we are going to mention to immigration in writing that we are planning to change her last name in the future and that’s why our marriage certificate has future/my last name.
  • This is basically my first question: Can we submit an application with her maiden/birth last name, however marriage certificate will have her future/my last name?
• As soon as she is back from Tunisia and inside Russia, she is going to apply to change her internal and foreign passport together with all visas, which could take couple of months to do. After she will get all her new passports with new and my last name, we were planning to inform Canadian immigration about her new last name.
  • This takes me to my second question, can we change last name of my spouse while application is in progress?

Thank you very much in advance for your help and answers.

Have a great weekend!

The name she applies with must be the name in the passport. You don't need to tell IRCC that she is changing her name. They don't care until she actually changes it, at which point she just sends a copy of her new passport.

 

[irafikov]

The name she applies with must be the name in the passport. You don't need to tell IRCC that she is changing her name. They don't care until she actually changes it, at which point she just sends a copy of her new passport.

Thank you canuk_in_uk, that's great and it takes care of my second question. +1

The only question for me right now then if I can submit a marriage certificate with application with her future/last name which will be different from the last name(last name at birth) on the application?

We don't have enough time for us to change all passports and visas during her visit in Russia this summer. She will be able to do it in December when she will be back in Russia from her contract abroad. However if we are going to wait for her to comeback and then go through the process of changing passports, then this will postpone our application by 6 months. We want to see if it is a possibility to submit a marriage certificate with her future/last name which will be different from the last name(last name at birth) on the application?

The reasons why we want for marriage certificate to have correct future last name:

We will need marriage certificate to show that she is changing her last name and taking my last name to start process to issue her new passports with that last name. As I understood once they will issue that marriage certificate they can't change names on it.

Why I am worrying about this because I don't want for Canadian immigration to refuse our application due to incomplete documents (passports having one last name and marriage certificate having other). They may say that we need to update all our docs first and then submit all final versions.

Please let me know what you think or maybe you have seen this situations before. What do other people do in this situations?

 

[irafikov]

Why not just keep her current name? Canada does NOT require a wife to take her husband's name. In fact, in Quebec it's not permitted.

The answer is simple, we want for her to have my last name

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Thank you canuk_in_uk, that's great and it takes care of my second question. +1

The only question for me right now then if I can submit a marriage certificate with application with her future/last name which will be different from the last name(last name at birth) on the application?

We don't have enough time for us to change all passports and visas during her visit in Russia this summer. She will be able to do it in December when she will be back in Russia from her contract abroad. However if we are going to wait for her to comeback and then go through the process of changing passports, then this will postpone our application by 6 months. We want to see if it is a possibility to submit a marriage certificate with her future/last name which will be different from the last name(last name at birth) on the application?

The reasons why we want for marriage certificate to have correct future last name:

We will need marriage certificate to show that she is changing her last name and taking my last name to start process to issue her new passports with that last name. As I understood once they will issue that marriage certificate they can't change names on it.

Why I am worrying about this because I don't want for Canadian immigration to refuse our application due to incomplete documents (passports having one last name and marriage certificate having other). They may say that we need to update all our docs first and then submit all final versions.

Please let me know what you think or maybe you have seen this situations before. What do other people do in this situations?

Pretty self-explanatory for a marriage certificate to have her married name. You are WAY overthinking this and worrying for nothing.

 

[phaeo]

Are you sure her married name will be on the certificate? I think it's usual to have your unmarried name on it (we got married in Canada, and my unmarried name is on there). My suggestion would be to apply with her unmarried name and then change it afterwards, just to streamline things. But as others have said, it's not like changing your name after marriage is a weird thing to do, I think they'll understand if some of your paperwork has her married name on it.

Also, just fyi, Canada doesn't require you to legally change your name in order to start using your spouse's surname. If I wanted to get my husband's surname on my ID, all I'd have to do is show my marriage certificate. So if she wants to wait until you are both in Canada to start using your name, it might be a bit easier for her!

 

[irafikov]

Are you sure her married name will be on the certificate? I think it's usual to have your unmarried name on it (we got married in Canada, and my unmarried name is on there). My suggestion would be to apply with her unmarried name and then change it afterwards, just to streamline things. But as others have said, it's not like changing your name after marriage is a weird thing to do, I think they'll understand if some of your paperwork has her married name on it.

Also, just fyi, Canada doesn't require you to legally change your name in order to start using your spouse's surname. If I wanted to get my husband's surname on my ID, all I'd have to do is show my marriage certificate. So if she wants to wait until you are both in Canada to start using your name, it might be a bit easier for her!

Hi phaeo, you are right and this is one of the options we can go with +1. I just want to see if we can avoid two separate legal processes to change her last name in Canada and Russia after we are done with immigration.

 

[irafikov]

Pretty self-explanatory for a marriage certificate to have her married name. You are WAY overthinking this and worrying for nothing.

Hi canuk_in_uk, thank you for your input again +1. Believe me I do hope that I am over thinking it . I just can help to wonder what CIC will think of marriage certificate that has, although mine, different last name than on application. I don't want to leave it upto any chances. I am contacting immigration lawyers at the moment to see what they are going to say.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Hi canuk_in_uk, thank you for your input again +1. Believe me I do hope that I am over thinking it . I just can help to wonder what CIC will think of marriage certificate that has, although mine, different last name than on application. I don't want to leave it upto any chances. I am contacting immigration lawyers at the moment to see what they are going to say.

Waste of time contacting lawyers. Seriously, this is a non-issue. It is quite common for people to submit the app with documents in both their married and single names. I don't understand why you think this would be a problem.

 

[Mhiles Quintero]

Hi,
Me and my husband been married for 6 years, but i still use my maiden name in all my id's, docs. IRCC are okay with that as long as you have all your supporting docs showing your spouse name.
Timeline:
July 26,2018- Application Recieved
Oct.10,2018- AOR1, Eligibility, Medical Request
Oct.12,2018- Transfer to Missisagua
Oct.17,2018- Medical Done
Dec.23,2018- Transfer to Manila
May 25,2019-Passport Request
July 3,2019- Husband Arrived!!

 

[irafikov]

Waste of time contacting lawyers. Seriously, this is a non-issue. It is quite common for people to submit the app with documents in both their married and single names. I don't understand why you think this would be a problem.

Thank you canuck_in_uk, I am crossing my fingers you are right

 

[irafikov]

Waste of time contacting lawyers. Seriously, this is a non-issue. It is quite common for people to submit the app with documents in both their married and single names. I don't understand why you think this would be a problem.

Hi canuck_in_uk, you were right.I reached immigration Canada and they said that they only care about passport last name.