A legal name change after receiving Citizenship Certificate

[eeprofilehelp]

Hello Everyone,

I have my oath ceremony next month and once I receive my Citizenship Certificate I want to apply for a legal name change before applying for a new passport with current name. This will be a change in First name/Given name. Question is, do I need to apply for an updated Citizenship Certificate? Current processing time is about 15 months. Reading past thread on this topic says that new updated Citizenship Certificate has to be applied if there is a name change.

I was doing some reading on IRCC and have across this info, "You don’t need a new proof of citizenship if your name has changed because of

• an adoption
• a court decision
• a legal name change

Your proof can have your old name or new name on it. We’ll update our forms to make this clearer soon."
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/new-adult-passport/citizenship-proof.html

TIA

 

[armoured]

As a general thing, most everyone you deal with should accept the old certificate plus legal change of name document to accept that you are this person with citizenship and your name is now [new name]. Obviously you may need to show photo id of some kind depending on circumstances.

You can apply for new documents incl new certificate of citizenship but shouldn't worry about how long it takes. Likewise for other documents you need to replace. Many like citizenship you don't outright need to but go ahead if more convenient.

Note you'll need to keep the change of name docs occasionally to show that old name person is sale as new name person. But over time less frequently.

 

[eeprofilehelp]

As a general thing, most everyone you deal with should accept the old certificate plus legal change of name document to accept that you are this person with citizenship and your name is now [new name]. Obviously you may need to show photo id of some kind depending on circumstances.

You can apply for new documents incl new certificate of citizenship but shouldn't worry about how long it takes. Likewise for other documents you need to replace. Many like citizenship you don't outright need to but go ahead if more convenient.

Note you'll need to keep the change of name docs occasionally to show that old name person is sale as new name person. But over time less frequently.

Thank you for your reply. I called Service Canada, and they said I don't need to apply for an update Citizenship Certificate. I can use the one with previous name and a Legal Name Change Certificate, and it should be good.

 

[armoured]

Thank you for your reply. I called Service Canada, and they said I don't need to apply for an update Citizenship Certificate. I can use the one with previous name and a Legal Name Change Certificate, and it should be good.

Yes, I don't disagree with that - as I said, just about everyone (every institution) you might deal with will accept that combination of docs as proof that you are a citizen and this is now your name. And once you get a passport in new name, probably no-one will ever ask about the citizenship certificate ever again (and hardly ever about the name or name change either, and they'll use that as your photo ID too).

Many will want to have citizneship certificate in new name - my point was that since the current one plus name change will be enough for just about everything (well along with passport and other docs provincially), it really won't matter if it takes them 15+ months to get a new one in new name to you.

Or don't bother, up to you.

 

[eeprofilehelp]

Yes, I don't disagree with that - as I said, just about everyone (every institution) you might deal with will accept that combination of docs as proof that you are a citizen and this is now your name. And once you get a passport in new name, probably no-one will ever ask about the citizenship certificate ever again (and hardly ever about the name or name change either, and they'll use that as your photo ID too).

Many will want to have citizneship certificate in new name - my point was that since the current one plus name change will be enough for just about everything (well along with passport and other docs provincially), it really won't matter if it takes them 15+ months to get a new one in new name to you.

Or don't bother, up to you.

I see what you mean. Yes, I will be applying for New Citizenship Certificate once I have a new passport with the new name. I wasn't sure if I had to wait for an updated Citizenship Certificate and then apply for a new passport, which will be 15+ months to get a passport with new name.

 

[GokulGuruprasad]

Hello Everyone,

I have my oath ceremony next month and once I receive my Citizenship Certificate I want to apply for a legal name change before applying for a new passport with current name. This will be a change in First name/Given name. Question is, do I need to apply for an updated Citizenship Certificate? Current processing time is about 15 months. Reading past thread on this topic says that new updated Citizenship Certificate has to be applied if there is a name change.

I was doing some reading on IRCC and have across this info, "You don’t need a new proof of citizenship if your name has changed because of

• an adoption
• a court decision
• a legal name change

Your proof can have your old name or new name on it. We’ll update our forms to make this clearer soon."
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/new-adult-passport/citizenship-proof.html

TIA

Planning to do the same here.
Let's catch up on the conversations box thingy...

 

[iMayflower]

I see what you mean. Yes, I will be applying for New Citizenship Certificate once I have a new passport with the new name. I wasn't sure if I had to wait for an updated Citizenship Certificate and then apply for a new passport, which will be 15+ months to get a passport with new name.

Hi @eeprofilehel how did it go with your name change process? How long did the process take from the application date to receiving the name change certificate? When you applied for a new passport, what IDs did you provide? Since they require to provide IDs with the passport application, did you first update the ID with the new name and then applied with that ID for a new passport, or can I just provide an old ID, old passport and the name change certificate? I'd appreciate your help here. Thank you in advance!

 

[gprasanna31]

Guys, need your expertise. I recently received my citizenship certificate and realized that my given name is blank and my family name is having my full name ( Prasanna Gururam). I want to get this corrected where my given name should be Prasanna and family name Gururam. How should I get this done?

 

[MrChazz]

Hello Everyone,

I have my oath ceremony next month and once I receive my Citizenship Certificate I want to apply for a legal name change before applying for a new passport with current name. This will be a change in First name/Given name. Question is, do I need to apply for an updated Citizenship Certificate? Current processing time is about 15 months. Reading past thread on this topic says that new updated Citizenship Certificate has to be applied if there is a name change.

I was doing some reading on IRCC and have across this info, "You don’t need a new proof of citizenship if your name has changed because of

• an adoption
• a court decision
• a legal name change

Your proof can have your old name or new name on it. We’ll update our forms to make this clearer soon."
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/new-adult-passport/citizenship-proof.html

TIA

What you were reading from the IRCC website is probably more reliable than what you will get from a random punter on a random immigration website. So go with what IRCC says.

 

[armoured]

Guys, need your expertise. I recently received my citizenship certificate and realized that my given name is blank and my family name is having my full name ( Prasanna Gururam). I want to get this corrected where my given name should be Prasanna and family name Gururam. How should I get this done?

If you see above and check for your province, you will probably see that it may be easier and faster and more predictable for you to do a legal name change in whatever province you are in.

So in order of relative easiness:
-do the legal name change;
-apply for a passport using existing citizenship certificate and change of name decision;
-get on with your life, updating other docs as needed.
-Optionally, if you want, you can apply to amend your citizenship certificate - but as noted elsewhere in this thread, just about every entity/institution that would want to confirm your name and citizenship would accept either your passport or citizenship + change of name to prove you are you and you are a citizen.

I can't comment about how this would relate to your documents from other countries and the like.

 

[delray55]

Guys, need your expertise. I recently received my citizenship certificate and realized that my given name is blank and my family name is having my full name ( Prasanna Gururam). I want to get this corrected where my given name should be Prasanna and family name Gururam. How should I get this done?

how was this in your citizenship application?

 

[gprasanna31]

how was this in your citizenship application?

Hi Delray

In citizenship application also I entered my complete in Family name, because my PR- Copy Of PR (COPR) also has the same stuff. In order to avoid discrepancies I applied to citizenship application also the same way. But now I want to get it corrected, and hence posted the question

 

[gprasanna31]

If you see above and check for your province, you will probably see that it may be easier and faster and more predictable for you to do a legal name change in whatever province you are in.

So in order of relative easiness:
-do the legal name change;
-apply for a passport using existing citizenship certificate and change of name decision;
-get on with your life, updating other docs as needed.
-Optionally, if you want, you can apply to amend your citizenship certificate - but as noted elsewhere in this thread, just about every entity/institution that would want to confirm your name and citizenship would accept either your passport or citizenship + change of name to prove you are you and you are a citizen.

I can't comment about how this would relate to your documents from other countries and the like.

Thank you Armoured. I think as suggested I can go for name change process and along with existing citizenship certificate + name change document I can apply for passport and request correct name in to be displayed there and simultaneously I can apply for new name to reflect in other documents including Citizenship certificate

 

[armoured]

Thank you Armoured. I think as suggested I can go for name change process and along with existing citizenship certificate + name change document I can apply for passport and request correct name in to be displayed there and simultaneously I can apply for new name to reflect in other documents including Citizenship certificate

A small note about why I'm suggesting this way: easy, relatively fast, reliable.

I see there was a question above about whether IRCC issued the name properly against your docs and application, and I don't know the details and what your supporting docs were. So it is possible that it really was an error by IRCC and you could get them to fix it.

But my point - again - is that getting that correction done might take a long time and be a real pain, so my way is just easier and more reliable.

[There's a side issue that if you also have to deal with name change stuff abroad, I am guessing that having the legal name change decision from a Canadian province and the new docs will be a bit more reliably handled abroad than the 'Canada issued a citizenship doc under a new-but-similar name because in Canada we're not all that picky about this stuff'. But that's only a guess and I could be wrong.]

 

[Mexontario]

Hi Delray

In citizenship application also I entered my complete in Family name, because my PR- Copy Of PR (COPR) also has the same stuff. In order to avoid discrepancies I applied to citizenship application also the same way. But now I want to get it corrected, and hence posted the question

First correct it in Ontario ID's (Health card/DL). Then use the same proof you used to get those ID's and apply for passport. We used marriage certificate in our case to get the new last name even though the citizenship certificate has maiden name. More information here

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/change-name.html