Change name on PR card

[Tugboats]

Hello everyone,

Apologies if this has been asked before - I did a general search and nothing relevant came up.

I've been a PR for just over 4 years, I meet the requirements for citizenship in a couple months. I am also getting married in September - and will be taking my husband's last name. With regards to changing my name on my PR card - should I do this before or after submitting a citizenship application?

The timing of everything is making my head hurt....

 

[thecoolguysam]

Hello everyone,

Apologies if this has been asked before - I did a general search and nothing relevant came up.

I've been a PR for just over 4 years, I meet the requirements for citizenship in a couple months. I am also getting married in September - and will be taking my husband's last name. With regards to changing my name on my PR card - should I do this before or after submitting a citizenship application?

The timing of everything is making my head hurt....

Why do you want to renew pr card? Is it expiring soon? Do you need to travel abroad?
If there is no need to travel abroad, renewing pr card is not required and you can still apply for citizenship even if the PR card is expired.
If you are planning to renew pr card before marriage then you can just renew it with the current name you have. Also, if you are planning to apply citizenship before marriage, you need to have your current name mentioned on it.

Simple solution is if you are applying for citizenship before marriage and once you get your citizenship(the process might finish after your marriage in September), apply again to get a new citizenship certificate with new last name(only after marriage). Replacement citizenship certificate takes about 6 months. If the citizenship process finishes before your marriage, then apply for new citizenship certificate after marriage with the new name.
If you apply citizenship after marriage, just simply apply citizenship with new last name.

You may need to attach your marriage certificate in order to change the last name.

 

[Tugboats]

Thanks for your reply - yes it expires right around the time of the wedding - 2 months after.

We were hoping to go on extended honeymoon...

 

[thecoolguysam]

If you want to renew pr card before marriage, renew with current name. If you want to renew pr card after marriage, renew it with new name.
Same goes for citizenship.

When you get married and if your citizenship application is still in process, you may apply for name change during the processing however, it may delay your application and the application will become non-routine. So, it is up to you how you want to proceed.