Change of last name when applying for Canadian passport after citizenship

[Tinakumarjung]

Hi,

I got my Canadian citizenship certificate in October 2022. When I applied for PR, I was in married. But I recently got divorced. I want to change my last name (Husband's last name) to previous one (before marriage). I am currently filling the application for Canadian passport. Please let me know if it is possible to get my last name changed in the application. Please let me know what are the documents needed.

 

[wink]

Hi,

I got my Canadian citizenship certificate in October 2022. When I applied for PR, I was in married. But I recently got divorced. I want to change my last name (Husband's last name) to previous one (before marriage). I am currently filling the application for Canadian passport. Please let me know if it is possible to get my last name changed in the application. Please let me know what are the documents needed.

Legal name change is a provincial matter. Based on where you live, follow the steps. link for some of the provinces:

https://www.alberta.ca/legal-name-change.aspx
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/life-events/legal-changes-of-name/legal-change-of-name-application
https://vitalstats.gov.mb.ca/change_of_name.html
https://www.ontario.ca/page/change-name

Once you get the certificate (with the changed name), then you can apply for the passport.
Another option is to get the passport with your current name, get the legal name changed and then get another passport with your maiden name.

 

[armoured]

Hi,

I got my Canadian citizenship certificate in October 2022. When I applied for PR, I was in married. But I recently got divorced. I want to change my last name (Husband's last name) to previous one (before marriage). I am currently filling the application for Canadian passport. Please let me know if it is possible to get my last name changed in the application. Please let me know what are the documents needed.

you should be able to apply for a passport under your maiden name (revert to your pre-marriage last name) on the basis of the divorce judgment.

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

Note, you are more likely to have this go smoothly if you chnage at least some other documents (eg driver's license, health card, maybe a bnk card) first.

Good luck.

 

[wink]

you should be able to apply for a passport under your maiden name (revert to your pre-marriage last name) on the basis of the divorce judgment.

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

Note, you are more likely to have this go smoothly if you chnage at least some other documents (eg driver's license, health card, maybe a bnk card) first.

Good luck.

Good to know.. Thanks.

 

[Tinakumarjung]

you should be able to apply for a passport under your maiden name (revert to your pre-marriage last name) on the basis of the divorce judgment.

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

Note, you are more likely to have this go smoothly if you chnage at least some other documents (eg driver's license, health card, maybe a bnk card) first.

Good luck.

Thanks for your reply. So, can I get the name changed in any other document on the basis of divorce judgement? I am asking because I have my passport appointment on 23rd Dec. There are only 3 days left. So, not sure if I will be able to get any of these quickly.

 

[armoured]

Thanks for your reply. So, can I get the name changed in any other document on the basis of divorce judgement? I am asking because I have my passport appointment on 23rd Dec. There are only 3 days left. So, not sure if I will be able to get any of these quickly.

I don't know, depends on province. If you do apply for eg drivers' license change, at least in Ontario you'd get a temporary license (print out that they have changed) to use with your old photo ID until you get the new photo card by mail. But you'll have to figure out what's needed for other docs.

But you have left this to last minute, if it's for travel in near term you may have to decide what to do - get passport in old name for now and update when you're finished with travel, or take time to get documents nad then get passport rushed. It may work to go and apply for passport without getting other docs, don't know. Try it and tell others here after.

 

[Tinakumarjung]

Sure. I dont have any travel plans in near future. But still I will go with divorce judgement to my passport appointment & see what happens. Will surely update how it went.

 

[armoured]

Sure. I dont have any travel plans in near future. But still I will go with divorce judgement to my passport appointment & see what happens. Will surely update how it went.

Good luck. If they won't accept what you have you might be able to ask for another appointment in a few weeks to give you time to get whatever else they want.

 

[Tinakumarjung]

So, here is the final update: I was able to get temporary Driver's license with my maiden name by showing the divorce certificate before my Canadian passport appointment.

Next, I went for the Canadian passport appointment with the copy of temporary driver's license & they took all my papers. After few days I got an email from the officer who was looking into my case that they will not be able to change my name in passport. I shared a copy of expired Indian passport which had my maiden name. I also sent her a copy of my marriage certificate which showed my maiden name. I told her that I never changed my name legally & just added the last name after marriage. But she insisted that I have to go through whole name change procedure which will take months. Surprisingly, next day she gave me a call telling me that she discussed it with her colleague & decided that based on my name in marriage certificate they are issuing me the passport in my maiden name because I never legally changed my name .

 

[armoured]

So, here is the final update: I was able to get temporary Driver's license with my maiden name by showing the divorce certificate before my Canadian passport appointment.

Next, I went for the Canadian passport appointment with the copy of temporary driver's license & they took all my papers. After few days I got an email from the officer who was looking into my case that they will not be able to change my name in passport. I shared a copy of expired Indian passport which had my maiden name. I also sent her a copy of my marriage certificate which showed my maiden name. I told her that I never changed my name legally & just added the last name after marriage. But she insisted that I have to go through whole name change procedure which will take months. Surprisingly, next day she gave me a call telling me that she discussed it with her colleague & decided that based on my name in marriage certificate they are issuing me the passport in my maiden name because I never legally changed my name .

Congrats.

In my view they are absolutely wrong that you need to 'change your name' (eg via the court application name-change proceess) - at least in Ontario. But if you had had time to get the permanent driver's license and one or two other docs, they would have backed down more quickly or on your first visit.

It's unfortunate that they used this nonsense explanation that you 'never legally changed your name' but not worth debating the legal aspects with them. Ontario and I believe other provinces make it easy to revert to your maiden name when divorced, and that is sufficient - it is as 'legal' a name change as assuming your spouse's name upon marriage - that is, it absolutely 'counts' as a legal name change, it is just a different process.

That sounds a bit harsh, I'm actually a bit sympathetic as one can't expect them all to be experts, but on your first visit they should have been able to figure this out with a supervisor. Also arguably you somewhat muddied the waters by not changing name on your Indian passport and not calling it a name change.

Anyway all worked out in the end.