Anybody here knows about name change? I have applied for citizenship in February and will be getting married in August.
Should I change my name before or after the process?
I would like to not "mess with it" and just change my name after everything is processed but I read that I would have to apply and pay for a new passport - I am not just adding his name to mine but instead
moving my last name to middle name and
using his last name and I understand a legal name change needs to be done.
With that new piece of information I wonder if I should change my name before my passport is issued... Thoughts?
If you are going to do a legal change of name you would need to get a citizenship certificate issued in the new name before you can apply for a passport.
(If you only wish to take the new surname then no new citizenship certificate is needed to get a passport with that name; the marriage certificate and one piece of ID with that name would suffice.)
Note that if you live in Quebec a name change may not be possible at all; Quebec does not permit people to take their spouse's name (and has restrictions on name changes in general).
Some provinces have cheaper name change processes available soon after marriage. That may or may not be a consideration.
I don't know about processing times elsewhere, but in Ontario it takes 4-6 weeks after the name change to receive the name change certificate (which would be on top of the time it takes to receive the official marriage certificate, which you need to apply for the name change), in which case it's likely going to be at least September and maybe October before you have the necessary documentation.
That's 7 to 8 months after your citizenship application started, so there's a good chance you will have been invited to a citizenship ceremony by then. Which would mean you'd need to request a new citizenship certificate ($75 and 5 months wait), after which you could apply for a passport in your new name, sometime in February/March.
(If you are planning on applying for a passport in your current name immediately after the citizenship ceremony: if that's after your wedding make sure you still have ID with your maiden name on it when you apply. If you have changed all your identity documents you may not be able to get the passport.)
Of course, if you've not been invited to a ceremony at that time you can just submit the name change stuff to IRCC, and you'd get your initial citizenship certificate in the right name. If they invite you sometime close to that time you could contact IRCC and see if they'd be willing to reschedule you for some time after you've provided the name change documentation... (if they say yes you've saved yourself a possible 5 months of waiting).
I'm not sure if you could change your name now (you'd not get the discount, certainly), before your marriage, but if that is an option it would let you send the name change certificate to IRCC, so your initial citizenship certificate would be issued in the new name.
But, if you do that: would you need to change your home country passport so it matches your new name? You'll need to keep your current passport available for review at your citizenship test and interview (so whether or not that's even an option depends on your embassy's process).
You also need to take ID (driver's licence, health card,...) to the test and interview. Depending on your province's process for name changes you could be without the expected documents for your test and interview (though you'd have documentation issued by your province to explain why you don't have the documents, so that should not be much of an issue).
As to the question asking if you should wait or not... I don't have an answer, really, as there's no perfect solution.
