Maiden Name and Married Name Issue Between 3 Countries for Sponsorship Application

[spanish-poutine]

Good morning everyone,

We are in a bit of a pickle regarding maiden name vs married name. Following are the details:

- Me (Canadian) want to sponsor my soon to be wife (German) to come to Canada.
- We are getting married soon.
- She will be changing her name to my name
- We live in Spain at the moment where all her documents are under her maiden name (visa document, police certificate, etc.)
- We plan on starting the sponsorship process right after the marriage after she got her new German passport.
- German passport shows very distinctively maiden name AND new married name (don't want to post a link but if you google German woman passport you'll see it)

Now our question is the following: we will be required to send documents from Spain as well as German ones since we live in Spain. Changing all these docs to reflect the new married name is a pain in the ass. We understand Canadian immigration wants to see the same name everywhere, which makes perfect sense. However has anyone ever experienced sending documents such as our Spanish ones with the maiden name, considering said maiden name is clearly visibile on the German passport? Would that be acceptable or not at all?

I guess worse case we wait more and change everyting to the married name in Spain, but if we could avoid that'd be neat.

Let us know! Thanks a lot.

 

[armoured]

We understand Canadian immigration wants to see the same name everywhere, which makes perfect sense.

In my experience, and I think most reported experience here, Canadian immigration (and Canadian institutions in general) are actually very understanding of married/maiden name issues and generally do not care much at all - as long as they can link the names/people and don't think the applicants are playing games or hiding something. Just show your documentation (German passport seems pretty clear) and write a short letter of explanation. If docs are mostly in maiden name, but passport shows Mackenzie née Freihstruk, should be pretty clear.

I think they'll understand that Spanish documents were only available in the maiden name because [something something complicated.]

BUT: if there are issues, it's probably going to be with other authorities, eg if the Spanish wanted her current passport (after marriage) to be exactly the same as all the other docs. I can't think of many this would apply to, except possibly the police certificate (but if she has a spanish id under maiden name, presumably would be ok).

So up to you. Obviously might be easier in some respects to immigrate and then change name in Canada, but my guess is you won't run into many or any issues.

 

[spanish-poutine]

Appreciate you taking the time to answer. I actually thought about writing a letter explaining why and that you can see the maiden name on the passport. I guess i'm worried we will stumble on a grumpy agent that tells us no based on that, that's why I'm worried. I'm definitely not playing games and we are extremely honest haha.

To be clear it'd be only the Spanish documents (I think only the police certificate, gotta double check).

"BUT: if there are issues, it's probably going to be with other authorities,"
Regarding that part do you mean when Canadian authorities communicate with Spanish authorities? Or on our side when we gather documents? Because gathering documents shouldn't be too cumbersome and even quite simple. Changing things such as her name can be annoying though, especially as it's not a common thing to change your maiden name here (I was surprised).


Thanks again for your answer!

 

[armoured]

To be clear it'd be only the Spanish documents (I think only the police certificate, gotta double check).

"BUT: if there are issues, it's probably going to be with other authorities,"
Regarding that part do you mean when Canadian authorities communicate with Spanish authorities? Or on our side when we gather documents? Because gathering documents shouldn't be too cumbersome and even quite simple. Changing things such as her name can be annoying though, especially as it's not a common thing to change your maiden name here (I was surprised).

I only mean about you getting documents from Spanish or other authorities. I don't believe Canadian authorities will care about the docs bearing maiden name as long as other tombstone data matches. The rest of this is entirely routine.

 

[spanish-poutine]

I only mean about you getting documents from Spanish or other authorities. I don't believe Canadian authorities will care about the docs bearing maiden name as long as other tombstone data matches. The rest of this is entirely routine.

Understood, thanks for the clarification, it all makes sense!