Name Change prior to Oath

[canehdian]

Hi everyone

Just looking for advice, I will contact the CIC to hear what they say, but looking for the cheapest way possible. My (recently married) wife applied for citizenship about 2 years ago. She wrote the test and will be taking the oath at the end of the July. We were married in BC in May, but live/work in Alberta. She wants to keep her maiden name and take my name, i.e. <first name> <middle name> <maiden name> <my last name>. In AB, you don't need to legally change your name for this. In BC (where we were married but do not live), you do.

We are planning a trip in August to the US. I am wondering if anyone has any experience changing their name during the citizenship process (as it's $75 to get a name change on the citizenship certificate after the fact). But since we want her passport shortly after the oath, we want to her have name changed on the certificate so that we don't have to re-issue her passport after the name change (which is just a complete re-issue and you need to pay the $160 for a new 5-year passport).

Any advice?

Thanks

 

[boasorte]

Hi everyone

Just looking for advice, I will contact the CIC to hear what they say, but looking for the cheapest way possible. My (recently married) wife applied for citizenship about 2 years ago. She wrote the test and will be taking the oath at the end of the July. We were married in BC in May, but live/work in Alberta. She wants to keep her maiden name and take my name, i.e. <first name> <middle name> <maiden name> <my last name>. In AB, you don't need to legally change your name for this. In BC (where we were married but do not live), you do.

We are planning a trip in August to the US. I am wondering if anyone has any experience changing their name during the citizenship process (as it's $75 to get a name change on the citizenship certificate after the fact). But since we want her passport shortly after the oath, we want to her have name changed on the certificate so that we don't have to re-issue her passport after the name change (which is just a complete re-issue and you need to pay the $160 for a new 5-year passport).

Any advice?

Thanks

Changing her name during the process is not advisable as it's not as simple as you think it is. I called CIC a while ago and the agent said that making such dramatic change would have caused a delay in the processing of my application.

I also think that at this point she shouldn't mess up the flow of her process, which is very close to the end.
She should go through with the Oath, get her passport(without your last name) then as soon as she gets her passport, she may apply for a new citizenship certificate(which currently takes up to 7 months to be processed).


I can guarantee you that if you ask for her name to be changed right now, she will not have citizenship by your trip date.

 

[screech339]

If I'm not mistaken I do recall reading on the citizenship guide that specifically stated that once you submitted your application you cannot change your name after the fact. Basically it means that you could only change your name after you withdrawn it and resubmitted it again with the new name change request.