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Split name on renewed Indian passport and travel without updating PR card yet

urstrulyaddy

Star Member
Jan 15, 2019
110
27
Hi, my wife's Indian passport has

Given Name : xxxx yyyy
Surname : <<blank>>

Her PR and Canadian documents are based on her passport i.e. "xxxx yyyy, ".

Now she's travelling to India soon and she plans to renew her passport while being there and along with it split her name into Given Name and Surname as :

Given Name : xxxx
Surname : yyyy

Question : Because she'll be doing this renewal and name split in India, can she travel with her old and new passports and current PR and enter Canada (Ontario) back? Will there be any problem?

We plan to update her PR Card and Canadian docs after she's back.
 

Veejaysingh

Star Member
May 19, 2020
76
4
Hey Man, did you face any problem? I recently renewed my passport and split my name. My pr card has a full name in a single line. I am planning to travel soon. did you face any issues while traveling and coming back? kindly reply what was your experience. thanks
 

armoured

VIP Member
Feb 1, 2015
15,224
7,751
Hey Man, did you face any problem? I recently renewed my passport and split my name. My pr card has a full name in a single line. I am planning to travel soon. did you face any issues while traveling and coming back? kindly reply what was your experience. thanks
This comes up all the time and there's no single answer about how exactly it works.

The best anyone can do is tell you - usually - that there are far LESS chances of trouble if there is some document that specifies that this is a LEGAL NAME CHANGE. Ideally a document that says "X changed his name to Y and now is legally known as Y." (In legal language of course.). That's how it would be done in all Canadian provinces.

The problem with the general question of saying "I'm having my name split" is that it doesn't make it clear that ... this is a legal name change.

At any rate - if not obvious - carry copies of all previous docs possible in order to show (ideally with photo id where the pictures show unambiguously that it is the same person) that the names are the same and just 're-arranged' on the passport.

Anecdotally: there SEEM to be fewer problems at arrival in Canada i.e. at the port of entry. This may be because Canadian passports are (not infrequently) issued under customary names eg Jonathan as Jon, and they seem to be familiar with the issue of PRs with single names. Or they're just not willing to deal with the paperwork to send someone back once they've physically flown to Canada.

The more problematic issue seems to come up with airlines, whose gate personnel may not be as familiar and are incentivized to say no if they're in doubt. So: check with the airline. It won't help you much to know what CBSA personnel are likely to do on arrival if you can/t board the plane.
 

urstrulyaddy

Star Member
Jan 15, 2019
110
27
Hey Man, did you face any problem? I recently renewed my passport and split my name. My pr card has a full name in a single line. I am planning to travel soon. did you face any issues while traveling and coming back? kindly reply what was your experience. thanks
No problem travelling in and out with the current PR Card in our experience.
 

sudu89in

Member
Jun 25, 2019
11
0
Hello,

I am in the same boat. I have split my names on the passport, however my PR card still shows a single name. I have a travel coming up and I want to know if ther was any problem traveling from India to Canada.

Anyone who has traveled with split names on passport, but single name on the PR card, please let me know your experience. Did you face any problem at the airport?

Thank you.
 

urstrulyaddy

Star Member
Jan 15, 2019
110
27
Hello,

I am in the same boat. I have split my names on the passport, however my PR card still shows a single name. I have a travel coming up and I want to know if ther was any problem traveling from India to Canada.

Anyone who has traveled with split names on passport, but single name on the PR card, please let me know your experience. Did you face any problem at the airport?

Thank you.
No problem at the airport.