Did anyone change their last name on their passpost after the wedding? Did you just get the amendment added to the last page? If so, did it create any issues for you when traveling?
I have heard from a few people that it is easier to just get a whole new passport with your new name on it, but my current passport is vaild for 5 more years and I would rather not spend the $97 for a new passport if I can avoid it!
I have traveled more than 15+ times to the British Virgin Islands, flights in and out of the US virgin islands and once to Germany using my amended passport with no difficulties. They just check out the ammendment on the last page..and some don't even look at the amendment!
The only thing that is annoying about it is if you are using it at an airport self-check in where you can scan your passport, you will have to get an airline employee to come over and check it and verify your name. I'm only mentioning this because when we went to Mexico in May, I had to wait 15 minutes for someone to come and look at my passport because we were at a kiosk for carry-ons only and there weren't any employees nearby. Had I known, we would have just gone in the regular line.
Other than that it's no big deal - they all know to look at the last page for the amendment. Initially I was thinking about getting a new one too but after traveling with it, I definitely don't want to spend the money when it's not all that much of a hassle.
I had mine amended to read my hyphenated last name. Now I'm divorced and I've just left it alone. First, I admittedly don't want to lose all my stamps from my traveling and second, since the front page says my name now before I was married. I've traveled outside of the country several times after my divorce and have had no problems at all. In fact, I was just in Mexico last month and when I scanned my passport even though the hyphenated last name is technically the name it's under, I had no issues at all. Spit out my ticket and I was on my merry way.
Yeah, that makes sense - my tickets were in my married name but the part of the passport that scans still reads my maiden name so it recognized that there was a difference. Sorry, I don't think I was very clear in my previous post! If you use your maiden name and that is what your passport originally said, I guess no one would even look for the amendment!
HeatherFL - when you get a new passport, they will send the old one back with holes punched in it so you can keep your stamps - I have all of my old passports. Or did you mean that you like having all of the stamps in the passport you use? (You probably already know this - I know you travel all of the time so I feel pretty ridiculous telling you anything about traveling )
I'm so glad you started this, Sabrina! DH and I are planning a trip to Mexico for next month. Even though we've been married for almost three years, I still haven't changed my name on my passport. At this point I don't want to bother with it and may just book everything in my maiden name. However, I'm not familiar with the ammendment. Can somebody tell me how that works?
You can download the forms from here: Passport Name Change and then you mail/bring the form and your passport to a passport office.
They print that you have officially changed your name way in the back section of the passport where there is an Amendments section. So if you change it and go to the airport, the airline employee will have to flip to the back section to verify that your name has been changed since the main information page with your picture will not be changed.
Passport Questions...
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