Married Surname AN_01 form

[abumoosa786]

Dear members,

first apologies if this has been asked before, I did do a search but results were from pre 2016 and with rules changes I could not find my answer.

My question is I am about to apply for British Citizenship (AN_01 form) for my wife together with the passport form (JCAP) via the NCS.

My wife's passport and Biometric card has her maiden name, while her bank statements, drivers licence and the English tests she took has her married name.

We would like to have the certification and passport in her married name. In section 1.5 of the AN_01 form it requests that the name should match the passport. What do I do in this case?

Can I submit the marriage certificate with the AN_01 form explaining that she wants to use her married name? or do I need to change the name on her foreign passport before I make the application?

There were few posts that date from 2012 that you can use married name and submit marriage certificate but no sure if that still is the case now?

Any help would be gladly appreciated.

Thank you

[alterhase58]

The AN_Guide on page five has the following section on this subject, which sounds straighforward. But I am not familiar with any exceptions to this.

Quote from AN_Guide, page 5:
The name that you give in sections 1.5 and 1.6 should be the same name that is on your current passport, travel document or Biometric Residence Permit. We will not normally issue a certificate of registration or naturalisation in the name that is different from a person’s official documents. Names that do not match your current passport and /or other identity documents, may also cause problems when applying for a British passport.
If you have married or entered a civil partnership and changed your name, and you wish to be registered in that name, you should change your name on your other passport, travel documents and national identity card, to reflect that name, before sending us your application. This is to avoid a person having official documents in more than one identity.

[abumoosa786]

Thanks for your reply,

I have phoned up UKVI directly and they said you can put married name on the form and on section 1.7 put maiden name and enclose marriage certificate

[rotor]

For 100% sure your wife will not be able to get her UK passport until she changes her foreign passport so it is in her married name. Everything else is probably OK, although I'm wondering how she was able to book english test in a different name if they use the passport as the form of ID?

[abumoosa786]

Hi Rotor,

When booking test they did look at passport but also her driving license which is in her married name, and used that as form of ID

I will update this thread once I go to the NCS and submit the forms for JCAP. Sometimes common sense does prevail and I hope this is the case with out application.

Let's see what happens

[rotor]

You will find several threads here about exactly this situation: foreign women who have been using their married names everywhere for years, and when they applied for their first passport, were turned down because their foreign passport is in their maiden name. There is a rule that requires every passport to match *letter for letter, word for word* or they will decline the passport application. NCS may not be aware of this requirement. It's actually quite nasty for some nationalities as they aren't allowed to change their name. One of the threads mentioned the Passport Office saying to them "easy, just renounce your foreign citizenship, job done". It's really poor.

[rotor]

When booking test they did look at passport but also her driving license which is in her married name, and used that as form of ID

The reason I mention is you can't mix and match forms of ID, so if you used the driving license for the test, then I'm confused how that then can be used for your application, which very definitely must be done with the passport. Anyway, I'm sure you're right, just want to warn you to have a good read of everything to make sure you aren't caught out (which is EXTREMELY frustrating).

[abumoosa786]

Thanks rotor,

I am not sure how exactly they managed to use married surname for the tests, obviously they did check everything and was ok for them to go ahead and book tests and confirm it once passed with the certificates in married name.

Worse case they may accept the neutralisation and refuse the passport, work around will be then to renew foreign passport in married name and apply for new passport

However as its a JCAP application I am in hope they may accept it first time around with out any problems. We have marriage certificate to prove name change plus they will look at the test certificates too.

Just have to wait and see what happens, I will keep everyone posted in case they are in similar situation as mine

The other option is to renew passport first then make application JCAP, but would I then have to change the BRP too?