Name on Residency Card

[deewee]

Hi,

finally - after nearly 5 months - my wife's residency card arrived today... but the name doesn't look right. Let me explain in detail:

- She is Latvian national, we got married 2014 here in the UK and she took my last name
- The Latvian authorities changed her last name in her Latvian passport to something similar, since some letters do not exist - eg a "W" turned unto a "V" and a "CH" was dropped completely. Phonetically it sounds similar to my last name, but the spelling is completely different.
- This spelling is on the laminated page of her passport, on the first paper page under the category "The original form of the name transliterated in Latin alphabet" is the correctly spelled name.
- She submitted her EEA PR application with the correct last name, all documents/P60/... were in the correct name
- In the PR card that arrived today, her name is spelled the Latvian way! GRRRRRRRRR......

We want to apply for citizenship asap, does anyone have experience with this kind of name issue? Is it possible to change this? Will it cause issues with the citizenship application? (The citizenship test and language certificate are in her correct name!)

Any advice?

Thank you in advance,

Best
Deewee

[deewee]

bump....

Any idea/advice? Every bit is highly appreciated, since we do not want to spend £1300 and lose all due to incomplete paperwork!

[deewee]

Hi,

a brief follow-up, it might help others...

1) We challenged the Home Office on the name on the residency card, to my surprise we got a reply within 3 weeks! (miracles happen!). The HO letter states, that the only name they can take into consideration, and the only spelling of the name they consider, is the spelling on the machine readable page of the passport (the laminated page), everything else is irrelevant concerning names.

2) Today my wife had her NCS appointment and the really nice lady phoned the HO to get more guidance, since she never had a case like this. The guidance was the same we got as letter and in addition, that the only way to get a passport in her correct (not Latvian spellt) name is:
a) apply with the "wrong" name on the laminated page to get the citizenship ceremony and certificate, do not use the combined citizenship and passport service
b) with the citizenship certificate (in the wrong name), do a name change by deed poll to the correct one.
c) with the citizenship certificate and the deed poll, apply for the first UK passport in the right name.

Administrative nightmare - but seems to be the only way!

Cheers
Deewee