New Passport Needed?

[Jack_B]

Hi All,

This is my first post here. I've got some incredibly valuable advice from these boards already, so I'm hoping I might be able to get a bit more guidance. Any help will be enormously appreciated!

My wife is from the Philippines (we married in March) and we are about to go through the nerve-wracking visa application process. I think we have all our documents together, but my wife and I are unsure whether we need to change her passport. We are thinking about this because of several (possibly baseless!) concerns:

First: We can't remember whether the Philippines' passport application process requires a statement on civil status - if it does then I guess we do need a new passport!

Second: My wife's current passport will expire in 2020, so before the end of the 5-years of the spouse visa, so would that affect the visa's validity?

Third: The name on her passport is her maiden name. All of the other documents are also in her maiden name, but we were wondering whether we should change it to a married name. It is not a necessity for wither of us that she changers her name, but wondered whether this might affect the applications.

Any help on this would be such a massive help and hopefully lift a substantial load off our minds!

Jack

[SimonS]

Hi Jack,

I married my wife from Russia in April and recently began the process. I can't answer all of your questions and I'm not an expert, but I can tell you that concernning point 3 we did not change her passport or her name. Very complicated process in Russia, takes about 6 months bacause they have to change internal passport before they can change alien passport and this then affects all of their state pension particulars. All this can be sorted out once you have the Visa.

So, fine for her to apply in maiden name with maiden passport. This is what we did. Just make sure you have the marriage certificate internationally recognised i.e. Apostillised, translated and notarised if married outside of UK. This may also answer Point 1.

As to validitiy of passport, I'm not sure, but I beleive you only get 33 or 36 months on first settlement visa anyway. You then have to apply again for extension for 24 months and renew IHS. Finally you apply for ILR. Been ages since I read the full process but I'm pretty sure that is the new system.

Once again, I reiterate, I'm not an expert and may get shot down by one on here but just giving the benefit of my experience and the knowledge I also acquired on this site and others.

Good luck
Simon

[Jack_B]

Hi Simon,

Thank you very much for such a detailed reply, it's really appreciated. I'll look into it a bit further but your answers correspond with my thoughts, so that's promising!

Jack

[CR001]

Second: My wife's current passport will expire in 2020, so before the end of the 5-years of the spouse visa, so would that affect the visa's validity?

No effect on the visa. She will initially only get a 30 day visa in her passport and will get a BRP card within 10 days of arriving in the UK which she must collect from the nominated Post Office.

Third: The name on her passport is her maiden name. All of the other documents are also in her maiden name, but we were wondering whether we should change it to a married name. It is not a necessity for wither of us that she changers her name, but wondered whether this might affect the applications.

There is no legal requirement in the UK or for a spouse visa that documents must be in her married name. She can continue with her maiden name and documents stating such.