Changing Russian Passport

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This will sound totally crazy, off the wall conspiracy type stuff, but I like the fact that my wife is "Russian" and not "Russian with an American name." She has the blue passport now that she can use anywhere in the world, but there's always that ace in the hole if needed - her Russian passport as well.

The minute we cross back into Russia she's Russian. If she was to have an American name, she's not really Russian anymore, is she? I hate to think of this, but there could be a time somewhere in the near future where being American could possibly endanger you somewhere in the world. Russia could be one of those places. China could be one of those places. America could be one of those places.

There are advantages to having two distinctly different passports and two distinctly different identities. Perhaps you shouldn't negate those advantages.

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My wife recently changed her internal passport to reflect her new married last name. This is how we did it.

USA

1. You need the a copy of the Official Marriage Certificate

-ours indicated if she would keep her maiden name or change to my name... that was easy

2. The County Clerk's Office notarized the Official Marriage Certificate

3. Mailed the Official Marriage Certificate + Notarization to the State for an Apostille, including an application indicating the country, address to mail back, plus check.

4. Received everything in the mail.

Russia

5. In Russia, we had 2 color photographs made.

6. We had all the documents translated into Russian, and then notarized the translations.

7. Brought everything to the neighborhood "Passportist" office. (My wife still had the local registration.)

8. My wife filled out an application for a new passport, we paid the fees, turned in the originals and notarized translated copies.

9. We received a phone call to pick-up her passport the following Thursday. (Turned in on a Monday.)

10. We went in person, once it was her turn, she came in signed her new internal passport, and it was stamped and signed by the officials. We also received the original US marriage certificate and the translated notarized copies.

11. Done

There was not enough time on this trip to change her international passport. Once everything is done locally, the new international passport is produced only in Moscow, due to the Biometric security additions. That would take about 2-3 weeks rushed. We traveled back with her new internal passport, GC, old international passport, marriage certificates, and no problems.

PS We did not translate anything in the US into Russian (waste of money). We did not send anything to the Embassy in DC to verify the translations, waste of time and money. By international law you are not required to get the stamp of approval from the Embassy to use English language documents in Russia, that's what Apostilles do.