Name changes, Citizenships and Passports

[Rowela and Jeff 0]

When my wife and I got married 3 years ago, I encouraged her of the USA practice of only changing her last name when she got married, not knowing until later of the Philippines custom to change both the middle name AND the last name (for those of you that don't know, the maiden last name now becomes her new middle name).

We reported the name change to the Philippines embassy in Chicago and pressed on. We're now to the point where we can almost apply for her citizenship in USA (3 years if married to USA citizen), and we thought about changing her middle name to the one she would have liked when we got married.

We had initially thought to let her Philippines passport expire in 2014 and then later when we had the $$$, we would go to Chicago to apply for her dual-citizenship. However, with her passport being one name, the change of address form showing a different name, and her naturalization certificate showing a third name, would she have any difficulty in obtaining another Philippines passport with her new U.S. name? (The one with her new middle name) Are any other documents required other than the application, passport, marriage license, Philipines name change document with the name from the marriage license, and Certificate of US citizenship? What do we need to do in order to change her name legally with Philippines?

Wish I understood the name change custom from the beginning...

Edited November 10, 2012 by Rowela and Jeff

[amykathleen2005 441]

Wish I understood the name change custom from the beginning...

Shouldn't that have been her decision/responsibility and not yours?

[Rowela and Jeff 0]

Shouldn't that have been her decision/responsibility and not yours?

Well, I feel responsible for the mistake because when she wanted to do first name - maiden name - new last name, I thought she was talking about a hyphenated last name (example: John Doe-Smith), so I asked her "why wouldn't you want it your new last name only?" So, in a way, I talked her out of what she originally wanted to do, and then I understood a month or two later that the old last name becomes the new middle name and it wasn't hyphenated.

I saw where we could do a name change when she does her US Citizenship (and yeah, she would like to change the middle name to her maiden name), but I'm not sure if that would mess up the paperwork involved in trying to get her dual citizenship back with Philippines, and getting a new Philippines passport.

[let-it-be 36]

In all my paper works after I got married, I used the Philippine custom for name change. I dropped my mother's middle name & replaced it with my father's last name.

Maiden Name:

First Name: Marie Ann

Middle Name: Gomez

Last Name: Flores

Married Name:

First Name: Marie Ann

Middle Name: Flores

Last Name: Smith

The Philippine Consulate automatically used my middle name as my children's middle name when we applied for their Philippine passports despite the fact that in my children's US birth certificates their middle names are different.

US Birth certificate:

First Name: John

Middle Name: Dale

Last Name: Smith

Philippine Passport:

First Name: John Dale

Middle Name: Flores

Last Name: Smith

They told me that when they issue passports they will go by the Philippine standard for name change.

So your wife won't have any problems at all when she applies for her dual-citizenship.

Edited November 10, 2012 by let-it-be

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

I have 3 different passports, 2 different names, and I keep US and non-US affairs separate.

What that means in your case is this: your wife has a US name, a US passport, a US driver's license, and all related US documents in her US name.

She also has a Philippines name, a Philippines passport, presumably a Philippines driver's license, and all Philippines documents in her Philippines name.