To change names or not?

[Thane 8]

I was looking through some older posts about changing names, especially given the difficult nature of the wife changing her name officially for all Thai documents.

How have you all done it? I noticed that in some older posts some mentioned that they never changed the Thai documents and only used the husband's last name in all new US docs (green card / ssn, etc). Has this ever been an issue for those of you entering / leaving the country with a passport with a maiden name and a GC with a different name? Have there been any issues in just normal day to day things with both?

Finally, is there any easier way other than traveling back to Thailand, or having a family member do it for us at the Amphur?

[Andy and Pui 16]

Pui never changed name on her thai documents. She took my last name when we got married and since she did not have a middle name she took her maiden name as her middle name when we got married. She has been back a few times and had no problems. Just made sure she had certified copy of our marriage license.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Andy and Pui

[Karee 4,190]

I go back and forth on this. As soon as we got married in Thailand, my wife took off that weekend to go back home and changed everything to her married name. ID card, passport, house book, everything. At the time I thought it was amusing. Now every few years there's some Thai govt. official coming out and saying they're considering restricting Thai nationals who are married to foreigners from buying land, and worse, even owning it. Nothing ever seems to come of it. Not only that when she has to deal with anyone there and whips out that ID card with a foreign last name, they assume she's some kind of multi-millionaire because she's married to a farang.

I was there in April and she went and applied to get a bunch of farmland in her name. It was huge fiasco, not because of her last name though, because it's Thailand and when dealing with things like that it's always a huge fiasco. They just asked her about me, and then moved on. It didn't seem to be an issue. However, who knows about the next government that comes into power and wants to whip up nationalist fervor by restricting the evil farang from stealing all their land.

If I had to do it all over again, I would've had her keep her maiden name on everything Thai, and just change her name on the U.S. stuff if that's possible. It appears that it is.

[Thane 8]

I go back and forth on this. As soon as we got married in Thailand, my wife took off that weekend to go back home and changed everything to her married name. ID card, passport, house book, everything. At the time I thought it was amusing. Now every few years there's some Thai govt. official coming out and saying they're considering restricting Thai nationals who are married to foreigners from buying land, and worse, even owning it. Nothing ever seems to come of it. Not only that when she has to deal with anyone there and whips out that ID card with a foreign last name, they assume she's some kind of multi-millionaire because she's married to a farang.

I was there in April and she went and applied to get a bunch of farmland in her name. It was huge fiasco, not because of her last name though, because it's Thailand and when dealing with things like that it's always a huge fiasco. They just asked her about me, and then moved on. It didn't seem to be an issue. However, who knows about the next government that comes into power and wants to whip up nationalist fervor by restricting the evil farang from stealing all their land.

If I had to do it all over again, I would've had her keep her maiden name on everything Thai, and just change her name on the U.S. stuff if that's possible. It appears that it is.

Right, I saw you mention this on one of the posts that I was looking at. Land is definitely something we are concerned about in the future, as her parents are already offering some to us. I always thought that the land was fine as long as you retained your Thai nationality, although again, as you mentioned this seems to change whenever the wind blows.

[AaronLV 12]

My wife uses my last name in the US, and we opted not to change her name in Thailand.

I think in the long run it is easier to keep the Thai name here. No questions come up, where as having a falang last name brings up extra questions that don't necessarily need be asked,

As for travelling we never had an issue with the different last names. We just always carried a copy of the marriage certificate with us, and were never asked for it.

Now that she is a USC it is a moot point. When we book airline tickets I always use her US passport and US name, and then when we get to the airport we show the US & Thai passport to the ticket agent (which shows she doesn't need a visa for Thailand, as we always have RT starting in Thailand). We go through immigration with the Thai passport and then enter the US on the US passport.

There are a few other reasons I think it is a good idea to keep the Thai name, but won't post those on a public forum.