How Long Will It Take To Change My Passport Name?

[snowcat 58]

I am thinking of looking into changing my passport name to my married name (using my EAD/AP) in July when I come back from a scheduled Philippine trip. Thing is, my husband and I are planning to travel back to the Philippines first week of February 2019 to hold our long-awaited wedding ceremony/reception with family and friends there. Will that give me enough time to get my passport back in my married name? Or should I just wait until after our Feb 2019 trip to do it, to avoid risks? Just slightly annoying to have to wait 30 mins-1 hour at Secondary Screening whenever I travel due to the mismatch in passport name and EAD/AP card ;p But obviously not that big of a deal if I am risking not having a passport by the time I need to travel the the PH in Feb next year... pretty important that I get it by then as I can't not be there for my own wedding ;p 

[javadown2 308]

16 minutes ago, snowcat said:

I am thinking of looking into changing my passport name to my married name (using my EAD/AP) in July when I come back from a scheduled Philippine trip. Thing is, my husband and I are planning to travel back to the Philippines first week of February 2019 to hold our long-awaited wedding ceremony/reception with family and friends there. Will that give me enough time to get my passport back in my married name? Or should I just wait until after our Feb 2019 trip to do it, to avoid risks? Just slightly annoying to have to wait 30 mins-1 hour at Secondary Screening whenever I travel due to the mismatch in passport name and EAD/AP card ;p But obviously not that big of a deal if I am risking not having a passport by the time I need to travel the the PH in Feb next year... pretty important that I get it by then as I can't not be there for my own wedding ;p 

Are you fairly close to a Philippines consulate in the US? If so from what I've seen in other posts it takes about 8-10 weeks(conservative estimate). I think you will have plenty of time to do this before Feb of next year. 

[Greenbaum 12,259]

If you do it from the states its about 3 to 4 weeks. We just did my wife's passport through Wash DC on an outreach program.

[doggieandsam 765]

you should have enough time from now until Feb 2019. the official timeline from the embassy staff is 6-8 weeks for you to get your passport back but you could easily get it faster than that. i recently did mine in april and i got my passport back in 4 weeks. obviously, do not wait to do it at the last minute and put enough buffer time just in case.

 

1 hour ago, snowcat said:

Just slightly annoying to have to wait 30 mins-1 hour at Secondary Screening whenever I travel due to the mismatch in passport name and EAD/AP card ;p 

correct me if i'm wrong, but i always thought secondary screening is done because you are using AP and not because the name of your AP and passport does not match. so say, even if your EAD/AP and passport are both in your married names, you WILL still need to go into secondary because you are using AP. anyway, i am prollie just nitpicking, but i just want to clarify that.

[javadown2 308]

You should be used to the long waits in the Philippines, haha

Edited May 23, 2018 by javadown2

[snowcat 58]

Thanks everyone! I will definitely work on it as soon as I return from our 10-day Philippine trip in July.

 

22 hours ago, doggieandsam said:

you should have enough time from now until Feb 2019. the official timeline from the embassy staff is 6-8 weeks for you to get your passport back but you could easily get it faster than that. i recently did mine in april and i got my passport back in 4 weeks. obviously, do not wait to do it at the last minute and put enough buffer time just in case.

 

correct me if i'm wrong, but i always thought secondary screening is done because you are using AP and not because the name of your AP and passport does not match. so say, even if your EAD/AP and passport are both in your married names, you WILL still need to go into secondary because you are using AP. anyway, i am prollie just nitpicking, but i just want to clarify that.

Huh, I actually don't know re: waiting at secondary cause of AP! From the posts I read before I thought it was just because my passport is not in my married name yet... If anyone here can provide clarification for this, that would be great!

 

22 hours ago, javadown2 said:

You should be used to the long waits in the Philippines, haha

Lol but I thought one of the main perks of living here was supposed to be the lack of long waits! ;p (Though when I wait 2 hours at DMV and everyone else around me is complaining, I'm just super chill and smirking to myself, thinking 2 hours is nothin---LTO in the Philippines would take me the entire day...)

[javadown2 308]

20 minutes ago, snowcat said:

Thanks everyone! I will definitely work on it as soon as I return from our 10-day Philippine trip in July.

 

Huh, I actually don't know re: waiting at secondary cause of AP! From the posts I read before I thought it was just because my passport is not in my married name yet... If anyone here can provide clarification for this, that would be great!

 

Lol but I thought one of the main perks of living here was supposed to be the lack of long waits! ;p (Though when I wait 2 hours at DMV and everyone else around me is complaining, I'm just super chill and smirking to myself, thinking 2 hours is nothin---LTO in the Philippines would take me the entire day...)

Problem is that your still waiting on the Philippines for your passport! But honestly it sounds like they getting done fairly fast. I'm not sure about the whole waiting in line thing at the airport since my wife and I haven't been back to her home yet, but we will be in October....but by then you can tell everyone how it goes for you! 

 

The DMV and the SSA offices do have some long waits, but like you said..nothing compared to the Philippines. My wife says the same thing, be patient...2-4 hours is nothing. Or she suggests: why don't we get their early before they open up and wait, I'm like what?...we don't do that here...lol. 

 

 

[snowcat 58]

On 5/24/2018 at 1:53 PM, javadown2 said:

Problem is that your still waiting on the Philippines for your passport! But honestly it sounds like they getting done fairly fast. I'm not sure about the whole waiting in line thing at the airport since my wife and I haven't been back to her home yet, but we will be in October....but by then you can tell everyone how it goes for you! 

 

The DMV and the SSA offices do have some long waits, but like you said..nothing compared to the Philippines. My wife says the same thing, be patient...2-4 hours is nothing. Or she suggests: why don't we get their early before they open up and wait, I'm like what?...we don't do that here...lol. 

 

 

Hehehe I understand your wife's sentiments - in the Philippines if you decide to go before any office opens to skip the line, it won't even really work because there will already be a long line even at 6AM!  

[dynb 17]

On 5/24/2018 at 4:28 PM, snowcat said:

Huh, I actually don't know re: waiting at secondary cause of AP! From the posts I read before I thought it was just because my passport is not in my married name yet... If anyone here can provide clarification for this, that would be great!

We went to Toronto last week. I used my expired green card in my married name (with the NOA extension of 1 year/I751), marriage certificate (certified true copy with seal) and my passport still in my maiden name. I did not go to a second screening going to Toronto and coming back to the US. So, might be because you're using AP.

Edited June 6, 2018 by dynb

[snowcat 58]

4 minutes ago, dynb said:

We went to Toronto last week. I used my expired green card (with the NOA extension of 1 year/I-751), marriage certificate (certified true copy with seal) and my passport still in my maiden name. I did not go to a second screening going to Toronto and coming back to the US. So, might be because you're using AP.

Thanks for your input! If that's the case it's kind of useless to change my passport name to my married name before getting my green card then..... sigh........ I hope I get my green card soon

[dynb 17]

10 minutes ago, snowcat said:

Thanks for your input! If that's the case it's kind of useless to change my passport name to my married name before getting my green card then..... sigh........ I hope I get my green card soon

We flew via Air Canada and the person at the airline ticket counter gave us a tip saying that if we're flying to a country like France, they're more strict there and will not allow me to board the plane if my passport name and green card don't match (even with a marriage cert. They're just more flexible in North America, he said). So, I'm having my passport name updated (it's expiring sometime next year anyway) to save me a lot of grief in the future.

Edited June 6, 2018 by dynb