Name Change in Russia

[TomZ 0]

Hi All,

A couple questions that I wanted to ask on behalf of my new wife who has just traveled back to Russia with her Advanced Parole in hand. She recently renewed her foreign passport (before getting K1 Visa) and will have the opportunity to renew it again with her new last name. Advantage is that they recently changed the expiration from 5 years to 10 years. We think this is a good idea especially considering all the questions she got at security with ticket in new name and foreign passport in old name (but since we filed for AOS in new name with Advanced Parole docs, we figured her tickets should be in new name also.) Question: Does it make sense to change her name on her inner passport also? She will be there for two months and this should be enough time for her to drop off the paper work and then return in a month to pick them up. Any problems that people can think of using a US Marriage license to change your name in Russia? Also, we received two copies of the Advanced Parole form. Does this mean she can only make two trips? Will Customs and Border Patrol ask her to surrender one when she returns? Thanks.

[Neonred 3,517]

We tried this a few years ago when we were in Russia but had troubles and decided it wasn't worth it.

You will need a translated and apostilled copy of the marriage certificate showing her new name as well as her old name. Our marriage certificate from here in FL did not indicate her new name and this was the trouble we ran into. Once that is acceptable she will have to change her internal passport first, then she will be able to change her international passport.

My wife renewed her international passport here in the US at the Russian embassy by mail a few years back. She also had them add the notation indicating her new married name which has worked well for us. Some have indicated that the procedures for renewing in the US have changed, as they do so often.

Good luck to her.

[dxt7339 1]

We had a friend return to Russia to Renew internal and international passports and change her name. She ended up having to stay fo about 6 months because of all the difficulties. My wife renewed her International Passport in January. The Russian Embassy require a personal appearance to bring you application and passport and again a personal appearance to pick up your new passport. NOTHING BY MAIL. It is possible to have a "power of attorney" and someone else deliver or pickup the passports/documents, however this is risky as the procedures are not clear on the website and telephone information talking to them is unreliable. We had a little problem with my wifes daughter's passport documents and she was not with us at the embassy. My wife also got the stamp in her new passport that provided her married name. It cost an extra $60 for this and was supposed to be paid separately from the passport fee, however, we were not told this and the instructions do not cover this and wehad a postal money order for the total amount.. It was another problem to solve.

This summer my wife returned to Russia to renew her internal passport, which must be done at age 45, which she was 1.5 years too late. Cost an extra $150 in fines. But we could only afford her to be there for 2 weeks and so we only tried to renew without name change and she was able to accomplish this with only 1 day to spare.

We tried this a few years ago when we were in Russia but had troubles and decided it wasn't worth it.

You will need a translated and apostilled copy of the marriage certificate showing her new name as well as her old name. Our marriage certificate from here in FL did not indicate her new name and this was the trouble we ran into. Once that is acceptable she will have to change her internal passport first, then she will be able to change her international passport.

My wife renewed her international passport here in the US at the Russian embassy by mail a few years back. She also had them add the notation indicating her new married name which has worked well for us. Some have indicated that the procedures for renewing in the US have changed, as they do so often.

Good luck to her.

[TomZ 0]

Thanks for the responses. We do have both current and former last names on the marriage license, but did not get it translated--didn't have time prior to her urgent departure. We're hoping that she can find someone to do the translating in her home city. It is also good to know that she does in fact need to have the name change on her inner passport prior. It might save her some runaround--which sounds quite common in this situation.

Any advice on the Advanced Parole process for her return trip???

[slim 1,514]

While it is possible to do it with a bunch of headache (see neon's post) I'm not really sure what the benefit would be. For all intents and purposes, when she's in Russia, she's not married. Neither are you, for that matter. When she's here, she's not "XXXXXXova" anymore, she's her new name. All documents and status truly are separate unless you go through the headache of making it mesh.

As for coming back with AP, shouldn't be any "process" she should just walk through the line, show her AP docs and keep on going.

[Neonred 3,517]

That's exactly right, Slim. Her green card has her new name, her US drivers license has her new name, her social security card has her new name, and even her Russian passport has her new name notation on a separate page. Her US passport will have her new name. We couldn't find a good reason to jump through all the hoops, wait way to long in Russia, and pay bribes just to change the name in the Russian passport.

[slim 1,514]

My wife just renewed her Russian passport (zagran) and kept her old name because she didn't feel like fooling with the new name. She has one name in Russia and one name here.

She also informed me they don't do "the stamp" anymore (Washington DC, unknown at the other embassies) because of a law change. She said they will change the name in the passport but then folks are required to go to Russia with apostilled marriage cert and any related paperwork. (I guess that's to show the difference between zagran and propiska if necessary.) I guess they will change the name in the passport if all that info is hand-carried to the embassy and special fees are paid, etc., but then a relatively similar process is required back in Russia to change propiska on the next visit.

All that for what? Consistency?

If you're married to a Russian, you have no business worrying about consistency anymore!

[TomZ 0]

I thought I would update anyone that might be interested in this topic. And thanks for the advice regarding the apostille. I had no exposure to this previously and it turns out we definitely needed it (translated of course) and attached to the marriage license (also translated). They took these two documents, with a little hassle since they did not understand that my county does not release the original marriage license--only a certified copy. But a few hundred rubles and 10 days later, my wife now has her new internal passport with her new name and also our marriage information in it. She will not have to renew this for many years (age 45 if I am not mistaken) and she now has this to submit for her foreign passport which will be good for ten years versus her current one which was only good for 5 years. This also cost only a few hundred rubles and now she will not have to worry about which name to use when booking tickets, etc. A little extra effort for the sake of consistency, plus a few other benefits, and since she needed to be there for a few months anyway, it certainly seemed economically better than trying to do it here in the states.

[slim 1,514]

If you can remember, TomZ, can you update after tax season to tell us whether or not her taxes went up? This only applies if she owns property or is on someone else's address.(Did she change her address for propiska?)

I've long heard that changing the name on propiska leads to a higher assessment since they know the person "living there" is now married to a foreigner or living abroad. Please confirm or deny if you can.