Name Change after marriage

RangoliBgnr,

Getting a visa on your maiden name to travel abroad should not be a problem. Your visa will be issued based on the name in your passport. Your marriage certificate is proof that you are legally married to your husband, and therefore you can apply for a visa along with your husband. Sometimes passport issuing authorities may ask for other proof of marriage such as marriage photos, but I was never asked for them and I have received visas to US and Australia along with my husband based on the marriage certificate alone.

PS: I'm shocked that SBI made it so difficult for you to get a joint account! Atrocious! Marriage certificate is enough proof that you and your husband are legally married. All Govt. agencies have to accept documents issued by other Govt. agencies, that's why we apply for such documents in the first place!

 

Here is the quick and easy and VERY GENERAL solution which is valid across the globe.
1) Always use your name, birth and other details as those are in the currently valid passport.
2) If you have variation in your name across different documents(including the wedding or post wedding changes), you dont need to change each and every document with the current name. All you need to do is to execute an affidavit of name variation with a local notary(alternatively, you can even register it with the local registrar office) and keep a copy of that with you always.
To be more specific, you will give a legal statement on the paper saying that due to the variations/mistakes in spelling/after marriage etc, your name needs to be identified as "MyACTUALFIRSTNAME MyACTUALlastName" ..
List all of the variations of your name at the bottom of the affidavit. Get it notarized.
At any point of time, if any authority questions you about your name difference, you can show this affidavit notary copy. Thats it.
3) when you are renewing your passport next time, make sure that your final original name is on the new passport applcation. Also try to add your spouse name as a part of your passprot(last page) spouse name.
Good luck

 

Surname change after marriage is completely optional, and use ur discretion to decide whether to change surname or not. There are no problems using ur maiden name even after marriage, but make sure you use the same surname everywhere that is in the legal documents. But if you wish to change from maiden to married, the most important document to get changed is your passport as most offices use passport as your primary id for reference.

Changing from maiden to married doesn't even mean that both husband and wife will have the same last name. There are many places in India where wife takes husband's first name as her last name after marriage. So no where you can be denied service saying you both don't have a common surname.

You should have questioned SBI's act of denying you a joint account just because you haven't changed your surname after marriage. Sometimes they take advantage of our ignorance. My husband and myself have opened a joint account with SBI when I was still having my maiden name as surname. No questions asked!! I don't even remember showing them our marriage certificate - just the passport copy, addr proof and photographs.