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  1. #1

    Default Spouse and I Made Up a New Last Name, but Mine's Not Quite Legal

    My question involves name change laws in the State of: Wisconsin.

    Several years after my husband and I got married, we decided to create a new surname for ourselves. He got a court order legally changing his name, and as for myself, a DMV employee changed my last name on my driver's license. Apparently, that's not exactly how it should have been done. I was able to change my social security card to the new name. However, I'm now trying to apply for a passport so I can leave the country in April. When I asked about this situation at the post office today, I was told that even having both our birth certificates and marriage certificate (with our birth names) and his court order (with our new last name) is not going to be sufficient to obtain a passport for myself.

    I am hoping that we can apply for another marriage license and get married again, with our current name, in order to prove that we are, in fact, who we say we are. My only concern is that I no longer have any identification with my birth name listed on it. Even my professional license is under my current name. Based on that, it seems like even trying to do a court ordered name change would be difficult because everything I have identifies me by the name I've been using for the last 7 years. Any thoughts?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Somewhere near Canada
    Posts
    35,894

    Default Re: Spouse and I Made Up a New Last Name, but Mine's Not Quite Legal

    Take a look at what the State Dept will accept:

    http://travel.state.gov/passport/get...first_830.html


  3. #3

    Default Re: Spouse and I Made Up a New Last Name, but Mine's Not Quite Legal

    I have those documents, but the problem is that there's nothing officially showing how I got from my birth name to the name I'm currently using, since my husband didn't legally change his last name until years after we were married.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Somewhere near Canada
    Posts
    35,894

    Default Re: Spouse and I Made Up a New Last Name, but Mine's Not Quite Legal

    You can't get remarried - you're already married. You'd need to get divorced first and then remarry.

    But seriously, the State should be fine with your State-issued photo ID.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Spouse and I Made Up a New Last Name, but Mine's Not Quite Legal

    Again, according to everyone I've talked to about this, the state is NOT fine with my state-issued photo ID.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Somewhere near Canada
    Posts
    35,894

    Default Re: Spouse and I Made Up a New Last Name, but Mine's Not Quite Legal

    Did you actually call the State Dept?

    Go there in person?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Spouse and I Made Up a New Last Name, but Mine's Not Quite Legal

    The State Department says they will be. Stop listening to "everyone" and go straight to the source.

    If THEY say they won't be fine with it, ask THEM what options you have.

    The post office is not the State Department. It is not the post office who gets to decide what the State Department will accept.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Spouse and I Made Up a New Last Name, but Mine's Not Quite Legal

    Yes, I did actually talk to someone in the state passport department. They seemed to think it was going to be an issue for me to use the documents and identification I currently have, since there's no official paper trail showing how I got from name #1 to name #2.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Posts
    1,991

    Default Re: Spouse and I Made Up a New Last Name, but Mine's Not Quite Legal

    if they won't accept without a court order, file a petition in court to change your name.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    OH10
    Posts
    17,019

    Default Re: Spouse and I Made Up a New Last Name, but Mine's Not Quite Legal

    From what I am getting only hubby had a court ordered name change. She just developed an AKA.

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