I always knew it would be tedious to change my legal name to my married name. What I didn’t know it how I attached I’d been to my maiden name. Thankfully, I didn’t have a middle name so I was able to make my maiden name my middle name. After I made that decision, I got to doing the procedures needed for a legal name change. The process was not only longer than expected but there were also some challenges–one of which was pretty costly. The steps I went through were as follows:
1. Request another marriage certificate from the county we were married in. Wait for it to be mailed back from New Jersey to Chicago where we lived at the time.
2. Submit a name change application to Social Security, along with our marriage certificate and my passport. I received a letter confirming receipt of the application and then a few weeks later, all my documents, including my new social security card.
3. Submit my application for a new passport to reflect my new name, along with two color passport photos, my old passport, my new social security card, and my marriage certificate (for good measure).
4. When we moved back to New York, I then applied for a new driver license. For this in-person application, I brought my current (at that time) NYS driver license, new social security card, and marriage license.
***5. Applied for a name change with my student loan servicing company. Because I was completely unaware that I had to do this, this step was the costly one. Sure, the others may have had small fees but this one cost me thousands. This is why: I didn’t learn that I had to change my name until I attempted to reapply for my loan repayment program late last November. The name change took about a month to process. By the time I made sure my name was changed and reapplied for my loan repayment program, my enrollment had lapsed and I was charged the normal loan payment fee for January. To say I was upset, irate and disappointed is an understatement. I have never missed a payment and I had gone about doing the things I had to but it felt like I was being penalized. Thankfully, the situation was resolved and my repayment application was approved once again!
I’m hoping this post will help any of you who are getting married and/or changing your name in the future.
It's amazing all of the little things that go into changing your name, I wish more places made it a simple process.
Keeping your maiden name as a legal middle name is so helpful. I have random things (like my credit card which is through the same company as my insurance) that still have my maiden name. Having both on my driver's license helps prevent any confusion.