Changing Name on Wife's Passport

[llindsay 21]

My wife is from the Philippines and wanted to update her passport to show her new married name. Basically get her passport amended. There passport is only good for 5 years but she still have 3 years left on it. My wife told me when she gets a new passport they change her passport# which I don't want to do cause I filed her AOS/EAD/AP with the current passport#. I know the embassy in Washington D.C. you can change this but can she get her passport amended with no problems and still have the same passport# ?

[oatmeal 8]

She can still renew her passport but it takes 6-8 weeks to get it. The consulate will not keep her old passport.

[llindsay 21]

She can still renew her passport but it takes 6-8 weeks to get it. The consulate will not keep her old passport.

The bigger question is about her passport# cause I don't want that to change cause she got a new passport. I don't want to renew her passport cause she still have some years left on it so it doesn't make sense to pay for a new one.

[jxn 86]

Each country is specific in what it will allow but I've heard people in other threads post about how they ask the consulate to just add a note to the "Amendments and Endorsements" page on the passport saying "This person is a U.S. resident with married name XXX" or something along those lines.

I know some people also wait until their passport expires to update their name in their passport / native country, and some never change from their maiden name at all in their home country.

In my wife's case, El Salvador makes it difficult, as they use paternal and maternal last names, and it is customary for a woman to either not change her name with marriage or drop her maternal surname and add "de [husband's surname]," meaning literally "of [husband's surname]." In our case, when we travel abroad we will be sure to have her Salvadoran passport (to be used for any international travel), U.S. green card (necessary for re-entering the U.S.), and marriage certificate (to explain the name difference between the passport and green card when entering the U.S., as well as when verifying identity when paying abroad with her U.S. credit card or renting a car with her U.S. driver license from our home state).

[Scott & Annie 19]

If her passport has the data chip in the cover, the embassy cannot amend it. They have no means to amend the data on the chip. I beleive it's the brown passport that has the chip.

If you want to change her name on the PP, she will have to do a report of marriage to the Philippines, then renew her passport. She can do this at the embassy in Washington or through a consulate outreach program (may be able to do the ROM online).

You may as well keep the PP as long as possible. No need spending the money. But it's better to do the report of marriage first anyway.

This is what my wife and I did for her. In 2012 we travelled to washington and did the ROM and renewed my stepdaughters PP. Then, just this year, we registerred and attended the outreach to get her a new PP with married name.

Edit: Oh, and they did not change her passport number.

Edited October 14, 2014 by Scott & Annie

[M and C 32]

For now your wife may go to the Philippine Embassy or nearest Consulate to report your marriage. She might want to wait for the GC/EAD/AP before she gets a new passport, if the concern is about having different passport numbers during AOS processing.

[Pitaya 2,577]

~Moved from Fam.-based AOS to Phil. Regional Forum~

~Inquiry is country-specific~

[Hank_ 9,174]

My wife is from the Philippines and wanted to update her passport to show her new married name. Basically get her passport amended. There passport is only good for 5 years but she still have 3 years left on it. My wife told me when she gets a new passport they change her passport# which I don't want to do cause I filed her AOS/EAD/AP with the current passport#. I know the embassy in Washington D.C. you can change this but can she get her passport amended with no problems and still have the same passport# ?

There is no such thing as an amended passport, she will get do a passport renewal in her married name (need to do ROM also). She will get the old passport back with the new passport. I agree, wait until you have completed AOS .. just to keep things simple.

[llindsay 21]

Thanks for all replies. Just a little side note when I did her aos, ead, ap I did put her married name as what its going to be. She will using her maiden name and also taking my name. I will do a ROM for sure. When I called the embassy of philippines in washington dc they did have a option to amend the passport but didn't have a chance to speak with someone.