Jamie58 Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 (edited) After we got married both my wife and i decided it would just be easier for her to keep her passport, drivers licence, bank cards etc in her maiden name as it is perfectly legal for her to do so. Well we've been married for 15 years now and we've applied for a visa. I'm the main applicant and she's on the visa with her maiden surname. We did our UK police checks and where it asks for surname we used her maiden name and where it asks for other names we put my surname, her married name. It shows both on the results they sent back. Problem is we also lived in another country and they also asked for current names and names used but it doesn't show that we've declared her married name as part of the search. Infact there is no section at all which shows that it was part of the search. Will this cause an issue when the time comes for the case officer go through our visa documents? Sorry if it's a bit of a long winded question. I just wanted to be as clear as possible. Thanks. PS, my thinking is if this was the other way round it wouldn't cause an issue. If she'd taken my surname from day one, her maiden name still wouldn't have appeared on the search but she still would have declared it as a maiden name as part of the police check. Edited March 28, 2018 by Jamie58 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 I’ve no idea. If she kept her maiden name and didn’t take your surname, not sure why you even listed it on the form for the police check tbh. If she doesn’t use it legally or have anything official using it... although you say her married name so no idea if it’s actually in use or not. I have never taken my husbands surname and use my own to this day for everything. I don’t recall declaring his surname on any forms at all when I did my application. But then I don’t have a married name (his) at all. It’s one surname only for me. If you are really concerned perhaps email your CO or discuss with an agent. Or research and see if you can re do the police check but not list your surname on there? No idea if it’s possible but may be something that can be done if it’s felt needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie58 Posted March 29, 2018 Author Share Posted March 29, 2018 7 hours ago, snifter said: I’ve no idea. If she kept her maiden name and didn’t take your surname, not sure why you even listed it on the form for the police check tbh. If she doesn’t use it legally or have anything official using it... although you say her married name so no idea if it’s actually in use or not. I have never taken my husbands surname and use my own to this day for everything. I don’t recall declaring his surname on any forms at all when I did my application. But then I don’t have a married name (his) at all. It’s one surname only for me. If you are really concerned perhaps email your CO or discuss with an agent. Or research and see if you can re do the police check but not list your surname on there? No idea if it’s possible but may be something that can be done if it’s felt needed. Cheers Snifter, We had to submit our marriage certificate as part of the visa application. That's the only place my surname shows as hers. She's never used it though. We thought we had to put it down on the ACRO checks because it's a legal name, even though it's never been used. Sigh! We don't have a CO just yet. Submitted 3 months ago. Done so much research and can't find any info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie58 Posted March 29, 2018 Author Share Posted March 29, 2018 (edited) 7 hours ago, snifter said: I’ve no idea. If she kept her maiden name and didn’t take your surname, not sure why you even listed it on the form for the police check tbh. If she doesn’t use it legally or have anything official using it... although you say her married name so no idea if it’s actually in use or not. I have never taken my husbands surname and use my own to this day for everything. I don’t recall declaring his surname on any forms at all when I did my application. But then I don’t have a married name (his) at all. It’s one surname only for me. If you are really concerned perhaps email your CO or discuss with an agent. Or research and see if you can re do the police check but not list your surname on there? No idea if it’s possible but may be something that can be done if it’s felt needed. I've just checked our marriage certificate! No where does it say she took my surname. Grrrr, messed up!! Hope we don't have to redo the other. Thanks for your help. Edited March 29, 2018 by Jamie58 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 We have been down to our solicitors today to amend our Wills so that my wife is on it with her married name, same with Passport, my wife is my sponsor as she's an Australian citizen and we need to prove the validity of our relationship, we were advised to do this by both Australia House in London and our migration agent. Hope this is helpful. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie58 Posted March 29, 2018 Author Share Posted March 29, 2018 24 minutes ago, Nigel said: We have been down to our solicitors today to amend our Wills so that my wife is on it with her married name, same with Passport, my wife is my sponsor as she's an Australian citizen and we need to prove the validity of our relationship, we were advised to do this by both Australia House in London and our migration agent. Hope this is helpful. Interesting Nigel. Thanks for your comment. If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been married? My wife and i wouldn't be very happy if they asked us to go prove the validity of our relationship. We've been married for 15 years and have children together. I wish marriage and names didnt complicate things so much lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 We've been married for two years. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie58 Posted March 29, 2018 Author Share Posted March 29, 2018 20 minutes ago, Nigel said: We've been married for two years. Cheers Nigel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulip1 Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 On 29/03/2018 at 22:29, Jamie58 said: Cheers Snifter, We had to submit our marriage certificate as part of the visa application. That's the only place my surname shows as hers. She's never used it though. We thought we had to put it down on the ACRO checks because it's a legal name, even though it's never been used. Sigh! We don't have a CO just yet. Submitted 3 months ago. Done so much research and can't find any info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulip1 Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Your surname on the marriage certificate doesn't show as hers, it's yours (using that method you'd have listed hers as yours too). It's not her legal name, just the surname of the person she married. Sure most take that on as their surname but as you know, it's not a requirement. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie58 Posted March 30, 2018 Author Share Posted March 30, 2018 2 hours ago, Tulip1 said: Your surname on the marriage certificate doesn't show as hers, it's yours (using that method you'd have listed hers as yours too). It's not her legal name, just the surname of the person she married. Sure most take that on as their surname but as you know, it's not a requirement. Thanks Tulip. We've worked that out now. We've never had to think about surnames up until now after all these years of marriage. Wish we'd never listed mine on her ACRO in the "other names" field. Hopefully they don't ask her to do the other country police check to be done with my surname too as a result of our error. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wonderingaloud Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 We were married before we started the visa process for both the 457 and a few years later the PR 186. Everything (I think) was in my maiden name, I just made sure our marriage certificate was submitted to the various bodies involved in the process to prove our marriage but the name was never an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 On 3/29/2018 at 23:03, Jamie58 said: Interesting Nigel. Thanks for your comment. If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been married? My wife and i wouldn't be very happy if they asked us to go prove the validity of our relationship. We've been married for 15 years and have children together. I wish marriage and names didnt complicate things so much lol. FWIW, my husband (the sponsor) and I had been married for about 7 years at time of application and we never changed (or were told it would be better to change) anything to reflect me having a married name (husbands surname) on our life insurance policy etc. I applied for my visa in my maiden name and provided our marriage cert and had no issues. I don't think not taking a husbands surname makes things complicated at all. Many women opt to keep their maiden name both personally and professionally and I've come across quite a few on here who applied for a spouse visa. I think your issue has only come about because you declared a married surname on the ACPO form and it turns out its not on the marriage certificate. If you are really concerned perhaps check with a migration agent as to if it could be an issue. It may help put your mind at rest or at least make you aware of what could happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemesis Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 On 3/29/2018 at 22:03, Nigel said: We have been down to our solicitors today to amend our Wills so that my wife is on it with her married name, same with Passport, my wife is my sponsor as she's an Australian citizen and we need to prove the validity of our relationship, we were advised to do this by both Australia House in London and our migration agent. Hope this is helpful. Sorry, but they are wrong. There is absolutely no need for a name change to make a will valid. Same with passports. Many women (including myself) have wills, passports and everything else still in their maiden name as it makes absolutely no difference. Your marriage certificate is the proof that you are married, not the change of surname, and there are many many people who get visas without ever using their married name at all. Validity of the relationship for as spouse visa is shown by joint commitments, which can include wills, but the will do not need to be in a particular name, they just need to say husband/wife etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
can1983 Posted April 17, 2018 Share Posted April 17, 2018 On 15/04/2018 at 14:23, Nemesis said: Sorry, but they are wrong. There is absolutely no need for a name change to make a will valid. Same with passports. Many women (including myself) have wills, passports and everything else still in their maiden name as it makes absolutely no difference. Your marriage certificate is the proof that you are married, not the change of surname, and there are many many people who get visas without ever using their married name at all. Validity of the relationship for as spouse visa is shown by joint commitments, which can include wills, but the will do not need to be in a particular name, they just need to say husband/wife etc. We get this all the time too. My wife kept her maiden name, some people even state our marriage isn't valid unless we have the same name! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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