Additional documents requested for citizenship interview

[Ajmic]

Hi all,

Sorry for a long query!

 

My wife had the citizenship interview other day and she was asked to provide some additional document as there is a slight difference in the way names are printed in her current passport and her old passport

 

Her old expired passport (from India) had he complete name printed under 'Given Name' (say "Mary Sue" -- fake name) . However during passport renewal, we requested to split the names to 'given name' and 'surname' (that's still is our preference)  and currently its printed like that i.e., her first name is in the ‘Given names’ field ("Mary") and Second name/surname is in the ‘Surname’ ("Sue")  field. No other difference at all.(no difference in spelling or anything else). 

She doesn't have a birth certificate. 

 

During her citizenship interview, immigration officers requested some official document to prove the change is all legal. Like some declaration etc. to state both passports are for the same person as below:

 

--> Official evidence of change of name (for example, marriage certificate, change of name

certificate - usually from an Australian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages)

--> Evidence of change of name on Passport, Driver's Licence and Bank Card.

 

All other documents are verified and was allowed to take test as well, but she needs to provide some proof soon.

 

1) Problem is she never officially changed her name as such, hence there is no official document to provide

2) The above mentioned change (i.e splitting the names) was done just by mentioning the same in the passport renewal form with a self declaration attested by a JP. (That was submitted during the application and approved)

3) When we checked the vfs office (through them Indian passport renewal was applied) they don't have any document/method to provide that name was changed during passport application.

4)We may be able to change License and/or medicare names card to reflect same as the current passport . But I am not sure that can create any other 

 

What can be done here? Totally  Its totally frustrating to realize such a small thing can cause another delay after waiting for more than an year for this appointment

 

Is another self declaration with JP signature is good enough?

Or should we go for Notary service etc and get an affidavit - we are okay to do that,as long as that will be accepted?

 

Also, I am  in exactly same situation and my citizenship interview is coming two weeks

 

Please provide some options.

[wrussell]

Have you taken advice about Deed Poll?

[NickyNook]

I officially changed my name last year. I have two unfortunate middle names that I dislike. When asked for my full name in the past, on some occasions I would give my full name including the hated middle names, on some occasions I did not. I ended up with a situation where I needed to prove that the person with only a first and last name was the same individual as the one with all the names. 

The only way to do it was to officially change my name to my preference (ie lose all references to the middle names). I did it via the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. https://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/Pages/changes-corrections/change-of-name.aspx All states would have an equivalent and its the modern version of a Deed Poll. Think it cost $185 and took about 6 weeks. I now have a document which lists and links all the various names I've been known by and I can use it for identification purposes.

Edited January 19, 2019 by NickyNook