Different name on UK domestic purposes, than on passport?

[linneb]

Hello
Looking for a bit of advice please.

My wife has been British for about a year and has held a British passport for the last few months. It is in her maiden name, as her birth country doesn't allow name changes and the UK passport needs to be in the same name.

However she has always had problems with using her maiden name in the UK. It is multiple words and very long, so it has to be abbreviated in many places, e.g. driving license, banks, electoral roll, bills etc. I think a different version is used for every organisation, as that's how they chose to shorten it. This often causes problems.

So we are thinking that she could change her name by deed pole to my surname to standardise everything in the UK. Leaving only her maiden name only in her passports for travel purposes.

Is this allowed / recommendable?
Thank you

[Zerubbabel]

Hello

She can't hold multiple names.

So if she goes with the deed poll and changes her name, it means she must change it in the passport too.

If her other country doesn't accept the British deed poll, she can find herself in a painful situation.

Usually if you are a dual citizenship, it's not recommended to change name. It's easy in the UK but the other country might not allow or accept the change. So you can end up with 2 passports and 2 different names.

[secret.simon]

My wife has been British for about a year and has held a British passport for the last few months. It is in her maiden name, as her birth country doesn't allow name changes and the UK passport needs to be in the same name.

She may be able to get her British passport issued in a new name in spite of not changing it in her other passport.

(Page 7)
6.6 Subject to the applicant being able to satisfy the following requirements, a passport may be issued in the name requested even where it differs from the name on the passport issued by another country. The following categories may be given exceptional consideration:

i. The law in the applicant’s country of origin restricts or prevents a change of name. Where there is such a restriction, the applicant will be required to provide evidence from their country of origin that a change of name is not permissible;
ii. The country of origin does not permit dual nationality meaning alignment of documentation will not be possible, the applicant will be required to provide confirmation from the country of origin that their citizenship has been cancelled;
iii. Where there is a requirement for the person to travel to their country of origin in order to change their name, and due to exceptional circumstances in their country of origin, they would be placed at a high level of risk;
iv. The applicant has changed their name as a result of a change of gender and the law in the applicant’s country of origin does not recognise or permit a change of gender;

6.7 In the case of points (i) and (iii) above, a (British) passport may be issued and an observation placed in the passport saying:
“The holder has a [country] passport, number [ ] issued on [date] in the name of [ ]. This passport is due to expire on [date].”

[Zerubbabel]

But imagine visiting your birth country, you are the check-in desk at Heathrow and you show up a flight ticket + 2 passports with 2 different names.

As a dual national, there are cases where you have to show 2 passports to travel. If they bear different names, they will cause you a lot of trouble and possibly you won't be able to travel.

[secret.simon]

But imagine visiting your birth country, you are the check-in desk at Heathrow and you show up a flight ticket + 2 passports with 2 different names.

As a dual national, there are cases where you have to show 2 passports to travel. If they bear different names, they will cause you a lot of trouble and possibly you won't be able to travel.

I'd presume that she should use the name in her non-British passport (for filing in Advanced Passenger Information, name on tickets, etc)whenever she is travelling abroad, because her British passport will contain notes in it stating her other name and passport information.

However, there may be issues if she renews her non-British passport, because the information of the new non-British passport will likely not be updated into the British passport. She will have to synchronize the dates of issue of the two passports as closely as possible.