Your passport is a very important document necessary before you can enter or exit any country, if for any reason you have changed your name it is important to renew your passport as you may be prevented from travelling or re-entering your home country because your name does not reflect the records of the Immigration service.
US passports are no longer amended to reflect the data change, so if any of your data such as your name changes, you will need to apply for a new passport.
Depending on the time since you last renewed your passport, the availability of documentation of your change of name, you would be required to fill different forms and provide different documents to the Passport agency.
It’s a generally straightforward procedure to effect a change of name in a US passport, if you have proper legal documentation of change of name.
If you have proper documentation regarding your change of name:
Step 1
Then you need to get a DS-5504 Form, Application for a U.S. Passport: Name Change, Data Correction, and Limited Passport Book Replacement from the US passport office in your state or the US Embassy if you are not in the US you can also download this file from the US passport agency’s website.
If on the other hand your passport was issued to you more than one year ago and you have proper documentation of your change of name, then you need to get a DS-82 Form Application for a U.S. Passport by Mail or in person from any US passport office in your state, the US Embassy if you are not in the US you can also download this form from the US passport agency’s website.
Step 2
Mail the completed form to the address listed on the passport application form along with documentation of your legal change of name, depending on your reason for changing your name this could be a Court Decree for change of name, adoption papers, divorce papers, your Marriage Certificate and a clipping of the newspaper where your new name was announced. In some cases evidence of three occasions of the use of your new name, this could be school records, tax records, military records et cetera. Your current valid US passport and if required recent colored passport of yourself.
Step 3
Mail all the required information in a secure package such as a Tyvek envelope to the address on the form you filled. It is important that you use a reliable postal service to mail your completed form and additional documents to the US passport office to make sure your passport and documents are received.
Step 4
If your previous passport was issued to you less than one year ago you would not need to add a passport renewal fee with the other documents when mailing them, you would however need to add an expedited fee if you desire the service. But if your passport was issued to you more than a year ago you need to add a passport renewal fee and an expedited fee if you require that service.
(Usually it will take four to six weeks for the National Passport Processing Office to process and provide you with your new passport, but the expedited service will take about two to three weeks).
If you do not have proper legal documentation for the change of your name, maybe your state is one that allows a change of name without a court order, then you will need to follow these steps.
Step 1
Regardless of whether or not your last passport was issued to you within the last year, since you do not have proper documentation for the change of your name you would need to apply for a new passport by acquiring the DS-11 , Application for a US Passport, Form. Upon receiving the form fill it according to the specifications provided.
Step 2
You are required to submit the form and other required documents by person to the Acceptance Faculty or the Passport Office. Other documents you are to submit are: colored passport photographs of yourself, your current, valid US passport, first time application fees, three public records showing date and place of birth and use of new name within the limit of five years, you may be also required to come to the Acceptance Faculty or the Passport Office with about three people who can bear witness to your usage of your previous name and your eventual change.
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