Hello everyone

I wonder if someone could possibly answer a question regarding travel to Australia using a newly married name.

Here's the situation:

My missus and I have recently married, she is Australian Dual-National and I am UK.

She has changed her surname in the UK and now has UK Passport in our married name. Her AUS passport is still in her maiden name however.

We have booked flights to Aus so that I can validate the spouse visa in March and these tickets are booked under our married name.

We started talking about which passport she will be using to enter Australia with and then realised that if she wants to enter with her Australian passport the name will be different to the one her flight tickets are in.

If she tries to enter Australia using her UK passport in her married name would she need to apply for a travel visa? From what I understand Australia citizens can't enter the country as a foreign visitor which seems to rule this option out.

This led us to look into changing her name on her Australian passport from maiden to married and discovered that she would need to apply for a new Australian passport in the new name - in order to do this she would need to register a change of name in Queensland.

I am concerned that we won't have enough time to register her name in Queensland, then apply for a new Australian passport and get it back in time for the flight.

Would we be better off changing the name on her flight ticket back to her maiden name do you think? or are we being daft and she could just bring her UK marriage certificate and both passports with her to the airport as proof of who she is?

I have searched the forums for a similar situation but seem only to be able to find UK lasses having difficulties when they realize their visas are in one name and passports are in another.

We're going to call the Australian embassy tomorrow but in the meantime any advice would be greatly appreciated!


<<< Joolz >>>

Australian citizens need an Australian passport to enter and leave Australia.

So it sounds like either get a new passport or change the ticket details.

What you say about a change of name certificate doesn't add up - Australian registries will only deal (normally) with those resident in the state/territory and the High Commission have to have a process in place for Australian citizens resident overseas.

we had a similarish situation.
If you are flying soon, I would suggest getting tickets in the Aus passport name, and then ask the British embassy about the need for a UK visa.
This means your wife will be able to enter Oz without a visa and legally.

Changing your (wife's) name here is a bureaucractic minefield for passport purposes.
We are Brits and got married in UK, although we were living here in Vic. I did not change my name initially.

When I did decide to the Australian Passport office would not accept UK marriage cert as proof of a name change! Instead I had to go to Births Deaths and Marriages in Vic, pay about 80 bucks, provide about 12 pieces of proof of identity (Medicare, bank cards, passport, marriage cert etc), fill in a form and wait 8 weeks.
Then I got a certificate in the post saying Christine Smith is now known as Christine Jones. With this I could apply for a passport in this name!
Passport itself only took 2 days, but by the time I got my name change doc, I already had paid for my passport, so refuse to spend another 200 bucks on a new one. That will wait until 2017!

Hi I think if you get a move on you should have the change of name certificate back in time. Mine took approx 4 weeks but this was to BDM in Vic, maybe Queensland times will be different? I think you should do this straight away even if you decide to change the name on your flight tickets ready for next time. Good luck

Change the name on the ticket to the Australian passport name and travel on that.

Sort out the change of name cert at your leisure.

Well, spoke to everyone - £200 to change flight tickets - they won't rename - would have to cancel tickets and buy again losing £200.
Australian embassy advise they cannot change the name on the Aus passport - will need to get a new one, and that they won't accept the UK Marriage certificate as proof and will need to go to Births, Deaths registry in Brisbane to get a change of name certificate before they can issue a new passport in the new name.
Fun and games eh?