lexluthor

Got a slight prob.......
My wifes passport has expired and her ticket back to england is in her maiden name. All our bills, rent etc here has been in our maried name and upon going into the post office today she was told the passport HAS to be in her married name. However, they wont process it without photo id....and her expired passport is not good enough, and she doesnt drive so no license either!!
We are going to try and get a proof of age card as our only hope unless anyone has another idea?
Also, has anyone flown before on a ticket with maiden name ans passport with married name? Are airlines alright with this if we have our marriage certificate?
Lastly, Im English, my wife is Australian....Does anyone know what rights or visa my wife has to enter and leave the uk. We were married in England and she has a leave to remain at the moment valid for two years..is that still relevant?
thanks all!!

bondipom

Are you talking about renewing an Australian passport in Australia? Have a look on www.passports.gov.au
http://www.passports.gov.au/Web/requ...documents.aspx

My wife recently changed the name in her passport and had to get the PO to call the passport office to get it right. They wanted to charge here and wanted her to get another set of photos.

Someone in the moving back to UK forum might be able to answer the question regarding the Leave to Remain.

You are correct to learn your rights as I know people who have had hassles and had to argue their way through immigration despite having a leave to remain.

ABCDiamond

I'm English aswell, and my wife is an Australian citizen, and when we went to UK, there was no hassle at all. And that was without anything visa wise pre-arranged.

I'm not sure if things have changed, this was in 1996, but if not, you should have no troubles. However, with Bondipom mentioning "hassles despite having a leave to remain", it seems that it would be worth checking further. Although it doesn't make much sense for there to be problems. However, we are talking government regulations here, so... anything goes

DarrenD

Hopefully this is helpful.

1) Get the passports sorted out. If youre in a hurry, get an emergency one, otherwise get a full one (much better)

2) Take marriage certificate and talk nicely to the airline. Shouldnt be a problem with the airline if you have maiden name passport, married passport and marriage certificate. They may want some money to transfer the ticket, but talking nicely works wonders and may save a bundle.

3) The reason for hassles is they are looking to see people are established in the UK. If you are travelling with wife, this smooths things a lot (go through the same immigration queue with her, dont go through EU queue). Again, shouldnt be a problem, its all about ensuring its not a marriage of convenience to get access to the UK. When my wife travelled alone on this visa she had far more hassles when I wasnt with her. Theres also now an EU visa holders queue at immigration which speeds things up considerably (well at LHR anyway).

4) On getting into the UK, get the visa extended to indefinite.

5) It doesnt sound like this applies to you if you have a 2 yr visa, but It is a myth that people from outside EU who marry british ctizens automatically get a right to enter the UK. Once married, you need to go to the consulate and get a spouse visa. (When we did it, it was approx £700). You cant just pitch up in the UK and say we're married! My only question is what is the visa for ? Is it a working holidaymaker ? If so, immi may say your wife has no intention of returning to Oz at the end of it. Get an Aussie passport and have a chat with British Consulate in AU. They provide better advice than migration experts and its free.

Hope this helps, from someone who's been there, got the tee shirt and got the bags under the eyes to prove it.

Best wishes

Applying to Oz.

bondipom

British immigration is consistent in being inconsistent. DarrenD has summed it up excellently. Basically my friend started writing down the names of the officers causing him hassle and said he would be writing to the local MP and Croydon immigration office. By the end of the situation the officers involved backed off and asked him for coffee.

DarrenD

Only other things I forgot to add are

6) Youy will need a FULL marriage certificate & (probably) birth certificates. If youve only got abbreviated versions, put in an applkication ASAP. Alternatively if youve got people in the UK who can do this for you, it will be quicker.

7) UK Visas http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk may have information to help you (although their telephone helpine is les use that an ice cube at the South Pole.

best of luck.

Worst case scenario - dont freak ! - Its a long way back to Oz if she's refused entry, but normally if theres no risk of absconding they would give her a few days to sort herself out before her flight back. However, the biggest problem with this is it would be in her passport and on the immigration computers (shared across nations). Effectively this is like going into a nightclub with 'VD' stamped in big neon letters on your forehead. Best to ensure she can get in before getting on the plane.

lexluthor

Thanks for all the advice so far but im still confused!!
My wifes passport( which has expired) is in her maiden name. Her ticket is in her maiden name ( we are ringing the airline to see if we can still use it with her married name). Also her expired passport has her leave to remain visa which is still valid.
Aus post wouldnt process her application because she did not have any photo id...
Now, the prob is , do we get photo id in her maiden name or married name and then a new passport in either. Obviously if the airlines say it has to be in her maiden name then we could get the id but nothing else, all utility bills, employment etc are in her married name!!
Please dont say we are screwed!!
My wife lived in the Uk for a few years and half her family is there. I have a spouse visa. Does anyone know if my wifes visa can be transfered from her old to new passport or does she need to apply for a new one and if so, how much is that??
Sorry if im asking a lot of questions but our tickets are to fly in a few weeks and after that we would have to buy new ones ( Expensive!)
Also, can you ring consulates? I always assumed you couldnt, as we were living in Canberra when i got my visa it was easy to go to dimia.
thanks!!

bondipom

Just a thought but she can renew her passport in her maiden name. Not unusual these days. I would call the airlines but if I remember rightly the passport has to match the name for international flights. Again contact the airline.

There is an ID card that you can get at the RTA in NSW that can be issued instantaneously with the correct ID.

www.rta.nsw.gov.au

http://www.uk.emb.gov.au/default2.htm

DarrenD

Check with the airlines, but my advice IMHO would be to get a new passport in the maiden name (simpler, less issues for passport office to deal with), then trade it in for a married one either when it expires or after you've flown when no time / ticket issues to deal with.

In terms of immigration its the marriage certificate that is important, not whether maiden or married name on passport.

More expensive, if youre going to get a married passport straight after, but cheaper than airline tickets!

Ive alswys been able to contact consulates, or UK Visas web site provides contact info.

Hope this helps

DarrenD

Meant to also say, even if old passport is cancelled, visas arent. Carry both passports.

You can move the visa across, but there is a small charge. However, time is probably your biggest factor in this in that you dont want to give them the old passport with the visas in case it doesnt come back in time.

Take both passports.

My wife had a spouses visa, we submitted both, and dopey UK immi put the new visa in her old (maiden name) passport, instead of her new one, so its not an issue.

Vegemite Kids

Used to be the case that passport and ticket could be in different names as long as you had the marriage certificate to prove the link (MIL did this for 2 years after her remarriage in 1999) but sept 11th may have changed all this.

Regarding transferring the Visa to the new passport, if you can (and have time) I would advise to do it. I'm an aussie passport holder but I have right of abode in the UK. Its still in my old passport so I just travel with both. Normally entering UK this is not a problem and I go through the UK channel without hassle, but one time I got an immi officer who must have been quite new/inexperienced (or incompetent ) cos she tried to refuse to let me enter and said because my right of abode certificate was in the old passport it had expired at the time the passport had expired (this was despite the fact I had been in and out of the UK multiple times since my old passport had expired) She tried to tell me that I had to go through the other nationalities channel and fill in the landing card etc... but would probably be rejected cos I didnt have the right Visa !!! What the f*** !!!! I dont need a visa. Anyway after asking to speak to her supervisor, it was all sorted out, she got a quick lesson about Right of Abode and I proceeded on my merry way, but it was a hassle I could have done without (plus took over an hour to resolve and made me late for my meeting that I had been flying in for)

Mairi