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If I wanted to change my name would I have to take the following course of action=

1. Change passport. Where is this done now I am in Canada?

2. Change PR card. Does this even need to be done?

3. Sin card. Is this also necessary?

4. Drivers Licence. ??

I got married three months before I came to Canada. The fact that I was getting married was known by the high commission throughout my application, but my visa was issued three weeks before I got married in my maiden name. If at some point I want to change it to my married name how difficult will it be?............... in fact it already sounds like nightmare looking at the list above.

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The government has a site addressing this, but rather unhelpfully its not a one shot deal to tell them, you have to do each individually.

http://www.gov.on.ca/ont/portal/!ut/...n?docid=012160

UK passport you would contact the British high commision in Ottawa

Pr card you might be as well to wait till you are eligable for citizenship and just travel under you maiden name? As long as the two match you will be OK...not that you would need the PR card often traveling with a british passport with IMM0001 form. Wouldnt your passport still have your maiden name in it anyway?


SIN Drivers License and health card will all need doing.

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Yep my passport is still in my maiden name in fact had to get it renewed just before the visa was issued.



Thanks for the link.

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I was thinking about the replacement passport. I think it would still have a name that matched the PR card somewhere once they get out of sync.

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Really? I didnt know that. So the somewhere on the replacement passport would still have my maiden name?

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Im not sure??? If it does I wouldnt bother changing the PR card, especially if its will be superceded by citizenship at some point in the next few years.

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Why bother changing? It is pretty standard practice for Canadian women to keep their maiden names. Changing just sounds like cost and hassle to me.

Souvette has a number of aliases and it cause problems sometimes. We had great fun trying to rent a car in Phoenix. Her credit card and driver's licence had different names.

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Hi Smelly

Changing your name on anything is a hassel. I did mine in the UK and it took me a good 6 months to get everything done, and I wasn't helped by the fact that one company decided to keep my marriage certificate rather than send it back!!!!!!

On the passport front, if your passport is in your maiden name but your credit cards and tickets are in your married name you will have to take your marriage certificate with you everytime you travel to prove you are one in the same person. Also since 9/11 I am not sure on how this will affect you if you were going to the US. A British passport does not show your maiden name in once you change it over so again could cause hassel with the PR card
The good news now is if you change your name on your British passport they will give you a new 10 year one and not just change the name and give you the exsiting validity (which happened to me so had to pay out for 2 new passports in the space of 3 years OUCH!)

Sorry I have no experience within Canada but hope this helps you reach a decision on whether to change your name.

PS hope your knee is feeling better.

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I was just going to say... I didn't realise women still did this. :blink:

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how does this work? i thought you had to hqave your PR card as the old paper landing documents were not valid anymore.

reason why i ask is im waiting for my pr card, and have had to return to the UK and will likely make a few more journeys in the next 6 months and i have had to get a travel permit. do i not need to do this each time until my pr card arrives?

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Still standard practice back home as some suggest it causes hassle with identification?

When we got married in 2005 I suggested that Mrs Madmac keep her own surname. Never understood why someone would want to change it.

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Yes I have noticed this. I wasn't overly happy giving it up anyway, it does sound like a lot of hassle. Thought about doing the double barrelled thing but it just doesn't work. Its still seems quiet a tradition in the UK. I am in no hurry, I will do it eventually though.

One thing I do need to do is get a will.

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PR card was intended to make it easy for airline staff to know who has status in Canada.. too many counterfeit long forms around. If a passenger is refused entry, the airline foots the bill for repatriation, so it was something the commercial carriers wanted.

If you have a british passport, its good for entry to canada as a visitor at a minimum (nominally for 6 months), so you can board a flight no problem anyway. You also have a big piece of paper stapled into it thats good for proving to the Immigration officer at the airport that you have PR when you arrive. If he wants to double check, he can look you up in the database...something airline staff dont have access too..hence the creation of the PR card with its security features.

If you have a UK passport you can board a flight anyway, and if you have the IMM1000, you can prove you are a PR (if you have too) Hence no need for PR card or travel documents if you have a "visa waiver" passport. Travel documents only apply to people who would otherwise need a visa to enter Canada, so dont apply to UK citizens.

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but on the cic website it says PR's MUST have either a PR or a travel permit. cos i dont really want to enter as a visitor. does this cause any probs at all?
so why did CIC london bother giving me a travel permit?
basically as i havnt been in canada for a number of years i was lucky to get my pr back, so i dont want to loose it now as im hopefully going back for good.

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CIC website assumes everyone outside canada have no right to be in Canada at all, and would require a visa to visit. Its confusing and should probably be rewritten, but as it is it errs on the side of caution I suppose, and is less confusing for non native english speakers who might not have visa waiver status.

CHC london handles travel documents for a very wide range of countries in europe and beyond who dont necessaril have visa waiver status to enter canada unhindered.

Your circumstances are somewhat exceptional though as your PR status is "confused" to say the least, and you would have a tough time prooving ties to Canada and meeting the residency requirements at this time, so perhaps playing it safe is for the best.

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Is it fair that an Chinese PR needs one, but a German PR doesn't? The card is supposed to quash a two-tier PR system.

That's why CHC issued you with a travel permit. And because you asked.

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well not exactly, i asked them to agree i was still a PR despite being out of the country. which they did, and then gave me the travel visa.
however as for ties etc i have already proven that to their satisfaction. i had to show them all my family live there and that i am activley apllying for the police there.

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Actually, if you get married in Quebec, you have to keep your maiden name unless you go through all the rigmarole of changing it by deed poll. Not that it makes much difference. Quebec has the country's lowest marriage rate after Nunavut and by quite a long way. We also have the highest shack-up rate, at 30% of couples (three times the national average) and easily the highest divorce rate (roughly 50%).

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Yeah that sounds like a con just to get more money out of people.

Does that mean I am considered a Mz/ Ms or would they still say Mrs ---Maiden name?

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you actually have a choice Mrs L or Miss\Ms P. Both are acceptable but only one is your LEGAL name.

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I don't think it's a con. I used to believe it had something to do with women's rights (the rule was introduced in 1981) but I'm not sure any more. It could also be because Quebec law is codified and stuff has to be done by the book. Other parts of Canada are more in line with English law, ie convention and precedent.

The "names" thing is a bit of a muddle. Much of the mail we get has only our names (no Mr etc). Junk mail, cold callers and shop assistants often use Monsieur and Madame. Cold callers will also often use our names and nothing else. I have no knowledge of there being a French equivalent of Ms. The term "Madame" is not an indicator of marital status. It just means you're too old to be a mademoiselle.

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IMO, just use Ms Maiden name - it's the norm in Canada for women your age. Miss and Mrs are considered quite old fashioned.

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Are you living in the same Calgary I am Ma'am?!!:confused::confused::p

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You hanging out with lots of women in their 30s Steve? ;) :D


OI!!! I saw that edit!!! http://www.clicksmilies.com/s1106/ak...smiley-060.gif

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As a matter of fact yes.

Mondays and Wednesdays.:p:rofl:

You see there's more to me than meets the eye. :D:D

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My wife is canadain and made all the changes to me MrsK. Its fairly normal round here, although we know people who didnt bother (usually for professional reasons). Nothing to do with me by the way, I didnt really care either way (as long as shes vaguely nice to me;))

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I didn't change my name but almost everyone I know (including my mother) insists on using my "married name". I get quite wound up, moan a bit and then get told it's disrespecting my OH, who doesn't give a **** what I'm called so long as I am vaguely nice to him.

Worse, under Scottish law, my married name really is my name (apparently, according to my solicitor who insists on calling me Mrs....he's going to lose part of his anatomy one of these days...) and it has to be all over various legal documents. If you then get divorced & remarried, you get all your names on the paperwork, including the previous married name....:mad:

Right, rant over, pleased there may be a chance I get known by my actual name name when I finally get to emigrate. :D

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My problem is that i changed my first name when i was about 14, so many, many, years ago. All my UK documents except my passport used the new first name, but since i have been in Canada I cannot get anyone to use the name I am used to being called.

Even my family use it so when i hear my childhood name being used i rarely realise its me- and when i do i think I'm being told off! you know the thing when your mum uses your full name to make you realise just how bad you have been.

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That's creepy...


Rant on Ms Beebop! :thumbup:

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yeah my husbands family insist on using the Mrs and the married name.

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I get that too. :) I go by a middle name with friends but lawyers, bank people, official stuff etc... I use my first name... it's handy when answering the phone cos if they ask to speak to 'my first name' I can know instantly it's 'real life' calling and I can tell them 'no she's not here, bug off'. :D

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This is not that much different than many others who didn't change their names but go by their other given name.

In my case my given names are William Stephen but I have always been called either Steve or Stephen. However anything legal or when dealing with the healthcare system I am always called William to which I either don't respond to or am slow to respond to.

This has never been a problem with friends or workmates as they have always called me by what I go by. :)

Cheers
Bill (I mean Steve):rofl::rofl:

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Strangely it was my Mum who got irate when I mentioned that the OH might keep her own name. I then pointed out that since she's divorced from my father she technically is no longer Mrs M herself. That went down well. :p

I would have preferred if the OH kept her own name but it was her choice.

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I didnt give a monkeys either way. (Mrs C changed her name by choice).

What I would say is use which ever flows best. (In Mrs Cs case my last name works better than her birth last name). So Smelly I like the flow of your name rather than his.:rofl:

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I would assume they at least spell it correctly.

I have been married for 38 years and still members of my family continue to spell my wife's first name incorrectly. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

On the topic of changing names, when he got married, my youngest son took his wife's surname. He's had an extremely difficult time getting institutions to accept that fact.

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That's actually why I didn't fancy changing my name, it didn't flow well and my surname is unusual and the last of the line so I kept it.

I'm also known by my middle name and when the doctor gets both my 1st name and then my surname wrong, I don't recognise myself so changing it to a 3rd equally odd name would have finished me off!

Oh and my middle name is spelt weird so you see why I'm sensitive on the name thing!

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I have a middle name, I personally prefer my first name though, even though it is a little common. Since being in Canada people seem to prefer pronouncing it in its entirety rather than the shortened version. Only a few people at my office have started to say the shortened version, which I don't seem to be responding to at the moment as it sounds funny when they say it.

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Couldn't care less myself though I would like to rename myself as:

'Your most Ominous Illustriousness, Madmac the Most High...and a bit.' :p

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I have no middle name. Souvette, being quebecoise, has several. Her first name is Marie, which is standard practice in these parts and always shortened to "M". The next two, never used, are those of her godmothers (I think). The fourth name is the one she is known by. I quite like that name but I like one of the others more (Aurore).

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That's surprising, from filling in forms here it seemed to me that all Canadians were permitted a maximum of 1 middle name. I'm always getting caught out on security checks/usernames for banking etc because they've picked a random one of my many middle initials to make up my complete name. And never the same one.

I'm also called a name that bears no relation whatsoever to my real first name but am getting better at remembering to use the proper one on official stuff :o