I just got married about 3 weeks ago now and one of the most dreaded parts of getting married is the combining of both people’s lives. Now I am not speaking of the emotional and mental part of the union, but where the real meat occurs…finances and government! And for those ladies that have to change their name, I hope you are organized.
If you are like me, I am a fan of the wife taking the husbands name. And in doing this, there are quite a few steps that are necessary in becoming one surname. One of the things I found for my wife (1st online reference to her – feels good) is this service called missnowmrs.com. Its $30 for the deluxe, but the basic should be enough to get most through what they need. In all honestly it can be done on your own, the website just helps you with the questions and pre-fill the forms for you to send out. My suggestion for all the women out there changing their name is to do it in the following order.
1. Department of Motor Vehicle (In NYC $15, $80.50 for renewal)
2. Social Security (Free – NYC)
3. Passport ($75)
Each of these can be done through a simple search of the item needing to be changed and the text “change name”. Now what my wife and I did was mail our license in before we went on our honeymoon, so that when we came back it would be waiting for us, as it did. We then needed to take that marriage license to the DMV as proof of the change, which then gave her a temporary drivers license with her new name on it. We then took the marriage license, social security card and passport (old name) with us to the social security office (they no longer accept drivers license as a form of ID). And finally we went to the post office and mailed out the forms, pictures, money order and original marriage license. What’s important to note in this process is that the passport office wants a certified copy of the marriage license, which would take time to obtain since we just received the license itself, so we just sent the license since the other government documents could be done 1st and we don’t have plans for international travel for some time.
I was with my wife through this entire process. I would say as long as you are organized and take 1 day off to get this done, it isn’t as horrible as one might think. All the other stuff, bank accounts, professional licenses (she is an attorney), cell phones, etc. can be just notified via phone…usually. We also took a scanned copy of the license in PDF format so that it could be emailed to whoever would need a copy.
If you do your homework, prepare and get the paperwork in order you too can truly become ONE!
If you are like me, I am a fan of the wife taking the husbands name. And in doing this, there are quite a few steps that are necessary in becoming one surname. One of the things I found for my wife (1st online reference to her – feels good) is this service called missnowmrs.com. Its $30 for the deluxe, but the basic should be enough to get most through what they need. In all honestly it can be done on your own, the website just helps you with the questions and pre-fill the forms for you to send out. My suggestion for all the women out there changing their name is to do it in the following order.
1. Department of Motor Vehicle (In NYC $15, $80.50 for renewal)
2. Social Security (Free – NYC)
3. Passport ($75)
Each of these can be done through a simple search of the item needing to be changed and the text “change name”. Now what my wife and I did was mail our license in before we went on our honeymoon, so that when we came back it would be waiting for us, as it did. We then needed to take that marriage license to the DMV as proof of the change, which then gave her a temporary drivers license with her new name on it. We then took the marriage license, social security card and passport (old name) with us to the social security office (they no longer accept drivers license as a form of ID). And finally we went to the post office and mailed out the forms, pictures, money order and original marriage license. What’s important to note in this process is that the passport office wants a certified copy of the marriage license, which would take time to obtain since we just received the license itself, so we just sent the license since the other government documents could be done 1st and we don’t have plans for international travel for some time.
I was with my wife through this entire process. I would say as long as you are organized and take 1 day off to get this done, it isn’t as horrible as one might think. All the other stuff, bank accounts, professional licenses (she is an attorney), cell phones, etc. can be just notified via phone…usually. We also took a scanned copy of the license in PDF format so that it could be emailed to whoever would need a copy.
If you do your homework, prepare and get the paperwork in order you too can truly become ONE!
