Changing My Stepdaughters Surname - Visa Issues?

[chrismc]

Hi

My wife and stepdaughter (both Ukrainian) came over the UK last June 2008 on a Spouse Visa (obviously stepdaughter age 8 was given a visa in my wifes passport)

My wife has my surname, my stepdaughter does not, she has her fathers surname, we think we can get him to agree to let her change it and we have checked in Ukraine and it seems to be a fairly easy thing to do, however, we want to change her surname to mine so we all have the same one, problem being, the SV runs out May 2009 when my wife will then apply for a ILR,

Q1 - is it possible to get my stepdaughters surname changed to mine and how does this affect her current visa?

2 - If so, do we need to send off the pasport to immigration Home Office etc to get a new visa in my wifes passport?

3 We intend to get my stepdaughter her own passport, not sure when, the name query change depends on that, but assuming we get her own passport at some stage in the next year, what happens to the visa for my stepdaughter in my wifes passport, does she continue to travel on that visa, even though, we may have changed her surname by then?

I know is may read a little confusing this, but if you have any questions please ask

Thanks
Chris

[chrismc]

Has anyone any advice they can pass on for this situation please?

[whirly]

As far as I know, it doesn't matter if you legally change your stepdaughter's name. You don't necessarily need to change her visa (or her name on mum's visa, rather) as long as mum always carries proof of the name change when presenting the passport/visa. It will be much easier once your kid has her own passport in her new name.

To give you a more concrete example based on my experience:

* USA passport in maiden name with spouse visa in maiden name, but all other ID had been changed to married name
* When travelling, carried and presented passport/visa and marriage certificate. Only place that gave me any trouble was United Airlines in San Francisco (tried to charge me extra for a 'name change fee' on a boarding pass to London. I argued. They backed down.)
* Applied for new USA passport in married name, using my marriage certificate as proof of the name change
* Applied for ILR in married name; stamped on USA passport with married name. Used marriage certificate as proof of the name change
* Applied for British citizenship; obtained British passport in married name

Since your name change is for a child, you will need to get dad's approval. Will you have to get the name change done in the Ukraine, or can you do it here through the Deed Poll?

[chrismc]

As far as I know, it doesn't matter if you legally change your stepdaughter's name. You don't necessarily need to change her visa (or her name on mum's visa, rather) as long as mum always carries proof of the name change when presenting the passport/visa. It will be much easier once your kid has her own passport in her new name.

To give you a more concrete example based on my experience:

* USA passport in maiden name with spouse visa in maiden name, but all other ID had been changed to married name
* When travelling, carried and presented passport/visa and marriage certificate. Only place that gave me any trouble was United Airlines in San Francisco (tried to charge me extra for a 'name change fee' on a boarding pass to London. I argued. They backed down.)
* Applied for new USA passport in married name, using my marriage certificate as proof of the name change
* Applied for ILR in married name; stamped on USA passport with married name. Used marriage certificate as proof of the name change
* Applied for British citizenship; obtained British passport in married name

Since your name change is for a child, you will need to get dad's approval. Will you have to get the name change done in the Ukraine, or can you do it here through the Deed Poll?

Thanks for that Whirly

I will have to get name changed in Ukraine, but already looked into that and it won't be hard just as long as her Ukrainian father agrees, my wife doesn't see a problem though. Then we will get her name changed here.

As I wasn't getting any response to this thread I have already written to the Home Office for their advice, so we shall wait and see what they recommend also.

.

[chrismc]

Finally got a reply to my email sent to the HO today for what its worth:

Thank you for contacting the UK Border Agency.

We regret that, due to unusually high demand for this service during recent weeks, we are currently unable to provide individual, personalised responses to new enquiries.

To try to be as helpful as we can during this very busy period, we are providing the information below, which answers the most frequently asked questions. We have included links to the relevant parts of our website, where more detailed information can be found. If we have not included information or a link to the website for the subject you are enquiring about, please enter key words into the "search" facility on the website.

and then they list a long list of irrelevant information that is of no use whatsoever to me

[chrismc]

Has anyone else got anything to offer us in this at all?