Name Change After Marriage for Newlyweds

Looking for name change advice or some tips for newlywed life? The MissNowMrs experts have created state-specific name change articles and checklists for you. We’ve chronicled our recommendations for how to travel while changing your name AND how to handle voting during the transition.

We’ve also compiled our best guidance for how to handle difficult sister in laws, holidays as newlyweds, the ever-annoying baby questions, and much more. Why? Because, while we are name change experts, we’re also newlywed wives, moms, and sisters.

We hope our name change advice articles help smooth your transition to your new name, and a whole new phase of life. Congratulations and best wishes from the entire MissNowMrs team!

Name Change Kit or Name Change Service—It’s Your Choice!

Deciding between a name change service and name change kit? Once you and your spouse are married, one of the very first decisions you will make (if you haven’t already thought about it prior to your wedding) is whether or not you will be changing to your new married name or keeping your maiden name. If you decide on married name change you will look into the steps of dreaded name change process and may decide to make your life easier by purchasing a Name Change Kit or a Name Change Service.

Name Change Kits as well as Name Change Services are designed to assist brides and newlyweds with name change after marriage. Each could be the answer to all your name change needs, the question then becomes which one would best suit your specific needs? So, you’re asking yourself what is the difference between a Name Change Kit and a Name Change Service?

Name Change Kits will provide you with State and U. S. Government name change forms allowing you to manually complete them at your leisure, in the comfort of your own home. They can help keep you organized by providing you with the forms you need all in one place, saving you from the hassle of having to search the internet for name change forms or worse—having to physically go to each office to obtain the most up-to-date name change forms. If you decide to purchase a Name Change Kit, be sure to purchase one that will be sending you YOUR specific State forms; such as the one offered by NewlywedNameChange.com. This way you have exactly what you need (rather than the forms for all 50 states leaving you to figure out what you need and what you don’t) to officially and legally obtain a name change after marriage!

A Name Change Service is designed specifically for the busy, yet internet savvy bride or newlywed. MissNowMrs.com provides you with all the most up-to-date State and U. S. Government name change forms for YOUR State within an instant online account, allowing you to login and auto-complete your forms in under an hour! Our Name Change Service keeps you organized every step of the way by providing your name change forms in one convenient and easily accessible place, asking you all the necessary questions and making sure you have detailed instructions on how to file your name change form with each agency.

Help Me Change My Name

Our married name change experts are readily available to answer ANY questions that may arise during the name change process via our Customer Support phone number, email and live-chat features 9:00am-5:00pm EST. There’s no need to worry if you made a mistake, as with our Name Change Service you can edit your forms as many times as you need to without having to use white out or obtain another form.

We’ve even gone one step further by providing you with name change notification letters for banks, credit cards, utilities, etc. making our Name Change Service a blessing for any bride or newlywed by alleviating unnecessary stress!

So, whatever you decide to do just know that there are options out there to help make your life easier. You worked hard planning your wedding, worrying about all the little details; so now it’s time to enjoy your newlywed status hassle-free! Congratulations!!!

Maiden to Middle Name Change

Taking her maiden name as a middle name after marriage is one of the more popular name change choices of newlyweds today. Many women are attached to their maiden names for various reasons: they built a career using it, they are the only child to carry on the family name or they can’t imagine “being anyone else”. Adding her maiden name as a middle name allows for a woman to “keep” her maiden name while taking her husband’s last name, but avoid the mouthful of a hyphenated name.

News flash! More and more states are no longer recognizing a woman’s right to change her middle name based on marriage. What does this mean to newlyweds in the middle of name change? If you live in California, New Jersey, New York, New York City, Ohio (unless your Marriage Certificate shows your intended middle name), Pennsylvania or Washington you are unable to take your maiden name as your middle name as part of your married name change.

Be aware of your state’s policies regarding name change. If you file your government forms with a new middle name, but live in a state that disallows maiden to middle name change you will end up with mismatched identification documents. The reality of having a different name on your state driver’s license and your U.S. Passport can be unsettling. Travel will be tedious as you need to book any international flights in the name on your passport, but local flights should match your state driver’s license. There can also be issues if security is requiring two forms of ID (as yours won’t match). We highly recommend choosing one married name option and using it on ALL of your documents.

Petitioning the Court System

If a bride is dead set on changing her middle name, she will have to petition the U.S. court system via an attorney for a legal name change. This can be a very long and expensive process, but it might be the only way a couple can come to a married name they can agree upon. The moral of this blog posting is be sure to research your state’s name change policies before you begin your name change.

If you’d like to speak with a married name change expert about your particular state and situation, call the gurus at MissNowMrs. They’ll provide you with the most up-to-date information on your state for free! They can also help you consider alternate name change options if you end up being in a non-middle name change state.

Have you tried to change your name and run into red tape and state-specific issues? Share your story today and help another newlywed avoid unnecessary name change hassle! You can also check out our name change checklist for more help.

5 Reasons to Feel Good about the Raise in Passport Agency Fees

The Passport Agency fees to apply for a new U.S. Passport Book or U.S. Passport Card as well as the fees to renew your current U.S. Passport Book or Passport Card are going up as of Tuesday July 13, 2010. We know what you’re thinking, not another raise in fees! Unfortunately, yes that is exactly what is happening with the U.S. Passport Agency, but with good reason. Here’s a breakdown of the new fees along with some reasons not to sweat the extra money!

First time Adult U.S. Passport Book: $110 (payable to Department of State) + $25 (payable to Acceptance Facility)
First time Adult U.S. Passport Card: $30 (payable to Department of State) + $25 (payable to Acceptance Facility)
Renewal of Adult U.S. Passport Book (DS82 Form): $110 (payable to Department of State)
Renewal of Adult U.S. Passport Card (DS82 Form): $30 (payable to Department of State)
Expedite Processing Fee (added to the above mentioned fees if you need your Passport in a rush): $60

1. Fees cover more than the cost of your new Passport Book or Passport Card:
Believe it or not the fees are also used to cover the costs of providing emergency services for American citizens who have been the victims of crime (or a crisis; such as an earthquake) while traveling or living abroad as well as providing support to the families of American citizens who have died overseas.

2. Application fees allow us to keep up with the latest technology in fraud prevention:
You don’t want just anyone to be able to obtain a U.S. Passport, do you? The Passport Agency has received great praise from document security specialists all over the world and views the prevention of Passport fraud as a key ongoing priority.

3. Fees help fund passport infrastructure and service.
Offering more timely service to the traveling public is always a number one priority at the Passport Agency Office, but it is equally as important to maintain high standards for adjudication in accordance with US citizenship laws.

4. Millions of Passports are requested each year.
The demand for passports has increased to an average of 15 million per year in recent years. For example, in FY 2005, the Passport Agency issued 10.1 million passports, 18.4 million in FY 2007; and they predict to issue over 15 million in FY 2010. The new fees will help them to increase their presence in underserved areas such as communities affected by the land border-crossing requirements associated with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. They expect to have 23
agencies providing emergency passport services to the general public, three high-volume application processing centers, and two large-scale document print centers by the end of FY 2010.

5. Passports are no longer used just for travel.
The U.S. Passport Book and U.S. Passport Card serves as proof of U.S. citizenship and identity for important purposes such as: work authorization and eligibility for many Federal benefits. Keep in mind that Adult U.S. Passport Books and U.S. Passport Cards are valid for 10 years, so paying these fees once every 10 years with all of the benefits listed above sounds not too shabby to us!

* Information for this post on Passport Agency Fees was obtained via the State Department website. For more details, please visit www.state.gov. If you need to change to your married name on your U.S. Passport, check out MissNowMrs.com/Passport-Name-Change.aspx for the inside scoop!

Social Security Name Change: 3 Things the S.S. Office Will NEVER Tell You!

If you’re interested in Social Security name change, you must have decided to change your name in some way after your marriage…so congratulations! The first step on you quest to become a Mrs. is to complete and file your SS-5 Social Security form. Many states require that you file your Social Security form 24 hours before changing your name on your driver’s license, or anything else. Other state offices must see your new married name on your Social Security card before they will file your other name-change forms. It’s very important to understand your state’s policies before you begin filing your forms, or you may end up making a very complicated process (married name-change) even more tedious!

If you’ve dug through your files and safety deposit box and can’t find your Social Security card with your maiden name on it, don’t panic. One of the most common married name change misconceptions is that you will need your old Social Security card to file for you new one. The truth is…you don’t!
You do need to find out your state’s policies on married name change. Some states recognize a woman’s right to change her middle name to her maiden name after marriage, and some do not. Depending on where you live, you may need to alter the married name you’d envisioned using, or contemplate a legal name change instead of a married name change to get the middle and last name combination you want. The Social Security office will allow you to change your middle name to your maiden name on your Social Security card regardless of your state of residency. The result? If you live in a state that does not allow middle name change due to marriage you will have one married name on your Social Security card and a different one on U.S. Passport, state driver’s license, mortgage…ect! The resulting complications and confusion these differences can cause are unbelievable.
Most newlyweds are under the impression that they have to stand in an endless line at the Social Security office to file their name-change form and get their new Social Security card with their new married name. Guess what? You don’t! There is a mail-in filing option available for the SS-5 name change form. This option does involve sending some very important paperwork through the mail, so it is important to fully understand the process before you decide to take this route.

Now that you know the 3 things the Social Security office will never tell you, filing for your social security name change should go smoothly. Have you thought about filing all of your other name change forms?! If the entire married name change process seems overwhelming, again don’t panic! MissNowMrs is a married name change app and service designed to take newlyweds through ALL of the paperwork necessary to go from Miss to Mrs.!

Why spend hours trying to figure out this frustrating process when you could be focusing on the fun of being a newlywed? Let the MissNowMrs name change experts guide you through your married name change in half an hour!

Help Me Change My Name

Name Change After Marriage

Will your name change after marriage?? That seems to be one of the biggest questions facing newlywed women these days. The good news (for some) is that your name does not automatically change after you say “I do”. This leaves every woman with the decision on whether or not she wants to keep or change her maiden name.

What’s a newlywed girl to do? Statistically, almost everybody is doing a name change in some way these days. According to an article published in the Journal of Marriage and the Family, 88.6% of brides change their names after marriage. Options include hyphenation, taking two last names, taking your maiden name as your middle name or just taking your husband’s surname.

Our suggestion: transport yourself back to middle school and scribble your name several different ways on a few pages in a notebook. How does it look? How do you feel about the change? Are you comfortable being Mrs. Married Name (or any variation thereof) or are you firmly attached to being Ms. Maiden Name? Each newlywed is entitled to her own feelings on the matter…so don’t get pressured into making a quick decision. Take your time to decide how you and your spouse feel about your name change.

If you do decide to change your name after marriage, there are a series of state and U.S. government forms that need to be completed and filed. Typically, each state has a completely different set of forms, fees and filing order. You will also need to notify all of your banks, credit cards, employer(s), utility companies, insurance agencies, medical care providers, investment companies, mortgage companies, associations, ect. of your new name. The paperwork and notifications can be done on your own, or for $29.95 you can skip the hassle and use MissNowMrs.com’s easy online service for your name change after marriage! We consolidate the estimated 13 hour name change process into 30 minutes by auto-completing all of your specific forms and notification letters. Then you simply print them and follow our detailed filing instructions. Once your forms are filed, you’re officially a MRS.!!

Don’t want to change your name, but know a bride who plans to? Save her hours of research and frustration by giving her a MissNowMrs name change gift card as a bridal shower or wedding gift. Would she rather have a cookbook, or save 13 hours on her name change? Seems like a no-brainer to us!