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Do I need to register divorce and new marriage prior to applying for passport renewal? Confused!

3 replies

HoneyStepMummy · 20/08/2013 19:05

Hello,

Before I attempt to reach someone at the British Consulate after hours of online research with no answers I thought I would try asking this here.
I'm from the UK. I got married in London (before 2001) to a US citizen. Came to the US to live, got Green Card right away. Changed my last name to his, and that's what my UK passport reflects. Got divorced a few years after coming here, but name, passport, GC remained the same.
Until...I became a US citizen a few years after divorce and reverted back to my maiden name. Became a dual citizen, but travelled on US passport. Stupidly didn't change name on UK passport since money was tight for me at the time and I had just met my now husband and knew another name change would be in the works (told you I'm stupid!)
So, even though I keep reminding myself I need to take care of the name change on my UK passport I haven't and it's expired. I got married to lovely DH two years ago and after a lot of arm twisting took his last name.I've got the UK passport renewal application forms filled out, copy of my US Divorce Decree, new marriage certificate, passport photos etc...but do I need to somehow register my divorce and new marriage in the UK prior to sending my application form?
So sorry about the long post. I prefer to ask this on MN since I have found MNetters to be really helpful. Thanks in advance if anyone knows the answer to this!

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Saltedcaramellavacake · 21/08/2013 15:48

I had to do something similar (but death not divorce - still involved a lots of different certificates and a remarriage outside the UK). I didn't have to register the death/remarriage and could just rely on the certificates issued by the relevant authorities in each country (Australia and UK) to get two new passports in my new married name. Just make sure you keep all your certificates forever more because every time you renew you have to disclose past passports and previous names. I'm still doing it ten years later. Good luck.

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Saltedcaramellavacake · 21/08/2013 16:07

Also, you will probably need to include your first marriage certificate as well as the divorce papers to show how you got your first married name on your now expired passport. You may also want to include your birth certificate to trace through the name (your maiden name) on that first marriage certificate.
I'm explaining this badly. What I'm trying to say is that your passport application needs to trace through every name change and the reasons why - maiden to first married (birth and first marriage certs) first married to new married names (divorce and subsequent marriage certs), any change back to maiden in between. HTH.

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HoneyStepMummy · 21/08/2013 16:35

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond! I have all of the above documents and will include them with my application. I am never going to change my last name again so moving forward things should be much easier! I want to make sure everything is in proper order before I send it off with a hefty check since it'll be a big pain if it gets returned.
So I will include orig. UK birth certificate, UK marriage license, divorce decree, old passport, and new marriage license.

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