Changing surname after marriage in UK as Dutch citizen - Should I apply for a British Passport?

Fancy08

Hi all,

I am after some very specific advise! I am a Dutch national and have lived in the UK for the past almost 12 years, I have settled status since Brexit. In April I am getting married to my British fiancé and I intend on taking his surname. Completely unaware of how the Dutch government works when it comes to this I assumed it would be similar to the UK where you can change your name in your passport after marriage for a fee. Turns out that the Dutch government doesn't allow you to change your surname at all after marriage. You can take change to your husband's surname in the registry and use it in day to day situations but the passport will never be changed unless you have a very specific reason which Marriage isn't one of them.

My worry is that I want to use his name and I think I can change it in the registry here but my passport will always have my maiden name and I'm afraid it will cause confusion or issues with official documents? 

I am trying to work out if it makes sense to just apply for British Citizenship to have a clean name change (risking losing my Dutch passport as the government may decide to take it away as they don't always like dual nationalities) or will just changing it in the registry work well enough? 

If I do apply for citizenship here, should I wait until I am married and then apply? 
Also should I sign my marriage documents assuming I will take his surname eventhough it can take a long time before I actually get a British passport. 

Sorry lots of questions but it is so specific that it is really hard to find anything concrete on the internet on this! 

Any help is appreciated,

Thank you

DullGreyGuy

Speaking to an immigration lawyer is always the best advice as you've no idea who it is giving advice on here. 

As someone with settled status you only need to have been living in the UK for 12 months since getting the status before you can apply.  As the spouse of a British Citizen you wouldn't need the 12 months but given you already have it there is no advantage on paper for waiting. When the wife, who had Permanent Residency (was preBrexit) qualified it was not too long before our planned wedding so held off until married just in case it made the application smoother. 

There is nothing on the marriage documents to say what you name will be after the marriage, just its custom for the name change and the marriage certificate is just used to rationalise it and show why you've gone from Smith to Jones or Jones-Smith etc 

According to the UK https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/netherlands-knowledge-base-profile/netherlands-knowledge-base-profile government website you can retain your dutch nationality if you are married to a British Citizen before yourself acquiring the nationality. 


My wife is in a similar situation in that her non-UK passport is in her maiden name as whilst you can change your name there after marriage 1) it doesn't change in the same way it does here 2) you have to go there in person to do it.  Note that this makes getting your UK passport much harder... took us an extra 3 months to renew her British passport because she has an expired non-UK passport in her maiden name. According to the HPO person that finally agreed the renewal it was a change of guidelines when a certain conservative minister was in the Home Office.

marcia_

 If you qualify for citizenship there is no need to wait until after your marriage. 

 Just wait until after your marriage to obtain a passport so it's provided in the name you want. 

 It's wise to get a British passport if you want to change your name because as you know you need identity documents for banking, benefits and much more. 

DullGreyGuy

marcia_ said:

 If you qualify for citizenship there is no need to wait until after your marriage. 

 Just wait until after your marriage to obtain a passport so it's provided in the name you want. 

 It's wise to get a British passport if you want to change your name because as you know you need identity documents for banking, benefits and much more. 

Other than they'd lose their Dutch nationality if they become a dual national before being married to a UK citizen

AskAsk

women in the UK have a choice of keeping their maiden name after marriage.  would it not be easier and less complicated if you keep your maiden name?

Mrs_Z

I would also think twice about losing a Dutch (or an EU passport for that matter) if your country does not allow dual citizenship. Personally I would not be willing to ‘sacrifice’ an EU passport for just being able to get your husband’s surname on your (British) passport if you went down the citizenship route. In your shoes I would just get married, keep my maiden name & Dutch passport. 

DullGreyGuy

Mrs_Z said:

I would also think twice about losing a Dutch (or an EU passport for that matter) if your country does not allow dual citizenship. Personally I would not be willing to ‘sacrifice’ an EU passport for just being able to get your husband’s surname on your (British) passport if you went down the citizenship route. In your shoes I would just get married, keep my maiden name & Dutch passport. 

They shouldn't lose it if they do things in the right order but as previously said, really need to check with someone who has professional knowledge of the rules and not just rely on the UK Government's summary of them. 


I wouldn't want to lose my EU passport either but thankfully a trinational here cos I am greedy, used to have 4 passports at one point (UK allows you to have two in certain circumstances). 

They could still adopt their partners surname, as my wife did, just need to be careful when booking flights to use the maiden name and it naturally stops the passport from being used as ID in certain circumstances. As my wife is a dual national but legally has to leave her country on her national passport in principle could have been difficult but she just carries both uses the UK for everything other than the border back home and switches there, its clearly not uncommon there as never has the difference in name from ticket and passport been an issue. 

Fancy08

Thank you all, I had always envisioned taking my future husband's name, didn't realise it was going to be so complicated! 

I will definitely speak to a professional to figure out my exact options as I am unable to be 100% certain that I can keep my Dutch passport from reading online and I have to agree I am not sure I would want to give that up! I do believe that I can add "married to .." on my Dutch passport and I wonder if that might be a solution. 

I am also reading that it might be possible to change my driver's license and other official documents without changing my passport (apparently the Netherlands are not the only country who don't allow it to be changed) so will explore that further.. I just feel like that might complicate things in the future!

Thank you all!

Savvy_Sue

If it helps, I've known many married women in the UK who NEVER used their husband's name. The passport / ticket / hotel booking thing just becomes automatic to use both names.