PassPort Name Change Question

[fsdj1097]

Hello Everyone,

 

My grandson is getting married this month and DW and I are taking him and his new bride on an Alaska Cruise.  My question is regarding the length of time that it takes to have the name changed on an existing passport.  She(the new bride) is a US citizen and has an existing passport, issued to her with her maiden name.

 

Our cruise is set to depart on June 11th from Vancouver, flying from the US on June 9th.

 

It's our understanding that we cannot start the passport name change process until after the wedding, which is March 26th.

 

My question for everyone is do we have time to have the name change completed prior to our flight to Canada?  

 

Thanks to everyone, in advance, for your comments and experiences.

[CruiserBruce]

Is all the booking, passport, flights, etc in maiden name or future married name?

 

If in the maiden name is on everything, not sure why the bride couldn't travel on the maiden name.

[jacpedigo]

I would just make sure to book everything under her maiden name.  That way, she can travel with her existing passport.  That's what i did when I cruised within a few months of my wedding.

[fsdj1097]

In the interest of full disclosure, I booked the cruise using the soon-to-be married name of the bride.  I asked my grandson if he was confident that he could get the passport name change completed in time and took him at his word.......famous last words !  LOL

[jacpedigo]

You might call and see if you can change it.  With passport wait times, I'd be too scared to end up passport-less at travel time!  I finally got my name changed on mine this past summer (6 years after the wedding) and it took 12 weeks to arrive.  That said, others that I am traveling with next week did theirs more recently and had them back in 8 weeks, but that's assuming they can get the marriage certificate immediately after the wedding and have all of the other paperwork, photos, etc. complete ahead of time.

 

Just one less thing to stress over.

[Shmoo here]

I vote to have her travel with maiden name passport (that may require changing the name on the reservations so they match).

[Mtn2Sea]

I would call HAL and ask some questions.  While I couldn’t find anything under the FAQ’s on HAL’s website, I did find info on Carnival Cruise Line’s website that specifically addresses this issue (I figured Carnival would have to address this issue much more than HAL due to their much younger clientele).  Here’s that info:

 

It is important that the guest’s full name (first name and last name) on the cruise and airline tickets be the same as the guest’s non-expired government-issued photo I.D. they plan to use for travel identification. In the event of a different name on the cruise/airline ticket and the guest’s photo I.D. as a result of a marriage, divorce or a legal name change, documentation (original or clear, legible copy) supporting this change is required (at embarkation), such as a marriage certificate, marriage license or legal name change court document. Failure to bring documentation bridging the name differences could result in denied boarding.

 

The new bride should also make sure she won’t have a problem with the airline’s checkin desk if she’s flying to her cruise.

[12cruise2]

I've never changed my name from my former name to my newly-married name (more than 20 years ago).  As long as all IDs are in the same name, and reservations, there should be no need or hurry to get things changed.

[Homosassa]

1 hour ago, fsdj1097 said:

In the interest of full disclosure, I booked the cruise using the soon-to-be married name of the bride.  I asked my grandson if he was confident that he could get the passport name change completed in time and took him at his word.......famous last words !  LOL

Did you verify with the bride that she plans to change her name?

 

 

[fsdj1097]

20 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

Did you verify with the bride that she plans to change her name?

 

 

Yes, she fully intends to change her name.

[zgscl]

As far as the cruise goes it should be easy to switch the name to the maiden name. They are pretty flexible with name changes even close in. This is a pretty reasonable request and should be able to be accomplished without issue. Where there could be more difficulty is in changing the name on flights. Airlines can be less accommodating and require a lot more documentation. Personally I would think traveling in the maiden name which masses the passport is the safest course. After getting home they can do the legal name change and get a new passport, etc. 

[fsdj1097]

First of all, thanks to everyone who responded to my post.  In retrospect, we should have just booked the cruise and flights using my grandson's soon-to-be bride's maiden name.  DW has reminded me of this more than once!  LOL

 

 

 

I reached out to our PCC and requested that the bookings be changed to reflect the maiden name and, thankfully, that has been completed.  I greatly appreciate the efforts of our PCC in making this fairly painless.

 

We now have both the cruise and flights changed and we can all breath a sigh of relief and get back to the business of looking forward to our Alaska cruise.  

 

Thanks again to our CC family for your suggestions and experiences.  What a great resource!

 

Thanks again everyone!

[jacpedigo]

Thank you for the update!  I'm glad to hear that everything worked out! 🙂