Change Wife'S Surname - Pros And Cons

[furryferret]

Folks, I am after some considered advice. I am a UK citizen and my Thai wife has Indefinite Leave to remain in the UK. At the end of this year she will be naturalised and will apply for a UK passport. We currently live and work in the UK but at some time I will move to Thailand.

At present she has a Thai passport in her maiden name which expires early next year, so we will need to renew it. Her Thai ID card is in her maiden name also.

So, several options are available: -

Get a UK Passport in her Thai name and retain her Thai name on both her Thai passport and her ID card

Get the UK passport in her married name and retain her Thai passport and ID in her maiden name

Get the UK passport in her married name and get the new Thai passport and ID card in her married name also.

I've been looking through various threads (some quite old and maybe no longer relevant) and am unsure what to to. There is an opinion that retaining a Thai name for my wife helps when dealing with officialdom in the LOS, and as we will eventually move there, that may be an advantage.

Who else has had this dilemma and what is the best option?

Thanks

[lopburi3]

There is no problem for most people having a non Thai name and dealing with officials. The first name is the most important here and that would not change. Having a foreign last name is very common these days. I expect those that may have problems would have problems regardless of name.

There used to be a land ownership issue that having a Thai name might not get noticed but the laws have been changed on that so no valid reason not to change now that I am aware of.

[case69]

If she,s qualified for leave to remain then it seems like youve done all the hard work with her surname as it is so have you any reason that you want to change it. We did change my wife,s to my surname when we got married before applying for settlement visa just because we thought it might look better on the application and it was easy enough to do so. Leave it as it is untill your settled in Thailand and change it later is an option.

[7by7]

My wife did change her ID card as soon as we were married; i) because she wanted to and ii) because she said it was a legal requirement. However, this was 10 years ago and I've since read that the second reason is no longer the case.

She didn't change the name in her Thai passport until she renewed it at the Thai embassy in London. Indeed as she had qualified for naturalisation by then, for a brief time her Thai passport was in her maiden name while her British one was in her married name!.

She used my surname on all documents in the UK, such as her driving licence; but this was because she wanted to. There is no requirement under UK law for a woman to take her husband's surname upon marriage.

So, at least as far as the UK is concerned, it is a personal choice.

She's never had any problems with Thai officialdom, including when we bought a property, due to having a non Thai surname.

BTW, she will be unable to change the name on her ID card at the Thai embassy; this has to be done at her home ampur where she is registered on the house book.

[furryferret]

Thanks for the responses. It seems that my belief that there may be issues for my wife by her using a Western surname are mis-placed. Therefore, I'll leave it up to her what she changes. The Thai passport is easy to change on next re-issue, but changing the ID card means travelling from one end of the country to the other (Lampang to Kra Sang). So, that's sorted - now for the Chanod!!!