Changing Wifes Surname To Mine

[deankham]

Hi All,

Myself (UK Passport), Wife (Thai Passport) and Daughter (UK & Thai Passports) are planning on visiting England next year for a 2-3 week holiday.

..We are all Residents of Hong Kong and will do our UK visa application for my wife from within Hong Kong.

Although we are legally married we have not changed my wifes surname (It's not common practive in HK and all my wifes HK ID cards / resident info / visas for last 10 years etc is all in her maiden name).

Anyway finally to my question ;

..Will my wife retaining her maiden name have any bearing on a UK visa application? This time it will only be a visit visa but in the future it could be a settlemnt visa. Might the UK Visa people see this is a lack of commitment to the marriage and so question the visa application?

Thanks for any input :jap:

[chongam]

No---just need your marriage cert.

[richardjm65]

My Thai wife wanted to retain her Thai surname, so we compromised and used her Thai surname linked with my surname with a hyphen. The local Amphur accomplished the change, she was issued with a new ID card. Armed with that we then changed her name on DL, passport, bank acc., etc. I don't see why your wife retaining her family name should matter to the visa people - as long as you can produce a valid marriage cert (duly translated and notarised of course). But then who knows how the minds of the bureaucrats really work. Perhaps producing the child's birth cert would help. Would be interested to know how that pans out as one of these days I'll want to take my wife to the UK for a visit.

[sumrit]

It'll make no difference whatsoever to the visa application what name your wife chooses to use. Using one name over another doesn't change the couples commitment to each other. And as Chongam says it's the marriage certificate that proves you're married, not the name.

[deankham]

thanks or the info guys...sounds like there is no need to change the surname just for the sake of the UK visa application.

..Good to know

[7by7]

Correct, there is absolutely no requirement under UK law for a wife to take her husband's surname upon marriage. Whether she does so or not is purely a personal choice and will have no bearing whatsoever on any visa application.