Ive Made The Leap, And Seemed To Have Made A Mess

[bina]

after 4 years of marriage, youngest child (of ex husband) now 17 and less 'clingy' , and with me needing to renew american passport, i decided to do the name change thingy (too many of ex's family members here on kibbutz so mailbox and money alottment confusion due to last name, and wont bother youngest child to have different name than mom, whereas before it would cause problems...

first, i went to the israeli Min.of interior/population and declared my name change: since i am in the computer as being married to my thai husband , i just had to declare that i wanted his last name. i also added my original last name (as my middle name now, not hyphenated)... no muss no fuss, just a sticker and stamp in my israeli passport, no fees, and a new identity card, last name spelled same way in both, spelled in hebrew the same as it is spelled in husband's identity card (we are listed on eachothers id cards in israel, along with the children of my previous husband)

then i went to the US embassy in tel aviv, an event unto itself (security and paranoi wise), requested a name change and new passport since mine had expired anyhow. i had to prove that i used to have my previous last name (why?) and explain why i want to change my family name and explain why i spelled my maiden name phonetically in hebrew teh way we pronounce the name, but not the way it is actually spelled in english (my previous maiden last name before first marriage).

now, the english version in my US passport will match the english version in the israeli passport (as i just noticed the spelling on the receipt i was given to pick up the passort when finished), but have noticed that it doesnt match the english version in anon's thai passport. the israeli version of the english left out a letter in the name which is th version that i used for the american embassy.

in addition, our thai marriage certificate and subsequent cerified translations have me listed with my last name at the time (my ex's family name).

i dont have the patience to start changing all the spellings again, the hebrew versions match and the english versions match on my passports. do i need to do something for the thai end of things, or am i being obsessive compulsive? going tomorrow to pick up US passport but dont think i can change the spelling as then it wont match my israeli passport english version

do i need to do anything as far as the registered name on the thai marriage certificate? im feeling a beurocratic nightmare here....

i did make sure this name change would not affect my youngest daughter's getting her new passport, since now we dont have the same last names.

i have learned to never let anything expire ever again. husband has to renew his passport next year to get his visa here, maybe he should change the english spelling of his last name to match the english on my passports now? ideas anyone?

all because of a missing K between two other letters....

bina

israel

Edited January 3, 2011 by bina
clarifyng and spelling;getting more dyslectic with age

[mkawish]

Sorry everyone.

I intended the message to be private for bina alone.

Edited January 3, 2011 by mkawish

[Mario2008]

Guess you will need proof of the name change to show to Thai authorities when you have to proof that you are the same person as the one on the birth certificate of your children or your marriage certificate.

But as you are not a Thai national I doubt you can officially register the name change, so will just need to show proof of the name change every time.

[bina]

hey mario, thanx, fortunately, my daughter's last name stays the same as her father's last name, and she will be a non minor in one more year; she wont need to deal with thai authorities ever since she is full israeli/american (previous husband and me)... and american embassy didnt seem to think the minor spelling differance would be a problem for anyone since the englsih spellings match and the hebrew spellings match. as far as thailand is concerned, i will make sure that whatever documents i ever get will have the thai version spelled like husband's last name, and as for the english version, well, will see if we can change his version on his thai passport to m atch my english version since he doesnt really care how its spelled (as can be seen with thai english road signs galore) and we dont have mutual children so no certificate problems...

hyphenated and multi lingual last names and documentation must make for many beurocratic nightmares..

bina

now i just have to get used to writing it out in hebrew and english properly, and get the kibbutz used to new last name ...

people have a tradition of changing first names for after surviving accidents or other life threatening circumstances or for improving luck, but fewer change to longer last names, prefering to shorten or combine or translate cumbersome last names ....

bina

[CanadianGirl2]

Congratulations!

Sounds messy.

I too recently changed my last name to a Thai one. Completely dropped my maiden name. Not into the hyphenated last name business, or into a 25+ letter one… Only one place got the spelling wrong (forgot a vowel), but I quickly had it amended.

I don't have any advice really. If it were me, I'd get everything sorted now when you're not in a rush or under pressure of getting a passport renewed.