# Mexican women married to foreigner - Passport name



## MelodyPond

Hi, 

I was wondering if anyone could tell me how it works with the passport of a Mexican woman when getting married outside of Mexico to a foreigner and changing her name abroad so that it only would include the husbands' name. I heard that since in Mexico it is illegal to change your name then all you can do is ask if they can add to the passport the married name sort of as a note. Is this correct?


----------



## AlanMexicali

MelodyPond said:


> Hi,
> 
> I was wondering if anyone could tell me how it works with the passport of a Mexican woman when getting married outside of Mexico to a foreigner and changing her name abroad so that it only would include the husbands' name. I heard that since in Mexico it is illegal to change your name then all you can do is ask if they can add to the passport the married name sort of as a note. Is this correct?


No this is not correct. When the judge at the immigration swearing in ceremony swears in your Mexican wfe that is her legal name in the USA now. That name was the name on your certificate of Naturalized Citizen she recieved at the ceremony. That name will be the name on her passport. If you want to change her name she will have to go to a family court judge and have it changed legally there, he has the power to do it.

In Mexico her name will always be her original maiden name legally.

So in conclusion in the US legally she is so and so.

In Mexico she is legally so and so, her maiden name, NOT her name in the US because she took your last name instead.

This is perfectly legal in both countries.


----------



## MelodyPond

AlanMexicali said:


> No this is not correct. When the judge at the immigration swearing in ceremony swears in your Mexican wfe that is her legal name in the USA now. That name was the name on your certificate of Naturalized Citizen she recieved at the ceremony. That name will be the name on her passport. If you want to change her name she will have to go to a family court judge and have it changed legally there, he has the power to do it.
> 
> In Mexico her name will always be her original maiden name legally.
> 
> So in conclusion in the US legally she is so and so.
> 
> In Mexico she is legally so and so, her maiden name, NOT her name in the US because she took your last name instead.
> 
> This is perfectly legal in both countries.


Sorry for the confusion but as you can see from my question I never said any of us was American nor that I am the husband. I know that it is legal for the woman to have different names in both countries. All I need to confirm is that it is true that because the name must remain the same in the Mexican passport that what can be done nowadays is to add (at the bottom of the photo page I believe) the married name. I have been told this is the case and it has been mentioned online as well. So I just want confirmation from someone who knows about this from personal experience or who knows someone who was able to do so. Thank you for taking the time to reply though.


----------



## mickisue1

MelodyPond said:


> Sorry for the confusion but as you can see from my question I never said any of us was American nor that I am the husband. I know that it is legal for the woman to have different names in both countries. All I need to confirm is that it is true that because the name must remain the same in the Mexican passport that what can be done nowadays is to add (at the bottom of the photo page I believe) the married name. I have been told this is the case and it has been mentioned online as well. So I just want confirmation from someone who knows about this from personal experience or who knows someone who was able to do so. Thank you for taking the time to reply though.


Alan is married to a Mexican national, I believe. Your only difference is that the rules may vary somewhat in the UK, but may be the same.

Are you set upon taking your husband's last name? I did the first time I married, then took back my maiden name after the divorce. When I remarried, 10 years ago, we decided that it was more important that we know that we're married than that we share a last name.

So, we don't. But we've still evolved into an old married couple, it seems.


----------



## AlanMexicali

MelodyPond said:


> Sorry for the confusion but as you can see from my question I never said any of us was American nor that I am the husband. I know that it is legal for the woman to have different names in both countries. All I need to confirm is that it is true that because the name must remain the same in the Mexican passport that what can be done nowadays is to add (at the bottom of the photo page I believe) the married name. I have been told this is the case and it has been mentioned online as well. So I just want confirmation from someone who knows about this from personal experience or who knows someone who was able to do so. Thank you for taking the time to reply though.


O, I figured out it was a Mexican passport too late to edit. No, my current Mexican National wife renewed her passport after were were married in Mexico and she did not ask if she could change her name as our wedding certificate is from here or have a note added and when we cross the border into the US with her passport and frequent crosser visa in her Mexican passport they never question her.

The immigration lawyer in the US didn´t seem to think Americanizing her name would be a big deal either.

My exwife was called by her Americanized name in the US [also a Mexican National before immigrating] and Mexican name in Mexico legally. That is where my head was at when typing the above response.


----------



## MelodyPond

mickisue1 said:


> Alan is married to a Mexican national, I believe. Your only difference is that the rules may vary somewhat in the UK, but may be the same.
> 
> Are you set upon taking your husband's last name? I did the first time I married, then took back my maiden name after the divorce. When I remarried, 10 years ago, we decided that it was more important that we know that we're married than that we share a last name.
> 
> So, we don't. But we've still evolved into an old married couple, it seems.


Initially I did not intend to change it but after some research I am changing it for practical reasons. My husband does not care if I change it or not so it is entirely my decision. It would just make certain important aspects of our lives in the UK less difficult, that's why.


----------



## AlanMexicali

mickisue1 said:


> Alan is married to a Mexican national, I believe. Your only difference is that the rules may vary somewhat in the UK, but may be the same.
> 
> Are you set upon taking your husband's last name? I did the first time I married, then took back my maiden name after the divorce. When I remarried, 10 years ago, we decided that it was more important that we know that we're married than that we share a last name.
> 
> So, we don't. But we've still evolved into an old married couple, it seems.


The judge at the family court asked my moments soon to be my exwife what she would like her name to be and she kept my last name and has no middle name so now is a rare two named woman in the US.


----------



## MelodyPond

AlanMexicali said:


> O, I figured out it was a Mexican passport too late to edit. No, my current Mexican National wife renewed her passport after were were married in Mexico and she did not ask if she could change her name as our wedding certificate is from here or have a note added and when we cross the border into the US with her passport and frequent crosser visa in her Mexican passport they never question her.
> 
> The immigration lawyer in the US didn´t seem to think Americanizing her name would be a big deal either.
> 
> My exwife was called by her Americanized name in the US [also a Mexican National before immigrating] and Mexican name in Mexico legally. That is where my head was at when typing the above response.



No worries, I understand. Thank you for sharing your experience it is good to know that there is definitely no problems when having different names in different countries due to marriage. 

We didn't get married in Mexico so the possibility for us to add my married name to the passport is there if it is indeed true that it can be done.


----------



## circle110

I am a US national and I just married a Mexican national in the US (therefore "abroad" in reference to Mexico) so I think our situation may be somewhat parallel to yours (except for the US versus UK issue, which may be a factor - I don't know).

The justice of the peace that married us (in Texas) asked us very, very specifically how we wanted to handle this exact issue. Fortunately we were hardly the fist US/Mexican couple they had married at this office so they explained the factors that affect the decision. 

What it boiled down to was that the name we chose at the moment of getting the marriage license was the official name that she would probably want to use for anything and everything that might ever reference the marriage license, lest we want to deal with any potential confusion. She also recommended that we use the name that my wife has on her (Mexican) passport, since that may possibly be an issue one day in the future. So, we went with the J.P's suggestions.

In the US, the official change of name does not happen automatically with the marriage - it is something that must be done ex-post-facto (maybe it is the same in the UK?). In our case, we are keeping my wife's name as it was, so the only confusion is the issue of how Mexican names are constructed versus how Anglophile names are set up. We used my wife's two Mexican "nombres" as her US first name and middle name and then used the Mexican "father's apellido and mother's apellido" as an un-hyphenated, two word last name. This roughly matches, as best one can, what her Mexican passport says.

Our situation may be a little different from yours due to the fact that we live here in Mexico and not "en el extranjero". We just got married abroad.

I hope that info is of some use to you...


----------

