# Name change after marriage



## soryps (Jan 15, 2011)

To anyone who got married in Greece to a Greek spouse, how did you go about changing your name and when did you go about changing it?

When we got married we were told that I could not change my name to his and if I wanted to take his surname, we would have to go to another office and fill out some paperwork where I could add his surname to mine, but I was not allowed to replace it/get rid of the maiden name. Has anyone dealt with the same situation? And I'm now wondering if I should wait to change my surname until *after* we deal with all this residency permit stuff, because if I do it now I wonder if it would be an issue for some public servant who would see that the marriage license doesn't match with my current name if I choose to add his now. Another thing I wonder is how does this work when changing names on American documents like a passport? I thought if you wanted to change your surname to your married name on a passport for example, you have to submit your marriage license as "proof" of the married name. But how does that work if your name is the same on the marriage certificate?

Another thing I heard is that you cannot have more than three names in Greece, so I'm wondering how this works if you have a middle name and supposedly cannot get rid of your maiden name, but only add your husbands surname. That equals four names.. so just wondering if anyone has had this same issue and how they went about dealing with it


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## EriEli (Oct 26, 2011)

I'm about to go through the same process, so I'm curious to know too!!!


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

I have 4 names and that has never ever been a problem for me at any point in Greece. 

As for changing last name, when I married my husband, I initially wanted to change my name (through the court system) but decided it wasn't worth it because there was no easy way be sure that it would not snarl up the residence permit process. Since the initial permit is only for a few years and then it has to be renewed, I don't want to do it now either.

I'm glad that your experience getting married in Greece was much easier and less paperwork than mine was.


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

Just following on my previous post, I actually use my "married name" socially here and that's fine. I just use my real name for official things. This may be a solution for you if you want to avoid the mess.


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## soryps (Jan 15, 2011)

Thanks for the response wka. I would definitely prefer to have my husband's surname, but even more than that, I don't want to have a different surname than my future children (when we got married we agreed the kids would have his surname), so that's why I don't want to put off for as long as possible. We'll see what is suggested to us by the lawyer or whoever will help us deal with all this residency stuff.


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

I understand - I would very much have preferred a name change too. Greek women don't have the name-change option unless they go through a court, so it's not like the other moms are going to have the same name as THEIR kids, but I know what you mean.

We didn't need a lawyer for my res. permit, in fact it was much less hassle than the marriage bureaucracy itself. But it took over a year for them to finally get around to interviewing us, so my 5 year permit is only good for 4 years from date of issue *Greek bureaucracy eyeroll*


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## mariek (Aug 17, 2009)

soryps said:


> Thanks for the response wka. I would definitely prefer to have my husband's surname, but even more than that, I don't want to have a different surname than my future children (when we got married we agreed the kids would have his surname), so that's why I don't want to put off for as long as possible. We'll see what is suggested to us by the lawyer or whoever will help us deal with all this residency stuff.


Hi, 
Just to piggyback onto what WKA said . . . unless you just don't have the time, you really don't need a lawyer's help for the residency permit. I mean, you will probably need a few stamps from them but the process itself is very straightforward. My husband and I went to the immigration office and were given a list of the documents needed. We copied and had stamped what we needed to, brought them back and I was given an interview a few months later. Seriously, it was a piece of cake . . . shockingly enough. 
Sorry I can't help with the name issue, I kept mine.


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

I went back and re-read my original posts on this thread and it does look like I had a lawyer. I didn't really. I had hired a lawyer to handle something else and had him deal with the translations for my marriage license initially, never needed him again (and could have done without him there as well, but it was just easier and I already had him around). The residence permit liason that I talked about was someone who works for the job I had in Athens, whose full-time job was to deal with residence permit bureaucracy for the foreign employees - necessary for the job I had then, NOT necessary for a regular marriage case like what mine TURNED INTO. So I didn't need him after the wedding day. We have a friend who is a lawyer who stamped a few things for me but other than that, I was NOT running to a lawyer's office or anything like that.


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## soryps (Jan 15, 2011)

Thanks everyone, I think we're going to start the residency process on Wednesday and I don't know if this is the best idea, I think I'm going to change my name before we start the process of adding me to the insurance and starting the residency thing. I just figure it would be a bad idea to either do it in the middle, or even after we're done because I was will have a different name on certain documents either way. We already did the family merida (I can never remember how to spell family in Greek lol) thing with my current name though, so I don't know if we should go back and change it to my new name or if that's even possible or if it will even matter?


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

If I had to guess, I would say that it probably would matter. Since you'll be applying for residency on the basis of your spouse's citizenship, your family merida is the main piece of paper that proves your husband is married to the person applying - so the names should match. If any name doesn't match any other, you could be creating unnecessary problems for yourselves. 

Of course, as you know, I thought about it too, and ended up not risking it, because I'm risk-averse.


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## soryps (Jan 15, 2011)

wka said:


> If I had to guess, I would say that it probably would matter. Since you'll be applying for residency on the basis of your spouse's citizenship, your family merida is the main piece of paper that proves your husband is married to the person applying - so the names should match. If any name doesn't match any other, you could be creating unnecessary problems for yourselves.
> 
> Of course, as you know, I thought about it too, and ended up not risking it, because I'm risk-averse.


yeah and sadly enough you never know which Greek public servant will want to screw with your day and make it ten times more difficult for you just because *they're* having a bad day or something..

Do you know if it's possible to change the name on the merida document?


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

Well, changes to it are possible. I know that because ours was changed. They originally had it that my husband was married to himself. Changing it was a matter of my mother in law going to City Hall and asking one of her former students (i.e., the employee) to fix it. 

Don't quote me on this but I imagine you'd have to have completed your legal name change completely before any other step. Just remember that you must start your residency paperwork 2 months before you have to leave the country (i.e., around 30 days after entering Greece for Americans), probably because the EU law says they're supposed to return a decision in 2 months (they won't, but that doesn't matter). So if the name-change process take a while, you will risk overstaying your visa (there is a fine for failure to do the residency paperwork in time).

You'd probably want to consult a lawyer on this one. A name change involves the court system and I wouldn't want to enter a Greek court without at least talking to a lawyer first (but that's just me). 

Once you change your name, you'll always have to justify why your birth certificate and marriage certificate have a different name than your ID/residence permit, passport, and financial documents.


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## soryps (Jan 15, 2011)

wka said:


> Well, changes to it are possible. I know that because ours was changed. They originally had it that my husband was married to himself. Changing it was a matter of my mother in law going to City Hall and asking one of her former students (i.e., the employee) to fix it.
> 
> Don't quote me on this but I imagine you'd have to have completed your legal name change completely before any other step. Just remember that you must start your residency paperwork 2 months before you have to leave the country (i.e., around 30 days after entering Greece for Americans), probably because the EU law says they're supposed to return a decision in 2 months (they won't, but that doesn't matter). So if the name-change process take a while, you will risk overstaying your visa (there is a fine for failure to do the residency paperwork in time).
> 
> You'd probably want to consult a lawyer on this one. A name change involves the court system and I wouldn't want to enter a Greek court without at least talking to a lawyer first (but that's just me).


When we went to the city hall the day after our civil ceremony to sign everything, they told us changing the name was exceptionally easy and even showed us the two papers we would need to fill out in order to get it done. They said we could have done the name change right then in about 30 seconds, but the guys there suggested we should wait until after the residency paperwork is completed.



> Once you change your name, you'll always have to justify why your birth certificate and marriage certificate have a different name than your ID/residence permit, passport, and financial documents.


Do you mean within Greece? I could see the issues when in the US, but since it's set up this particular way by the Greek system I would imagine that it's actually very standard for offices because they understand that you don't get your name changed during marriage and need a separate document to do so.

In the end of the day I will have to deal with name differences on the marriage license, passport, etc because I will change my name regardless so that I will have the same surname as my future children. So my reasoning is that if it will possibly present a problem based on what you say, it will do so whether or not I do it before or after the residency paperwork because it's not a question of if I change it, but when. (sorry if that was confusing)


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

To be clear - are you changing your name to your husband's last name ONLY? Or your last name + your husband's last name?

If it's the former, I don't think what you were told at City Hall is correct - and that's why I posted all of that. But if you are talking about hyphenating, then yes, that is a minor thing. (You were married in Greece, right? A GREEK City Hall?)

In Greece, it's illegal for women to take their husband's name (and give up their maiden name) when they marry, unless they go through the court. 

Sorry if I misunderstood


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## soryps (Jan 15, 2011)

wka said:


> To be clear - are you changing your name to your husband's last name ONLY? Or your last name + your husband's last name?
> 
> If it's the former, I don't think what you were told at City Hall is correct - and that's why I posted all of that. But if you are talking about hyphenating, then yes, that is a minor thing. (You were married in Greece, right? A GREEK City Hall?)
> 
> ...


Yeah actually I think they told us that I could not replace his name with mine, but "add" it instead.

And I've been looking stuff up online, and unless I understood it incorrectly, when you get married in the US you do not change your name on the marriage license. You sign with your maiden name (in most places at least) and then if you want to change it to your husbands you simply take your marriage certificate to the all the appropriate offices and then change it that way. So if I wanted to change the name in my passport, for example, I could actually just send them a copy of our marriage certificate and (I think) that would be adequate? My thoughts were that I could not change any of my American documents because I did not change my name to his on the marriage license, but that doesn't seem to usually happen in the US either..?


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

Okay, first of all, I apologize - I was writing under the assumption that you wanted to go from Jane Johnson to Jane Smith. If you want to go to Jane Johnson-Smith, it should be much simpler. Sorry about all that. I probably was thinking that because I am ALREADY Jane Johnson-Smith, and rather than becoming Jane Johnson-Smith-Jones, I was hoping to just become Jane Jones, if that makes sense. So I was conflating your question with my experience.

Did you get married in Greece? And how long ago?

If you go through the appropriate steps to change your name to Johnson-Smith on your US stuff (passport, etc), as well as notifying Athens City Hall (forms, etc) that you want to become Johnson-Smith, when you then go to file your residency paperwork, you'll have Johnson-Smith on passport and family merida, and Johnson on birth certificate and you should be okay - the only thing I would be worried about is the TIME limits on these things.

You're really supposed to be doing the paperwork by the 2nd month of your stay in Greece. If you're waiting on US services to come through with a new passport, and Greek services to come through with a new family merida, you might have a problem that way? 

And I'm pretty sure you're not going to run into legal problems - but you might run into a fine. I was told that if I didn't file everything on time, I would have to pay several hundred euros - not the end of the world, and probably not a big enough deal to make you not change your own name to what you want it to be!! but something to be aware of in advance.


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## soryps (Jan 15, 2011)

wka said:


> Okay, first of all, I apologize - I was writing under the assumption that you wanted to go from Jane Johnson to Jane Smith. If you want to go to Jane Johnson-Smith, it should be much simpler. Sorry about all that. I probably was thinking that because I am ALREADY Jane Johnson-Smith, and rather than becoming Jane Johnson-Smith-Jones, I was hoping to just become Jane Jones, if that makes sense. So I was conflating your question with my experience.
> 
> Did you get married in Greece? And how long ago?


We got married in Athens a few weeks ago (actually a suburb, but same difference). I came to Athens December 23rd, so today (or yesterday now) makes it one month that I've been in Greece.




> If you go through the appropriate steps to change your name to Johnson-Smith on your US stuff (passport, etc), as well as notifying Athens City Hall (forms, etc) that you want to become Johnson-Smith, when you then go to file your residency paperwork, you'll have Johnson-Smith on passport and family merida, and Johnson on birth certificate and you should be okay - the only thing I would be worried about is the TIME limits on these things.


I'd like if I could go in and have my name already changed on my passport, but you'll see as I wrote below, I didn't really intend to change my passport right away because I just don't think we'd have enough time to do all that and get the residency stuff done in a timely manner.

If I do decide to add his surname to mine before we start the residency paperwork (which will be this week), does that mean the merida document will be "corrected" at the city hall and we will not have to do anything separate in order to change it on the family merida?



> You're really supposed to be doing the paperwork by the 2nd month of your stay in Greece. If you're waiting on US services to come through with a new passport, and Greek services to come through with a new family merida, you might have a problem that way?


Well, I actually just meant if I wanted to change my name on my passport in the future. I didn't have any plan to change the name on my passport right away, just in the next year or so. And actually I think my passport expires in a year or two anyway, so I'll have to renew it and I figured I should make sure I will be able to change my name without problems



> And I'm pretty sure you're not going to run into legal problems - but you might run into a fine. I was told that if I didn't file everything on time, I would have to pay several hundred euros - not the end of the world, and probably not a big enough deal to make you not change your own name to what you want it to be!! but something to be aware of in advance.


I'd actually rather not change my name if it meant we had to pay a fee of several hundred euros. We are in a crisis after all hwell:


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

I definitely don't have all the answers but a helpful City Hall employee might be able to help you out with some of this.


soryps said:


> We got married in Athens a few weeks ago (actually a suburb, but same difference). I came to Athens December 23rd, so today (or yesterday now) makes it one month that I've been in Greece.


Congratulations on your marriage 



> I'd like if I could go in and have my name already changed on my passport, but you'll see as I wrote below, I didn't really intend to change my passport right away because I just don't think we'd have enough time to do all that and get the residency stuff done in a timely manner.


My main worry with this is that the residency process uses your actual passport as proof of identification, all the way from Day 1 until you are handed your actual EU Residence Card (13 months later in my case). Your passport number is used over and over as a point of reference, and your name is as well of course. For a Greek woman, the change of name is easy - she's not trying to go through a residence procedure - but for you, your passport will not agree with your Greek paperwork. You'll need to ask at City Hall if this is a problem. There may be a VERY simple answer to this. 



> If I do decide to add his surname to mine before we start the residency paperwork (which will be this week), does that mean the merida document will be "corrected" at the city hall and we will not have to do anything separate in order to change it on the family merida?


The merida is handled in-house at City Hall. Any changes that need to be done can be done by the City Hall employee probably right in front of you as you wait - unless it's something that needs further documentation and blah blah Greek bureaucracy. But the merida is generated, managed, and distributed by the City Hall where your husband votes in the local elections. So changes it to it should be immediate.



> Well, I actually just meant if I wanted to change my name on my passport in the future. I didn't have any plan to change the name on my passport right away, just in the next year or so. And actually I think my passport expires in a year or two anyway, so I'll have to renew it and I figured I should make sure I will be able to change my name without problems


I understand what you're saying but as I say above, I'd worry that since the US passport is your ONLY form of actual legal ID in Greece (even your "vevaiosi" - the blue sheet of paper with your photo that says your residence application has moved on to review) refers to your US passport number - you could potentially have a problem. But the City Hall employee should be able to tell you - this is something they deal with all the time, I'm sure. (Especially in Athens. Up here, it's hard to get straight info on expat issues.)



> I'd actually rather not change my name if it meant we had to pay a fee of several hundred euros. We are in a crisis after all hwell:


I hear ya on that. DON'T give up - just ask at City Hall. Get your husband to ask, especially if he knows someone who works there. They may say it's no problem. The thing is that you NEED them to tell you that it's no problem.


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## soryps (Jan 15, 2011)

Alright I'll definitely ask them, thanks for the help 

Actually one last question that should probably go in the other thread. When you start the residency process, you simply need to go to the KEP office right?


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

When I started, I went to City Hall, they had a special office for "Alien Affairs" - in Athens it might not be in the same building, we live in a much smaller city so it's all together. That's also where I went to pick it up when it was ready; in the middle I went to the Perifereia (Regional Offices) for the interview. 

I would be surprised if KEP could handle it. I think they can handle the EU citizens but I don't think they can deal with us.


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