AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Travel check your tickets to your passports

Well, if I changed my married name back to my maiden name, no one would know who the heck I am in my profession. Plus, I like my married name better even though I am no longer married.

You can petition the court for a legal name change. You follow all procedures required in your local court, such as publishing in a local newspaper. Attend a court hearing with proof of proper notice and get the judge to sign. When all the legal mumbo jumbo is done you have a Decree Changing Name and can have everything changed to conform. Birth certificate, social security card, passport etc...
It's pretty easy to find the information for your area online.

*This is just basic info. There are several more steps involved but just wanted to give the watered down version here.

Islenutt: You nailed it. At least in Wis. it is nothing more than what you described(unless you have a professional license). The problem I have with Harriet's "process" is when you go to apply for that first passport for yourself and/or a child. Nothing matches on the required documents. I don't think they'll accept an affadavit that says "I moved to an isolated caye and decided to call myself Migwa" as evidence of anything.

Oddly enough,
I also got a notification about the name issue from our corporate travel agents as well, but it was a little more detailed than the initial post, and included a link to the TSA FAQ section for this subject. With the way it is described it sound like they are going to "tighten up" the requirement over time. Of course, leaving anything to the individual discretion of a TSA employee... well I won't go down that road right now. Just one more thing to deal with while basically stripping down to get through security while balancing the baby on your hip, and trying to run down the other one that decided to make a break for it (while TSA tries to cram a golf cart size stroller through the baggage X-ray).......

Dear Travelers,


Due to updates with TSA requirements, it is imperative that you read the TSA generated text listed below. In short, starting May 15, 2009, when issuing tickets for you, it requires us to only use the exact name as it appears on your form of identification. If you use your driver's license and it includes your middle name or initial, than that is how we have to issue your ticket. By August 15, 2009, birth date and gender must be included when issuing tickets. Please forward this information to us at your earliest convenience so that we can update our records.

Due to a new federal requirement, The Secure Flight Program will soon be operational. Secure Flight requires that domestic aircraft operators request and collect full names as of May 15, 2009, and date of birth and gender as of August 15, 2009 for their domestic flights. For international flights, full name, date of birth and gender must be requested and collected as of October 31, 2009. Passengers should insure that the name used when making the reservation matches the ID that will be used when the passenger checks in. TSA has built some flexibility into the processes regarding passenger name accuracy. For the near future, small differences between the passenger's ID and the passenger's reservation information, such as the use of a middle initial instead of a full name or no middle name/initial at all, should not cause a problem for the passenger. Over time, passengers should strive to obtain consistency between the name on their ID and their travel information.

For further information on this please go to http://www.tsa/gov/what_we_do/layers/secureflight/faqs.shtm .

In Britain all you have to do is let people know what name you wish to be called by. There is no legal procedure or process. Can be a problem when visiting the US.

OK, I just talked to American Airlines, and the agent that helped has not heard anything about this as yet. Hopefully TSA will be lenient (yeah right) for a while until all airlines get their websites updated for on-line reservations to include all information required.

The one place a TSA agent does not want to be is standing between me and the gate of my flight headed for Belize (while telling me I forgot my middle inital). I might accidentally trample them due to excitement......

9 sleeps and 1 hour to go.......

They are tightening things up but right now as long as your first and last name matches what's on your passport, you should be OK. Eventually you will just have a chip implanted in your body for scanning for every kind of transaction, and that will be that. Ha! ;-)

Sorry about this, but its begging to be said.

Barb that would be the old "chip off the old block" rigjt? :-)

:-)