Passport denied due to name change - Married and name change - XMas Vacation planned

[ProSeMe]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Virginia

My wife was denied her passport application due to insufficient evidence of name. We have a vacation planned for Christmas. When we got married, she changed her name, now, she is worried that she might not get back the passport in sufficient time to travel.

She sent in all the required documents, and the passport agent at the city office did not say that anything was incorrect. There was no instructions for women who got married to submit her marriage license. Now, they are asking for a lot of different forms of identification over 5 years old, which she does not have.

They have stated that the application will be delayed for 90 days. She applied with sufficient time, however, now, we can not switch to expedited processing to get this done.

What are our options?

Has anyone ever experienced this?

 

[tranquility]

I don't think you have any "options" beyond jumping through all their hoops as quickly as possible. No court will force the U.S. government to issue a passport without years of litigation on issues not related to your question. Even then, I've not heard of it happening. Check to see if there is an ombudsman or something. Maybe an individual can help move things along. You might contact your senator(s) or representative.

 

[LdiJ]

I don't think you have any "options" beyond jumping through all their hoops as quickly as possible. No court will force the U.S. government to issue a passport without years of litigation on issues not related to your question. Even then, I've not heard of it happening. Check to see if there is an ombudsman or something. Maybe an individual can help move things along. You might contact your senator(s) or representative.

The whole scenario is a bit odd..did she also change her first name when you got married? Millions of women change their last name when they get married and they don't have problems getting passports...and I know a young woman who recently changed her first name and had no problem getting a passport. I would agree that contacting your local senator's office might be helpful. I have had quite a bit of success doing that in odd situations.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

As mentioned before, however, I would contact your congressman. They have entire staffs to play with gov't red tape.

 

[Ohiogal]

Did the wife actually change her name by going to the Social Security Administration and updating her information there with a copy of the marriage license and then changing her driver's license and everything OR did she believe that her name AUTOMATICALLY changed when she said, "I do"?

 

[ProSeMe]

Did the wife actually change her name by going to the Social Security Administration and updating her information there with a copy of the marriage license and then changing her driver's license and everything OR did she believe that her name AUTOMATICALLY changed when she said, "I do"?

Yes, EVERYTHING was changed.

We called the help hotline, and the guy was confused as well. It might have been the city representative who messed up. Despite the form not asking for the marriage licenses, I guess, the inspector should have asked, because my wife's ID names are different from her birth certificate (obviously because her married name is different).

Now, we are sending in a HUGE pile of evidence of names, before and after health cards, insurance cards, work IDs, newspaper clippings, before and after SSN, licenses, etc... and yes, it did ask for a huge pile of evidence.

 

[Zigner]

The application and the website state that additional verification may be required by the government.