Name change while living overseas? Canadian citizen in Australia.

[ShawnaB]

Hello,
I went through this last year. I was born in Ontario but live in the Czech Republic.
Where you change your name depends on where you reside, not where you were born. So, if you live in Australia, especially if you are no longer a tax resident in BC, you need to change your name in Australia and in accordance with the local law. Once your name has been legally changed, you will need to apply to have your new legal name reflected on the birth registry in BC. I am not sure the process of this for BC, but in Ontario I just had to fill in an application for a new birth certificate and included the original copy of the name change certificate, in English or French. Once you have your new birth certificate, go to your local consulate and apply for a new Passport. Since you will not have any supporting document in the new name, you may need to include a declaration that you changed your name and why (I was asked to include a letter from my doctor saying I was trans). After that you should have your new passport in 2-4 weeks and with that you can change all your locally issued IDs.
Good luck with everything,
Mary

Hi Mary,

Do you have a list of the documents you needed to fill out/update for Ontario? I was born there but live in the UK now. My last passport already has my name change recognised on it, but I think they'll give me a hard time without a new birth certificate as it's now set to expire. Mainly did you get a name update on your BC as well? How did that work? The new rules require that the passport match the BC name (as of the beginning of the year according to my sister who just tried to update her married name but they went and changed her first name on her passport causing other issues for her).

Feel free to PM me if it's easier.

Best,
S

[Mary81]

Hi Mary,

Do you have a list of the documents you needed to fill out/update for Ontario? I was born there but live in the UK now. My last passport already has my name change recognised on it, but I think they'll give me a hard time without a new birth certificate as it's now set to expire. Mainly did you get a name update on your BC as well? How did that work? The new rules require that the passport match the BC name (as of the beginning of the year according to my sister who just tried to update her married name but they went and changed her first name on her passport causing other issues for her).

Feel free to PM me if it's easier.

Best,
S

Hi ShawnaB,
Sorry for my late reply - the last two moths have been complete madness!

Anyhow, I needed to submit the following documents:
- The original copy of my legal change of name certificate (translated by an official court translator into English), all of my previously issued birth certificates (including my long form birth certificate)
- An application for a new birth certificate (available online as Service Ontario)
- $35
- A letter outlining the urgency of my request and photo copies of my residency permit and passport showing that they would expire in a few months.

Additionally, I was asked to provide translations of the laws governing name changes in the Czech Republic because I was the first person from Ontario to ever change their name in the Czech Republic and no one in Service Ontario had any idea of what to do with me.  Though, I expect this wont happen to you.

It took a crazy long time but finally I was issued a new BC with my new name.

Good luck,
M

[ShawnaB]

Hi Mary,

Thanks for the reply.

My sister actually made a bunch of phone calls on my behalf (she's in Toronto) and basically the process (for an adult) is fill out the top 4 forms from here:

http://www.ontario.ca/government/changing-your-sex-designation-your-birth-registration-and-birth-certificate

and pay the fees! The payment form being the most annoying form to deal with and you need to have adobe acrobat as your pdf browser viewer as opposed to the default pdf viewer that comes with any browser.

The guarantor was a bit of a problem but you can get someone in an equivalent profession to write a letter stating you've been out of the country for X years and thus can't use a Canadian one.

Passport Canada is the next problem - not sure what the new rules are that came into effect earlier this year but have 6-8 weeks waiting on Service Ontario to get my BC issued to find out.