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Name Change Confusion

bethr5bethr5
First Comment
in Missouri-Kansas City

The situation:  We're getting married 8/14/10; we're going on our honeymoon in the Caribbean on 10/2/10.  I currently live & work in KS (and my driver's license and car tags/title are KS issued) but we'll be getting married in MO, and will live in MO after the wedding.


A girl I work with who just got married told me today that if your marriage license is issued in MO, you only have 30 days to change your name.  Is this correct?  I was planning to wait until after the honeymoon to change my name because we couldn't be guaranteed that I'd get a new passport with my new name in time to be able to travel out of the country.  Now I'm all confused.  Help?

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Re: Name Change Confusion

  • erinmarie2831erinmarie2831
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    I do not know for sure as I have not obtained a marriage certificate yet, but I just looked at the County Recorder of Deeds for Jackson County (http://www.jacksongov.org/content/3277/3310/3356/3358/default.aspx#process) and I saw no mention of a 30 day requirement on the name change. The only 30 day deadline I noted was that you have to get married within 30 days of obtaining the marriage license. In fact, the officient has up to 15 days after the wedding to submit the marriage license, which would leave only 15 days for you to obtain a certified copy of your marriage record, which you need to change your name. So I'm guessing that isn't the case.

    But I will certainly defer to anyone else on here, as I'm sure others know more than me!
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  • luciernaga1luciernaga1
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    If you are changing your name you are doing so at the federal level, i.e. your social security card would be the first to be changed, then your DL and if you are moving to MO you would be applying for a new DL either way with your new SScard.

    Until you get your signed marriage certificate back, you  aren't able to make any changes either way, so I don't think you'll have to worry about issues with the state. You have the right to change your name any time you desire, so I think the 30 days thing is fairly unlikely.

    Here's the social security info: http://www.ssa.gov/gethelp1.htm

    and here's a pretty logical sounding guide about name changing procedure which might be helpful: http://weddings.about.com/od/getorganized/a/changeyournam.htm
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  • luciernaga1luciernaga1
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    I just realized that the 30 days your friend ireferred to to has to do with the 30 day validity of a marriage license in most MO counties. Once you have the license you have to get married within 30 days. The name change issue is completely apart from that. Hope that clears it all up finally :)
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