People change their names for various reasons. Some of them may be personal, while others are a result of a change in marital status. When you change your name you will be required to change your legal documents also. This includes a passport name change and other documents. This name change can be simple and may not cost you anything, based on the length of time since you first obtained your passport.

You are required by law to change your name on your legal documents at any point that you change your name. A passport name change is necessary as well, as part of this process. When doing this you will need to verify with proper documentation that you have changed your name.

You may also want to hold onto some of your original documentation for future purposes. In some states if you relocate and change your license you will need to prove who you were and who you are. This will involve showing documentation that expresses the name change, such as marriage certificates and divorce documents.

A passport name change can occur different ways. The method that you select will be governed by the time it has been since you obtained your passport and whether you have legal documentation supporting your name change. The period of time that has transpired since you first filed for your passport will also determine whether you owe a fee for a passport name change.

If it has been less than a year since you first received your passport, you will not need to pay a fee and the application you need will be different than if you have had your passport for a longer period of time. The proper form in this case is the DS-5504 form. This form will need to completely filled out and mailed in. You may also be required to provide two photos that are recent and meet passport specifications.

If it has been less than a year since you obtained your original passport then there will not be a fee for processing your passport name change. This information and documentation needs to be addressed to the National Passport Processing Center, Post Office Box 90107, Philadelphia, PA, 19190-0107.

If more than a year has transpired since your original passport was issued then you will need to mail your current passport, a filled out DS-82, the applicable fees, and a copy of your marriage certificate or name change decree. You will also need two recent color photos. This all should be mailed to the address on the back of Form DS-82.

It is absolutely necessary that your documents be certified copies, not notarized photocopies. If they are not certified copies they will not be accepted and you will have to do the process over again. You may need to acquire your documents, such as your marriage certificate, before submitting the necessary paper work.

You can typically obtain this information from the clerk’s office for the county court in the county you were married in. The US passport name change process will typically take three to four weeks. It is possible to try to rush this, but it will require an additional fee. If necessary you can contact your states congressional office to help rush the United States passport process.