Monday, October 8, 2012

How to Change Your Name

So you meet the man of your dreams and
you decide to take his name (or you're just ready to get rid of Mildred as your middle name).  And now you are swimming in a sea of paperwork and rules. Where to start? This blog entry will be based on changing your name due to marriage in King County of Washington state, but could assuredly by applied elsewhere and under other conditions. This is one of those "if I knew then what I know now" post, hope it helps you.
  1. You can mail in your marriage license to the King County Recorder's Office at:
    King County Administration Building
    500 Fourth Avenue, Room 311
    Seattle, WA 98104

    Or the better option in my opinion, is to waltz on in there and take care of it in person between 8:30 am and 3:30 pm. It is $3 a copy and you should get 3-5 of them. (Why ever go back?)
  2. Now bring your marriage license and go to the Social Security Office and get a new card. You will need this change filed before you can switch over any existing bank accounts or credit cards. Just go in person and avoid mailing all sorts of critical documents. 13510 Aurora Ave N Seattle, Washington 98133 between 9 am and 3pm.
  3. Again, bring your marriage license and go to the DOL and get a new license. Since there are so few locations you have to choose between Shoreline, Downtown and West Seattle These links will show you location information, including current wait times. (Rumor has it West Seattle is pretty slow around 10am -just sayin'.
  4. Now you can call your bank and each of your credit card companies to change your name and issue you a card with your new name. And you can order checks. Because you have your new drivers license now you can open a new or joint bank account with say, your husband.
  5. Now that you have your new driver's licence number you can change your auto insurance into your new name.
  6. Let HR at your work know and contact your Health Insurer.
  7. Don't forget to contact voter registration to get your name changed before the next election. https://wei.sos.wa.gov/agency/osos/en/Pages/myvote.aspx
  8. To apply for your new passport, go to: www.travel.state.gov (Although a US Border agent told me that I could use my old passport for up to a year after, but why risk it?)