Hi all,
My wife is of Indian Origin and has been living as PR in Canada for last few years. She still carries her maiden name [SANYAL].

Initially when we applied for SIN, they refused to include her married last name [MUKHERJEE] in her SIN application as the landed document contains SANYAL.
As a result, all her document SIN, HIN, Drivers License, PR Card contains SANYAL as her last name.

Without going thru a "legal name change" or get married again in Ontario to get an Ontario Marriage Cert. , is there a way to change her Last Name to MUKHERJEE based on Indian Marraige Certificate.

What would be the first place to change her name and in which order ?

I am thinking on these lines... Go to Indian Embassy and get her last name changed in her passport based on our Indian Marriage Cert . Then approach PR Card with the Last name changed and change all others based on PR.

I somehow could not find a single post on the www which could guide me in the proper direction without getting into unnecessary complications.

Thanks for your helps as always.

Take care,
Arnab Mukherjee

We went through something similar
first step is the passport - the indian consulate did not issue us a new passport...instead they wrote in a page that the wife's last name has changed due to marriage and laid out the last and first names etc. with the consulate generals stamp and signature....
after u get that, u can use that to change the name in the different places..one by one

Thanks Buddy for all your help. At least this gives me some confidence to proceed in a direction which is otherwise not very obvious.

Finished changing my wife's maiden name to married name based on an Indian Marriage Certificate. (No legal name change).
This is the sequence I followed:
1) Changed the name on Drivers License. They only see your Indian Marriage Certificate. No other documents asked. No cost.

2) Changed the name on OHIP card. They also see your Indian Marriage Certificate. No other documents asked. No cost.

3) Changed the name on Indian Passport. You will fill out a Misc. Form, and Indian Consulate in Toronto will endorse the married name on some middle page of the passport. All handwritten with an official stamp (very unimpressive). Costs CAD 20.00. Got the husband's name added in the passport which costs an extra CAD 20.00. Take your Indian Marriage Certificate and PR card with you. They keep both originals with them and after a week, Indian Consulate will mail back your passport along with your Marriage Cert. and PR card.

4) SIN : Based on Indian Marriage cert. they will change your name. No cost.

5) PR Card: They need to see the Original Indian Marriage Cert. / Drivers License / OHIP card along with the application to change the name. It costs CAD 50.00 ++ Photos.

So there is no need for a legal name change which costs CAD 157.00 and takes almost a year to do it.
I hope this information helps as I could not find much useful information on the world wide web regarding this.

Best of luck.

Take care,

Arnab M

If you can hold off until your wife is eligible for citizenship - it works equally well. Apply for Canadian citizenship in married name (provide Indian marriage certificate copy along with other docs), then apply for OCI/PIO in married name and rest of other docs (drivers license, Health Card, SIN). The advantage is that you skip changing the name on the Indian passport and PR card, so less headache.

That's a great point.

To yu203967,

Thanks alot for the information. We just landed 2 days back. While submitting our SIN applications, my wife was allowed to register the SIN using the new surname based on the Indian marriage certificate.

But now before applying for OHIP and drivers license we will complete the passport name procedure and do the rest.

Thanks alot for the info once again.

Cheers