FAQ

When I view or prove my status, it shows my settled status in my maiden name. But I only ever use my married name, what can I do?

The Home Office have agreed to change their process so that people can have their married name added to their EU Settlement Scheme status, but only if it is in their identity document.

In correspondence to the3million they said:

EUSS status is issued in line with the name recorded in the machine readable zone (MRZ) of the applicant’s passport provided at the time of application.

The Home Office has recently built in a process which, after EUSS status has been issued, allows applicants to request their name be changed on their status 13 to exactly match the name which is recorded in the Visual Inspection Zone (VIZ) of their passport instead. We are aware that for many French and Dutch married nationals, this will take the form of “Birth Name Wife of Married Name”. This would enable applicants to have their married name displayed on their status whilst maintaining a link between the two names for security purposes.

Example: French passport VIZ shows Name: JANET SMITH ep. [spouse of] JONES. MRZ shows SMITH only. The applicant will be issued status under the name SMITH. However, if applicant wishes to update their name to their married name, they can request to have their name updated to JANET SMITH ep. JONES.

However, the process to do so is not straightforward. It appears people need to select the option to change name (even though this is not a change of name), and send their passport to the Home Office by post (even though nothing has changed and the Home Office will already have seen their passport).

We continue to ask the Home Office to change this process, see paragraphs 105-140 in our fourth report to the Independent Monitoring Authority, in March 2022.

UPDATE on timeline: In December 2023, the Independent Monitoring Authority has published an update on their website, which indicates that from early 2024, there should be a digital solution in place which does not require sending passports to the Home Office. However, in a letter to us from the Home Office on 15 February 2024, the state in their answer to Q12 that "we will endeavour to have in place by the end of this year."