Article 19 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Citizen's name
1. A citizen acquires and exercises rights and obligations under his own name, including the surname and first name, as well as the patronymic, unless otherwise follows from the law or national custom.
In cases and in the manner provided by law, a citizen may use a pseudonym (fictitious name).
2. A citizen has the right to change his name in the manner established by law. A citizen’s change of name is not grounds for termination or change of his rights and obligations acquired under his previous name.
A citizen is obliged to take the necessary measures to notify his debtors and creditors about the change of his name and bears the risk of consequences caused by the lack of information from these persons about the change of his name.
A citizen who has changed his name has the right to demand that appropriate changes be made at his own expense to documents issued in his former name.
3. The name received by a citizen at birth, as well as a change of name, are subject to registration in the manner established for registration of acts of civil status.
4. Acquiring rights and obligations under the name of another person is not permitted.
5. Harm caused to a citizen as a result of the unlawful use of his name is subject to compensation in accordance with this Code.
When a citizen’s name is distorted or used in ways or in a form that affects his honor, dignity or business reputation, the rules provided for in Article 152 of this Code are applied.
How to change your last name
You need to contact the registry office at your place of residence. When changing your surname, you must pay a state fee in the amount of the minimum wage.
When contacting the registry office, you need to write an application (the application form will be given at the registry office) - in the application you need to indicate the reasons for changing your last name.
At the same time as submitting such an application, the following documents must be submitted (Article 59 of the Law “On Civil Status Acts”):
- autobiography (indicating where and when civil registration took place);
- the applicant's birth certificate;
- marriage certificate, if the applicant is married;
- birth certificate of minor children, if the applicant has them;
- certificate of adoption or establishment of paternity, if these types of civil status acts were registered;
- a certificate of divorce, if the applicant applies for the assignment of a premarital surname in connection with the dissolution of the marriage;
- documents confirming the reasons for which the applicant requests to change his name;
- photo.
For children over 14 years of age, but under 18 years of age (the age of majority), change of name (surname) is carried out with the consent of both parents(Article 58 of the Law “On Civil Status Acts”).
If the parents live separately and the parent with whom the child lives wants to give him his last name, the guardianship and trusteeship authority resolves this issue depending on the interests of the child and taking into account the opinion of the other parent.
Taking into account the parent’s opinion is not necessary if it is impossible to establish his whereabouts, deprivation of his parental rights, recognition as incompetent, as well as in cases of parental evasion without good reason from raising and maintaining the child (clause 2 of Article 59 of the RF IC).
According to federal law“On acts of civil status” an application for a change of surname, name or patronymic must be considered within 1 month from the date of submission. In exceptional cases, the head of the registry office may increase the period for consideration of the application, but not more than by two months. You should be informed about this.
The applicant is notified of permission to change the name or refusal in writing. In case of refusal to change the name, the applicant is informed that his application has been considered, but due to the lack of grounds, it is not subject to satisfaction. At the same time, the applicant is explained that the refusal of the civil registry office to change the name can be appealed to the Civil Registry Office within one month from the date of receipt of the notice of refusal. The documents received from the applicant are returned.
Civil registration certificates in which no changes have been made are also subject to return.
Weighty good reasons to change the name are:
- cacophony of the name;
- difficulty pronouncing the name;
- the desire of the spouse to bear a common surname with the other spouse, if when registering the marriage they remained in their premarital surnames;
- the desire of the spouse to return the premarital surname, if this was not stated during the divorce;
- the desire to have a premarital surname that is the same as the children from the first marriage, in cases where the marriage is not dissolved;
- the desire to bear a premarital surname if the spouse has died;
- the desire to have a common surname with the children if the spouse died and the applicant (applicant) had a premarital surname;
- the desire to bear the surname of the mother (father), if the father (mother) did not take part in raising the applicant;
- the desire to bear the surname of the stepfather (stepmother) who raised the applicant, or the patronymic name of the stepfather when adoption cannot be formalized;
- the desire to bear the surname of the grandfather, grandmother or other person who actually raised the applicant, if the parents did not take part in raising the applicant and the adoption cannot be formalized;
- the desire to bear the patronymic name of the person who actually raised the applicant, if the father did not take part in raising the applicant;
- the desire to bear a surname and name corresponding to the nationality chosen by the applicant;
- the desire to bear the name by which he is actually called in life;
- desire to bear the name given at baptism;
- other good reasons.
If a citizen applies to the registry office regarding a name change, since the birth certificate record contains a diminutive or shortened name (for example, Misha, Lena), in such cases the name must be corrected. When the registry office is unclear whether the name is diminutive or abbreviated, the name is changed.
You will need
- - passport or its certified copy
- - application for change of surname
- - birth certificate
- - receipt of payment of state duty
- - marriage certificate
- - divorce certificate if you want to take your maiden name
- - birth certificates of all children under 18 years of age
Instructions
Any citizen can change his last name when he reaches 18 years of age. When a teenager turns 14, it is also allowed to change his last name, but only if both parents or guardians agree with this decision. You can change your last name as many times as you wish. The main thing is to have good reasons for this.
Changing your last name begins with the registry office to which you are assigned. Carefully study the opening hours; usually the registry offices are open until 17.00, so plan your time correctly. In order to change your name, you need to take an application form and fill it out. The application shall indicate the real name, surname and patronymic, place of residence, Family status and marriage information, data of children under 18 years of age. Therefore, you will need to have a passport, a birth certificate for you and your children, a marriage certificate and its dissolution. It is important to justify the reason for changing your last name, otherwise it will be denied to you.
Submit the completed application to the Civil Registry Office employee with all required documents for review. The documents will be checked against the data in the application and returned. The application must be considered within 1 month, in rare cases up to 2 months, but no more. The registry office employee can confirm or reject it. Typically, refusals are rare and are associated with some serious reasons, for example, the applicant’s desired surname is too popular. No one will allow you to simply take the name of a star and then use it for your own purposes. If a change of surname is refused, a written explanation is attached, which, if desired, can be appealed in court.
If the application was not rejected, then you receive a certificate of change of surname. However, the process does not end there. First, you need to change your birth certificate with this document, and then start replacing your passport and international passport. Only after this can the surname change be considered complete.
Of course, there are still educational documents, a work book, a compulsory medical insurance policy, bank cards, driver's license, insurance certificate, TIN, pension certificate, various powers of attorney. With the replacement of some of them, for example, plastic cards, policy, driver's license there are no problems. A lot of time and effort will be spent on replacing property documents if you own an apartment, car, or dacha. Problems may arise in inheritance documents and deeds of gift.
Change school certificate, diploma and work book Most likely, no one will agree. The most that can be done here is to convince the personnel department or the educational department to make an entry in the documents about the change of name. But in most cases, simply presenting a certificate of change of name along with these documents will be enough. If you have an outstanding loan from a bank, you should definitely report the change of name to its branch, otherwise it may be considered fraud.
Changing the surname in the passport by at will can be caused by many reasons (cacophony, marriage, etc.). There is a procedure for changing it, which is provided for by Russian legislation. The right to change the last name in the passport can be used by any citizen who has reached the age of 14. This is one of his rights provided for in Article No. 19 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
Changing a child's last name
Many parents wonder how to change the name in their passport. Under 18 years of age, you can change your last name with permission from your parents or one of your guardians. It must be in writing and certified by a notary. If the change of full name is the initiative of the parents, then before changing the last name, the child’s written permission will be required. The last condition is relevant only for those children who are already 10 years old.
To change a child’s name, a certificate from an authority may be required (this is provided for in Article No. 59 of the RF IC). Guardianship authorities may prohibit changing personal information of children if this is contrary to their interests. When disagreements arise between two parents (trustees, guardians), the decision of the person who is directly involved in raising the child has priority.
Reasons for changing your last name
Before changing your last name in your passport, you must indicate in your application the reason for this decision. While marriage remains the main one, there are many other reasons to change your last name on your passport without getting married:
- the applicant's wishes ( new life, moving to another city, etc.);
- cacophony;
- refusal of the surname of the father, guardian;
- divorce (premarital surname returned);
- the real name is changed to the pseudonym the applicant likes.
Important! If before marriage the bride had a double surname (for example, Abramova-Arkhipenko), then she cannot add her husband’s surname, but it is permissible to take the spouse’s surname.
After marriage, the newly-made spouses are given a certificate, which will be needed when applying to the passport office to change their surname. The husband, if desired, can take his wife's surname.
Read also Passport photo requirements Russian Federation
Procedure for changing a surname
To change your passport, you need to start at the local registry office. A statement should be made requesting the change of data and the reason for such a decision. You can submit an application using the website of the State Services of the Russian Federation, but you will have to appear at the registry office in any case to pick up the completed certificate. Changes to the passport are made on the basis of a certificate received from the registry office.
How to use the State Services website
The process of changing a surname using this web resource is as follows.
- First, register on this state portal with mandatory identity verification (the process usually takes a couple of days).
- Next, in the section “Replacing a passport of the Russian Federation” you need to select the service for changing your surname.
- If the user’s data has been identified (the applicant will receive a notification about this by email), the system will ask you to select the required department of the Main Directorate of Migration and Migration, and only the actual registration is taken into account.
- In the window that appears, you must indicate your full name, time and place of birth, as well as other passport data.
- When the application has been verified by specialists, you will be able to see a standard invitation template via email, as well as details for paying the state fee.
- Next, you need to appear at the GUVM branch with a receipt and pick up the document.
List of documents
Let's look at what you need to change your last name:
- document on the conclusion of a marriage union;
- photocopy of passport;
- statement;
- certificate of obtaining a divorce when it comes to restoring the original surname;
- birth certificate (for persons under 14 years of age who have not received a passport);
- receipt of payment of state duty.
Regarding the last point, the state fee for all operations involving changes or the issuance of new identification documents is 500 rubles. You can pay it at any branch of Sberbank of Russia. Payment details are issued at the passport office.
How long does it take to process an application?
Migration service employees or the local registry office have a month to review the documents and make changes to the applicant’s passport. They undertake to provide assistance on how to change the middle name in the passport, since drawing up an application and entering other data can be difficult. If the documents were not provided on time, the citizen may receive a refusal, after which the period will be extended for another 2 months.
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The decision to extend the period for consideration of the application is made by the manager of the registry office. The reason for the refusal may be false data in the documents, which leads to stopping the process of changing the surname. Upon completion of the procedure, the person receives a certificate confirming the fact of the change in surname.
Cost of the procedure
How much does it cost to change your last name? The procedure itself is free (regardless of the reason) for both women and men. Additionally, you will have to pay for the registration of other documentation where the previous surname was indicated (passport, driver’s license, diploma). The amount of state duties for individual documents is determined by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.
Reasons for refusal to issue a passport
These include the following:
- the desired surname is obscene;
- the word is too long (a certain length is not regulated by law, but the employee can determine the fact of abuse);
- presence of errors;
- incomplete list of documents (the most common reason for refusal).
What documents need to be replaced
List of documents:
- internal Russian passport;
- international passport;
- insurance number of the personal account;
- information in the insurance policy;
- driver's license.
Not presented full list documents. The larger the list, the more expensive the procedure for changing a surname will cost.
Loan debt
The legislation does not prohibit changing personal data if there are creditors, however, Article No. 19 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation provides that a person undertakes to warn his creditors about the change of name.
Evasion of financial obligations is fraught with administrative or criminal liability. If in the first case you can get by with a fine, then if major fraud is discovered, the offender may be put behind bars. Credit history can be tracked by TIN or insurance number. It will not be difficult for lenders to find such data, so the person will be denied a loan.
Attention! Due to latest changes in legislation, the legal information in this article may be out of date!
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