Passport name change

Quazzie

Me and my wife have been married nearly three years now and she has taken my name on all accounts.
She has a passport that is up for renewal in July 2011 so we didn't bother changing it, but now we've gone and booked flights and used her new name. The flights are with Ryanair, so we need to get her passport changed or rebook the flights as they won't accept her surname being different on her current passport.

How do we go about this though. I've looked on the passport website and I can't see anything that applies to this situation, and ringing them is proving fruitless as it seems that its constantly overqueueing so just cutting me off.

Can anyone link me to an anywhere that can answer my questions?

cch

When is the flight?
If you've enough time she just needs to renew the passport, see http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/travel-and-recreation/travel-abroad/passports/applying_for_or_renewing_an_irish_passport

Quazzie

Thanks. I probably should've tried searching there. The flight isn't until September 24th but I don't want to take any chances so we want to send it off ASAP.

sillysocks

I've just changed my passport to my married name. You still need to fill out the normal passport application form, with the new name on it, then you have to send that back along with the old passport and either a copy of the marriage cert certified by a solicitor or the original.

I didnt feel comfortable sending our original (got married in Spain and god only knows how we'd get a duplicate if it got lost!) and originally sent a copy of the cert certified by the Garda who signed the passport form, but got a call from the passport office to say they'd only accept a copy if it was certified by a solicitor.

You have to pay the full 10 year fee and will get a brand new passport (not too bad for your wife if its nearly up anyway but mine still had 8 years left. Grrr)

Hope that helps!

Quazzie

That's a great help sillysocks. Answers pretty much everything for me. Thank you.