Saturday, July 25, 2009

Name Change Fun

I have been having fun trying to change my name at many places. The DMV was particularly amusing, since our 'own' DMV was closed for unspecified repairs and the replacing DMV is half an hour drive and only open on Thursdays and Fridays.

Last Friday I went and found out that I wasn't an American yet in their system. I could change my name, but would have to come back with naturalisation papers. Fair enough.

Yesterday, I went back. This time, the problem was that the name on the naturalization certificate didn't match the name in their system, and could I fill out the form again in the naturalization name? It took a while, but eventually I was allowed to use my new name on the form. The next problem was which code to assign it for the change. It seemed that there was no 'She turned American before her name change' code in the system, so they had a hard time deciding between 712 , 726, or 711, and finally decided on 727 for 'removal of restrictions'. Since not being an American clearly is a restriction, right?

 


My visit to the DMV was over and my sister managed to sucker me into helping her to juice 428 baby key limes, which was both a pain and a fun time together. At least she has almost a quart of lime juice now. Which I almost spilled when I tripped over the doorstep.

 


I am still in the process of changing my name at Paypal. First problem, trying to find WHERE to change your name on the website, since it seems more usual to change one's address than one's name. When I finally found, I read the instructions, which clearly said 'Send either copy of court document or copy of photo id.' I uploaded the court document.

Two days later, I get an email 'We cannot process your name change without a photo id.'
I was a good girl and sent them a copy of my photo id.

Three days later, the email states 'We really can't do anything without a court document.'
Um...
On Friday, I uploaded it again and now am waiting for the next email stating that they desperately need my photo id.

The joys of bureaucracy!
Posted by Picasa

2 comments:

Mongoose said...

I'm kinda creeped out that your DMV knows who's an American citizen and who's not. I'm pretty sure ours doesn't. At least I hope so. I haven't even gotten around to changing my driver's license yet, because I bet there will be a fee, or my citizenship card, because I know there is a $75 fee, and I need to get those things done and then apply for a Canadian passport, which has a $125 fee... Then after that it's just a matter of the charitable organizations I contribute to, and the power company. Then do it all over again if I ever remarry! LOL

Lisa said...

I do sympathize. The DMV went crazy and figured out that when I got married 23 years ago I never changed my name on my social security card but did on my bank accounts, etc. It took FOREVER to get that mess straightened out. And I didn't even have the naturalization to mess with. Congrats on working it all out.