"The 1 day Premium service will get me a passport in my new name"#
Not true. GOV.UK says the 1 day Premium service can only be used to renew an adult passport, and HM Passport Office's guidance limits it to customers who have not changed their personal details. A new name needs the standard service, usually three weeks, or the 1 week Fast Track, which GOV.UK lists for a change of name at £192 for an adult.
Sources: GOV.UK, HM Passport Office. Full answer: passport timing.
"Changing the name on a passport costs extra, or needs a countersignature"#
No. GOV.UK's fee table has no charge for a change of name, so an adult pays the usual £102 online, and its guide to changing your details says you do not need a countersignature if you are changing your name.
Sources: GOV.UK passport fees, GOV.UK on changing your details. Full answer: passport fees.
"I cannot travel on a passport in my old name"#
You can. A change of name does not cancel a passport: HM Passport Office's guidance has the old one cancelled when the new one is issued. GOV.UK's rule is that you book travel in the name your passport shows, so a trip booked in your old name is made on that passport.
Sources: GOV.UK, HM Passport Office. Full answer: travelling on an old passport.
Your passport application
Apply direct: on GOV.UK or at a Post Office
We make deed polls. We do not fill in, check or send passport applications, and you do not need anyone to. Apply direct with HM Passport Office, or through the Post Office, and do not use any other website or company.
Online, on GOV.UK
Apply, pay and upload your documents with HM Passport Office: £102 for an adult, £66.50 for a child. The 1 week Fast Track is applied for, paid for and booked there too, with the appointment at a passport office.
Change the name on your passport, GOV.UKIn a branch, at the Post Office
Selected branches offer Check & Send, for an extra fee: staff check your application and send it to HM Passport Office for you. Digital Check & Send takes your photo and applies online; with Paper Check & Send you use the paper form, £115.50 for an adult.
Passport Check & Send, Post OfficeNot through any other website, company or agent. Services that offer to fill in your form, check it or find you a Fast Track appointment charge extra for what GOV.UK and the Post Office do themselves, and HM Passport Office has warned about copycat websites that look official and charge a premium. If a web address does not end in gov.uk or postoffice.co.uk, do not give it your passport details or pay it.
"There is a government deed poll office, register or helpline"#
Only for enrolment. The one official office is the High Court's Deed Poll Office, which handles enrolment: optional, £53.05, and several months, GOV.UK says. An ordinary deed poll never goes near it: you can make one yourself and use it straight away, and The National Archives says a change of name has never needed registering with the government or any official body.
Sources: GOV.UK, The National Archives. Full answer: the official deed poll office.
"GOV.UK will send me a free replacement deed poll"#
There is no such service. No government body keeps unenrolled deed polls; The National Archives says one drawn up without a solicitor may never have been recorded anywhere but on the document itself. A lost deed is replaced with a new one, written from GOV.UK's free wording or ordered as a replacement.
Sources: The National Archives, GOV.UK. Full answer: a lost deed poll.
"An unenrolled deed poll is not legal, or will not be accepted"#
Not true. HM Passport Office's guidance says staff must accept an unenrolled deed poll if it is signed in both names, witnessed, in wet ink and dated, and banks such as NatWest, HSBC and Monzo accept one. A few want more: Lloyds, Halifax and Santander need a passport or driving licence in the new name with it, TSB wants proof of use such as one of those, and the only deed poll on Chase UK's list is one stamped as enrolled.
Sources: HM Passport Office, and each bank's own pages in banks compared. Full answer: unenrolled deed polls.
"A deed poll has to be done by a solicitor, or notarised"#
No. GOV.UK says you can make your own deed poll from 16, a solicitor or agency being optional, and HM Passport Office's guidance says the witness need not be a solicitor or a commissioner for oaths. A notary comes in when an official in another country asks for a certified or legalised copy.
Sources: GOV.UK, GOV.UK legalisation. Full answer: do I need a solicitor?
"A deed poll needs special paper or a seal"#
No. In England and Wales, section 1 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 abolished any rule on what a deed may be written on and any need for an individual's deed to be sealed, and HM Passport Office's guidance says an unenrolled deed poll has no set format or wording. What matters is that it says it is a deed and you sign it in the presence of a witness who attests your signature.
Sources: the 1989 Act, HM Passport Office. Full answer: a free deed poll.
"A deed poll expires, or has to be paid for every month"#
No. HM Passport Office's guidance puts a 12-month limit on documents showing the name in use, such as a bank statement, but none on the deed poll, which records a change made on the day it was signed. Nothing about it renews: even enrolment is a single £53.05 fee, so a monthly charge is a subscription sold by whoever supplied it.
Sources: HM Passport Office, GOV.UK. Full answers: does a deed poll expire? and monthly charges.
"A deed poll changes my birth certificate"#
Not in England and Wales. GOV.UK says a birth registration can be corrected only where it was wrong, not to show a later change, so you show your birth certificate alongside the deed poll. National Records of Scotland can record a change against a Scottish birth entry for £40, and the General Register Office for Northern Ireland against a Northern Irish one for £35.
Sources: GOV.UK, National Records of Scotland, nidirect. Full answer: birth certificates.
"I need a deed poll to take my spouse's surname, or to double-barrel"#
No. GOV.UK's deed poll guide says the marriage or civil partnership certificate does that job, with a copy sent to each organisation holding your records, and its passport guidance says the certificate covers double-barrelled names too. A deed poll is for a name the certificate does not show, such as two surnames joined into one word, or a maiden name kept as a middle name.
Sources: GOV.UK, GOV.UK passports. Full answer: a deed poll after marriage.
"Re-registering the birth after we marry changes our child's surname"#
Not since 13 July 2026. Parents who marry after a birth must still re-register it, but HM Passport Office's guidance records that since then the General Register Office and its Northern Ireland counterpart have stopped changing the surname at re-registration, and form LA1 says it will be recorded as it is in the existing registration. A new surname needs a child deed poll agreed by everyone with parental responsibility.
Sources: HM Passport Office, form LA1. Full answer: a child's surname after the parents marry.
"One parent can change a child's surname by deed poll"#
Not alone. HM Passport Office's guidance says everyone with parental responsibility must consent to a change of name for a child under 16, following the Court of Appeal's decision in Re P (1997), and GOV.UK's route needs their agreement or a court order. A deed poll signed by one parent does not get round that.
Sources: HM Passport Office, GOV.UK. Full answer: without the other parent's consent.
"A new name gives me a clean slate"#
No. The National Archives says a new name is legal as long as it is not used for a fraudulent or illegal reason, and your history stays linked to it: Experian records a former name on your credit report as an alias, a DBS application asks for every name since birth, and GOV.UK gives registered sex, violent and terrorist offenders 3 days to tell the police.
Sources: The National Archives, Experian, the DBS guide, GOV.UK. Full answers: criminal records and credit ratings.
