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Changing your name if you are not a British citizen

A deed poll works in the UK whatever your nationality. The document that limits you is your own passport, and the Home Office expects the two to match.

Checked against Home Office Updated

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The short answer

You can make a deed poll in the UK whatever your nationality. The Home Office expects the name on your eVisa to match your passport or national identity card, so change your name with your country's authorities first. It puts a different name on an eVisa only for refugees, stateless people and others who cannot approach those authorities.

Key facts

Making a deed poll
Anyone living in the UK aged 16 or over; nationality does not matter
Your eVisa
Updated through your UKVI account, with an identity document that shows the new name
Your own passport
Change it with your national authorities first; the Home Office expects the names to match
Cannot change it at home
Refugees, stateless people and those with humanitarian protection can be given the new name on an eVisa; others only exceptionally
Becoming British
You can be naturalised in a married name; the certificate is not normally amended afterwards
Need a deed poll? £18.50, drafted by a paralegal, posted the same working day, guaranteed to be accepted.Get one
On this page 7 sections
  1. Two systems, one name
  2. What the Home Office's guidance says
  3. Updating your eVisa
  4. If you cannot change your name with your own country
  5. Your UK records
  6. Becoming British
  7. The order to do things in

Two systems, one name#

Nothing in GOV.UK's deed poll guidance asks about nationality. The rule is about residence: if you are a permanent resident overseas you cannot change your name by deed poll, and if you live in the UK and are 16 or over you can. A French national in Leeds, an Indian national in Birmingham or an American in Edinburgh can make a deed poll exactly as a British citizen can, and the banks, employers, HMRC and DVLA they deal with accept it in the same way.

What is different is the set of documents the Home Office controls. Your immigration status lives in an eVisa, tied to the passport or national identity card you used to get it, and the Home Office has published guidance on how it handles a change of name across everything it issues. The short version is that it wants one name, used for everything, and it expects your own country's documents to carry that name before its own do.

What the Home Office's guidance says#

The Home Office's guidance on the use and change of names sets out to align how changes are handled across the department, "so that a person only holds the documents listed in paragraph 7 in the name they use for all official purposes", and those documents include passports, travel documents, eVisas, right of abode and certificates of entitlement. It says every application to change a name must be supported by documentary evidence that shows the acquired name and the link to the previous one, "such as a marriage certificate or a deed poll", along with other evidence that the new name is being used for all purposes. It also says, in as many words, that it aims to deter frequent and frivolous changes where it is not clear the person intends to use the name for everything.

Then the rule that matters most to a foreign national: "Holders of non-British passports and national identity cards must also provide evidence they have amended the details in other passport(s) and any national identity cards they hold, unless there are exceptional circumstances." A deed poll on its own, therefore, does not change the name on an eVisa. The Home Office wants to see your national passport or identity card in the new name first.

Updating your eVisa#

The mechanics are on GOV.UK's eVisa pages. You update your name through your UKVI account, and if you are updating your name, date of birth or nationality you need an identity document that proves it has changed. You should update the account before you get a share code, because the share code is what an employer or landlord uses to check your status, and it shows the name on the account. You cannot change your name on the account while you are waiting for a decision on a visa application. If your details change while you are outside the UK and you have a biometric passport you can update the name yourself; otherwise you ask UKVI to update the account for you. GOV.UK adds that there is a different route if you do not have an identity document showing the new name, which is where the exceptions below come in.

If you cannot change your name with your own country#

Some people cannot go back to their national authorities, and the guidance deals with them directly. Where a foreign national applies to change their name and does not hold a foreign passport or EEA identity card, the Home Office will only change the name on their eVisa if they are a recognised refugee or stateless person, or have been granted humanitarian protection, where it has been accepted that they cannot approach their national authorities. For everyone else the door is narrower: where individuals can provide evidence that they are unable to change their name in their foreign-issued documents, the Home Office will "exceptionally consider" allowing a different name in a Home Office document.

There is a specific provision for transgender people. Those whose national authorities do not recognise changes to names or gender in their passports or identity cards will be able to obtain an eVisa in their acquired name and gender, providing they can demonstrate they are using that name and gender for all purposes. The evidence of use is the ordinary kind: bank statements, payslips, letters, the deed poll itself.

Your UK records#

Everything outside the Home Office follows the deed poll. HMRC, your bank, your employer's payroll, DVLA, the NHS and your council each change their record on the strength of the deed and, where they ask for it, a second document showing the name in use. The guide to who to tell gives the order that works. The one thing to keep in mind is that an employer's right-to-work check reads your eVisa, so if your payroll name and your eVisa name differ, the mismatch is visible; that is another reason to change the national passport, then the eVisa, then the rest, rather than the other way round.

Becoming British#

The guidance says foreign nationals who apply to become British citizens may be registered or naturalised in their married name, so a change on marriage can be built into the citizenship application. It also says that a Home Office document that records an event, such as a naturalisation certificate, cannot normally be amended afterwards, so the name on the certificate is the one to get right. If a new citizen wants a British passport in a married name, the guidance says they must change the name on their other passports, travel documents and identity cards first.

Once you are a British citizen the deed poll rules apply to you in full, and GOV.UK's passport page has one further point for dual nationals: the name and gender on your non-British passport must match the name and gender you want on your British passport, so change the other passport first.

The order to do things in#

  1. If you hold a foreign passport or identity card, change your name with your national authorities first. Your embassy or consulate will say what they need; many accept a UK deed poll as evidence, and HM Passport Office's guidance notes that the UK in turn accepts deed polls made overseas.
  2. Update your UKVI account with the new passport, so the eVisa and share code show the new name.
  3. Make or use your deed poll for everything else, bank first, then employer and HMRC, then DVLA and the rest.
  4. If you cannot do step 1, gather evidence of why, and evidence that you use the new name for everything, before you approach the Home Office.

A deed poll from us costs £18.50 and is drafted for anyone living in the UK; we do not advise on immigration applications, and nothing on this page replaces the Home Office's own guidance for your case.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these on . If a source has changed since, tell us and we will correct the page.