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HomeArticlesCommunityMy Profile WH.translationData = {};WH.mergeLang({'navlist_collapse': '- collapse','navlist_expand': '+ expand'});EditHome » Categories » Family Life » Married LifeHow to Change Your Name After MarriageEdited by Nicole Willson, Karebear13, Cased, Glutted and 25 othersPin ItArticle EditDiscussAfter getting married, many people choose to change their last names. Some take on their spouse's last name, and some combine last names (either by hyphenating or making their maiden name their middle name). Officially changing your last name after marriage can be a lot more complicated than you might expect, so to keep it as simple as possible just follow these instructions. Edit StepsUSA1Get a few extra copies of your marriage certificate. Each copy must be certified, which is why you can't change your name until after you're officially married. This is the most important piece of your name changing exercise.
If your state has the ability to issue both a short-form marriage certificate and a long-form marriage certificate (which contains your parents' information and places of birth), make sure you get the long-form marriage certificate. You'll need it when you go to the Social Security office.2Fill out the Social Security form SS-5. This is an application to update your Social Security information. To be approved, you will need several original documents (not photocopies) besides your marriage certificate, proving your age, identity, and U.S. citizenship or lawful immigration status. If you aren’t a U.S. citizen and don’t have DHS work authorization, you will need to prove that you have a valid reason for requesting a card.[1]
The SS office is usually packed with people who have complicated issues to resolve. Get there before the office opens and be prepared to be there for a while.Within 10 days of filing your name change form, the Social Security Administration will notify the Internal Revenue Service. This is important because if you file a tax return with your new name without the IRS being notified, your return will be rejected.[2]3Update your driver's license. The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) or equivalent should be stop number two. Look on your state's DMV website for the forms to fill out so you'll be prepared when you go. You may actually have to re-apply for your driver’s license using a basic application and cross-reference your current license on the form; again, this varies depending on your state. They may even want to take a new picture and update all your information.
Be sure to have your marriage license with you as they will use this to prove your new name. Include your new address, too, if you and your spouse are living in a new location.See what you need to do to change your vehicle title/registration. If you don't own your car (for example, because you have a loan out on it), you will likely have to fill out paperwork to send to your lien holder, who will then submit it to the DMV for change. Check with your lien holder for more information.4Update your name with other agencies. Once you have your new forms of ID in hand (both the SS office and the DMV take an average of two to three weeks to send your new cards), you can change your name with all the other agencies, as necessary. For example, if your paycheck is automatically deposited, you’ll have to add your new name to your account before you change it with your employer. Be extra diligent in informing your creditors, who might think you’ve stopped paying your bills if they don’t find out soon enough. Here is a list to get you started:
Place of employmentBanksCredit card companiesInsurance companies (health, home, fire, flood, vehicle, renters, life, etc.)Doctors (GP, ob/gyn, dentist, etc.)Utility companies (cable, phone, Internet, gas, electric, etc.)Cellphone companySchool, if you are actively enrolledStudent loansAlumni associationsClub memberships (Costco, gym, grocery store cards, etc.)Passport.U.K.1Order several official copies of your marriage certificate. Some official bodies (for example, the Identity & Passport Service, and the DVLA) will insist on seeing an original, while for others a photocopy will suffice. Call to make sure.2You can normally use your marriage certificate to change your name. Your marriage certificate is sufficient evidence when you want to change your name to:[3]
your partner's surnameyour partner's surname, but keeping your maiden name as a middle namea double-barrelled name formed from you and your partner's surnames3If you want to make any other sort of change to your name, you will need to change your name by deed poll.
4Notify all organisations and bodies that hold your information in their records. You may be committing fraud if you don't tell persons with whom you have contractual or legislatively obligated relations (although the common law may protect your choice of name usage). Find out whether each body needs to see the original marriage certificate, or whether you can send a photocopy. It's also a good idea to include a reference by which the organisation can identify you (for example, your account or policy number). Here is a list to get you started:
EmployerInland Revenue (obtain your reference and address from your employer)Department for Work and PensionsGPDentistDVLAIdentity & Passport ServiceBankBuilding Society (mortgage and/or savings accounts)Credit card and store charge-card companiesFinance/loan companiesNational savings and investmentsInvestment companiesCompanies that you have shares inPension companiesInsurance companies (for example, motor, medical, life, property, property contents etc.).Ireland1Obtain several official copies of your marriage certificate. Some official authorities will require an original, while for others a photocopy will suffice. Call to make sure.2Change your name by Deed Poll. A Deed Poll is simply a letter that declares that you wish to give up your old name and take up a new name. Any adult can complete one at any time. (A non-citizen must first obtain a licence for a Deed Poll by contacting the Change of Name Licence Section at The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.) In Ireland, you can either get a solicitor do a Deed Poll for you or you can do one yourself. Note that to do your own, you must:[4]Get the necessary documents in person from the Judgments Section of the Central Office of the High Court.Bring your original birth certificate as well as your marriage certificate and a photo I.D. such as your driving licence or passport.Bring the affidavit to a solicitor or a Commissioner for Oaths (for a small charge).Bring the completed documents back to the Judgments Section in the Central Office of the High Court in person.Pay stamp duty.3Update the relevant organisations. Be sure to include a copy of your marriage certificate as well as a number by which the agency or organization can identify you (for example, account or policy number). Here is a list to get you started:
EmployerInland Revenue (obtain your reference and address from your employer)Department of Health & Social Security (write to the Contributions Agency at your local Social Security Office)DoctorDentistPassport OfficeBankBuilding society (mortgage and/or savings accounts)Credit card and store charge-card companiesFinance/loan companiesPremium bond officeInvestment companiesCompanies that you have shares inPension companyInsurance companies (for example, motor, medical, life, property, property contents, etc).Canada1Use your marriage certificate to change all your identification. If you are a woman, your maiden name remains your legal name. This is the most common practice in Canada.[5] Documentation to update may include your:
Health cardDriver's licensePassportBanking informationCredit cards.2If you want to change your legal name, complete the Election to Change Surname form. This changes the name on your birth certificate. If you do this within 90 days of getting married, there is no charge.[6]
Australia1Use your marriage certificate to change your identification. If you were married in Australia, you don’t need to register a name change. (However, note that if you were married in Victoria, you will need to apply for a marriage certificate by filling out an application form, providing proof of identity, and paying a fee.[7]) Showing your marriage certificate will work with most major documentation, such as changing your passport or your driver’s licence.[8] Documentation to update may include your:Health cardDriver's licensePassportBanking informationCredit cards.New Zealand1Register the name change with Births, Deaths and Marriages. You can find the name change form online.[9] There is a fee associated with this. The name change applies also to a civil union.
2Apply to the various agencies and organisations to update your information. Documentation to update may include your:
Health cardDriver's licensePassportBanking informationCredit cards.Categories: Featured Articles | Married Life
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Removing all the strings at once permits you to clean and wipe the fingerboard without lifting up the strings or having to work around them. Fingerboards accumulate a mix of skin oil, skin and dirt (which saps tone and acoustic sustain from the guitar).
2Remove the strings. Loosen the strings until they are no longer under tension. Then, either clip them using nippers or continue to loosen them via the tuning machines until they can be pulled out of the tuning pegs.
An inexpensive tool called a peg winder, available at any music/guitar shop, is very handy for this.3Remove the bridge pins. These are the knob-looking things (usually white or black) that allow the strings to hook themselves onto the inside of the guitar. Use a bridge pin puller, which comes in a wide range of varieties and are sold at any music/guitar shop. Bridge pins can be quite stubborn, especially if either they or the guitar is new. Occasionally you may be tempted to grab these from the outside with pliers. While this is acceptable if done with the utmost caution, it is generally not necessary.
Another method would be to push the pins out from inside the guitar, using a hard object such as a coin. Pushing the string further into the guitar as you do this sometimes helps since the end of the string is wound and "wedges" itself in with the peg. Once the pegs pop free you can pull them out of the peg holes.
4Remove the strings from the peg holes.
5Clean your guitar, if desired. This comprises cleaning the body, fingerboard, back of the neck, and headstock. Use a decent cleaner from a guitar or music shop if possible. Never use furniture polish, glass spray or other common household cleaners. If nothing else, simply use a slightly dampened chamois cloth or lint-free cotton cloth. Oils from your hands will build up on the fingerboard of the guitar with remarkable speed causing a thick gunk.
If you must use water, you should apply such a minuscule amount of water to the cloth that you can barely tell it is damp. Excess water can ruin unsealed wood.Change Your Strings1Get your new strings ready. Some strings' ball ends are color-coded to indicate what note they are to be tuned to.
2Choose your own order. There are many theories about what order strings should be applied. Some guitarists start at the thin end and work their way up, or start at the thick end and work their way down.
The most preferred method is to first put in the thinnest string, then the thickest, then alternate to the next-thinnest, then the next-thickest and so on (1, 6, 2, 5, 3, 4). Alternating in this fashion keeps a more even left-to-right pull on the neck of the guitar and makes later tuning less problematic, especially for older guitars.3Insert the knob end of the string into the peg hole and re-insert the end peg. You should be holding in the string during this time. It is helpful to pull a little tension on the string toward the head of the guitar because this tension is what keeps those pegs from falling out.
4Stretch each string. Once each string is in its peg hole, stretch it up to its appropriate tuning peg and insert the end through the hole in the peg. Keep in mind that you will want to be turning the guitar tuning key ALWAYS TO THE RIGHT to tighten. If the tuning keys on your guitar are on opposite sides of the head (as is usual), you bring the string up between the two rows of key pegs and to the outside.
5Thread the string through the hole and pull tight. You will want to leave just a little bit of slack to have some excess string to wind around the tuning pegs. If you do not, you will run out of string too quickly and the strings will loosen up when you are playing.
This is, regrettably, a trial-and-error process and is different for each string. Just remember, you can always cut off more if you leave too much. You can never add back what you cut off.6Bend the string up (90° perpendicular to the guitar) and turn the tuning key so you get several winds around the peg. This can take a good deal of winding (again, the peg winder is very handy for this part). Make sure that when you tighten the string that each subsequent wind stacks one below the last, so that none of the winds overlap. This ensures both a cleaner looking wind and a longer life to the string itself, as well the guitar itself staying in tune.
Do not tighten the string to its usual pitch, but rather a few semi-tones below. You want it tight enough to hold in place and put enough tension on the bottom peg to not come out again, but now is not yet the time for "tuning".
7Repeat this procedure with the rest of the strings.
8Tune your guitar now (see How to Tune a Guitar).
9Use some wire cutters to snip off excess string, leaving only about 1/8 of an inch (1/2 centimeter) of "stub". Cutting the string too short can make the "stub" end slip back into the spooled string and loosen your strings.
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