From Peeradina to Thomas…
So a few days back a friend of mine tagged me on this link about what a woman usually has to do when she has to change her maiden surname to her married surname. I read that post, and my reaction was- ‘Ha! I could have written that!’ My friend told me I should. So here goes.
The Background
My husband, Ariez Thomas, has been living in Brisbane with his family since five years, while I was in Mumbai during that time. Our wedding was planned in 6 weeks, due to a myriad of reasons including logistical issues pertaining to family, visa (my potential visa for Australian immigration), time and destination. We were united as man and wife in March 2012, and I was slated to join Ariez in Brisbane by October that year. A number of tasks were to be completed in the interim period. And so began my nomenclatural journey from being Sharmeen Peeradina to Sharmeen Thomas.
The Crisis
To all the women who read this, let’s face it: it is Not easy to accept that name change the day you get married! It’s almost an identity crisis! The marriage certificate became the new identity document. But clearly, I wasn’t ready to change my name – to begin with- on Facebook. I thought I’d give myself some time before I did that, but soon I had lost enough time to need an occasion before I could make the change.
The Plan
Pan card, driver’s license, passport, bank account, investments, etc. – I had mentally prepared the list of identities I should be changing. I should point out that I had decided not to change my name on my passport (In Islamic terms, it is not mandatory for a woman to change her surname after marriage) since my passport was valid until 2019. There is a twist to that, but I will come to that subsequently.
The Process, the Pains and the Peculiarities
Name change certificate
I began with applying for a ‘name change’ certificate. I wasn’t sure how many people did that nowadays but the boss of the company where I was working then had strongly suggested that this is a must-do and that it would serve as a base for changing my name on other identity documents. The procedure basically requires your marriage certificate and an application form. What happens once you fill in this application form is that your name (new name) gets published in two national newspapers. Once there is no objection to that, you get a certificate which states your old name and your new name. So Sharmeen Rafic Peeradina became Sharmeen Ariez Thomas. The funny thing is that this certificate is not an individual certificate. It contains about five hundred other names, and each person mentioned in that list is given two original copies of that list! The whole process took about one month. Now if you ask me where you get this application form for a name change certificate, the answer is: i-don’t-know. But I know a real good guy who can do this for you, so if you ever need to have this done, I can just give you this dude’s number J
Side Story: Police Clearance Certificate: Ariez and I had submitted my Australian spousal visa application papers about three months after we got married. It was a lot of paperwork and enough time and energy was spent to compile everything. Some documents were also to be submitted at a later stage. This included a medical examination report and a police clearance certificate. Let me emphasize that this was a part of my immigration process and not essentially a part of the name change exercise- for those of you who may use this article as a guideJ. Anyway, so I had done my homework and decided to apply for my police clearance certificate a little in advance. Now this really turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Passport Seva Kendras: Before I continue, I must compliment the new ‘passport seva kendra’ or PSK -as it’s called for short- initiative taken up by Tata Consultancy Services on behalf of the Indian government, as an effort to privatize passport-related services in order to streamline the process. Applications and appointments can be made online and the overall process seems to be inspired by the American visa application process, including the procedural layout at the PSK. The staff are efficient and helpful. The premises are well-maintained, though ideally every city needs more or larger PSKs. There are a couple of glitches here and there, but I’d only call them areas for improvement.
Back to my story: So in the effort to get my police clearance certificate- or PCC, I found my way to one of the PSKs in Mumbai. It was during my appointment over there, that I learnt that the PCC bears reference to a woman as “wife of”… which essentially meant that in order to apply for my PCC, my passport requires that my husband’s name be endorsed on it- which meant- applying for a new passport. UHU. Yeah! Apply for a new passport. One more thing added to my list.
Passport
Despite and amidst my impending travel plans to Hyderabad, Udaipur and Kampala, and my busy lifestyle in Mumbai (since I was still working at that time), I managed to apply for a new passport under the tatkaal scheme and got it within 3 days of my application.
Twists: Now it wasn’t all that simple as I made it sound. I did face roadblocks- to begin with, on the PSK website while trying to furnish my application for name change on my passport. It came down to the fact that I could apply for my passport in tatkaal if I was applying with the name change criteria. However, if I was also applying to change my signature along with my name, then it was not possible to apply under tatkaal. See what I mean by glitches? I had enough time to apply for the passport under the regular method, but I had enough on my plate and therefore wanted my passport at the earliest.
More Twists: So one of the supporting documents that was required for the new passport application was a “Society letter”, one that your residential society issues you. Now this is one of the most important documents as proof of residential address. At the time when I needed this letter, my brother and sister-in-law, with whom I was staying, were traveling and would only return in three weeks. We had been in that house for a about a year and a half then. From the society intercom, I called up the secretary and had a chat with her. She sounded like she suspected whether I lived there in the first place. I was annoyed but gave her the benefit of doubt. Maybe she really didn’t know and maybe she’s just doing her job.
I had to make a written application requesting for a society letter. She wanted proof of “relationship to property owner” -that I was the daughter of the of my father. She also wanted proof that I lived there. I told her she could come to our place and have tea with me! Obviously she wasn’t looking for that. So I turned in a copy of my bank statement for the last one year- which bore the current address, along my old pan card copy. I was quite annoyed with the situation in general but tried to keep my calm. I sent the documents with the watchman to the secretary’s house. Now the managing committee of the society meets only every Sunday and that’s when they attend to matters like this. To my dismay, I got a text message from the secretary lady regretting the issue of the society letter in the absence of sufficient documentation. I was appalled beyond my wits. Feeling extremely helpess, I turned to my brother who was on an international holiday then; he spoke to the society people over the phone and was assured that the letter would be issued to me the following week after their Sunday meeting. In the meantime they wanted an application letter from my father. They did not believe in emails and wanted a physical letter. I could not for the life of me fathom why they were being so difficult. I eventually got the letter after 21 days of perusing the matter, including the application letter from my father and another application letter from my brother which he had to physically submit himself. Turns out they had been wanting a meeting with him and he could not commit himself to that for some time. So this was their excuse and I became the scapegoat, harassed to the core- or let’s say harassed to the bone!
Thanks to the unnecessary drama, I did not make it for my passport appointment on schedule. I made an alternative appointment hoping I would have the letter in time. Unfortunately I didn’t. However, to my good luck, I didn’t have to show the society letter at the PSK. I did need it however at a later stage when I had the police verification done for my passport after it was issued.
Mumbai, Mumbai, Mumbai: I was in Worli after I had finished with a couple of work meetings, and I happened to be near the regional passport office. Now this used to be the earlier application centre for passports and related services. I decided to walk in and make an enquiry. They had closed for the day, but the security guard was a rather well-informed one and after hearing me out, gave me a number to call- and told me this person would be able to provide some information on my matter. Turns out the guy is an agent, with his office located in close proximity to where I was at that moment. I found my way to the agent’s office and had a chat with him. I decided to go ahead with the agent because I was assured that he would be able to have my passport processed under the tatkaal scheme, even though it meant paying the agent thrice as much as the actual passport fee. I was also aware that with newer regualtions, agents are not permitted to enter the PSKs on behalf of or with the applicant.
Retroscpectively, the agent did nothing different in terms of making the appointment online. My guess is that he must not have ticked the signature change field and therefore managed a tatkaal appointment.
Lesson to be learnt: AVOID using the services of an agent, unless you’re way too desperate. In hindsight, it was a waste of time and money for me.
The facebook name change
So when I finally had my new passport in hand, I decided it was a good occasion to publish the change on virtual society. So I did. So I was now- Sharmeen Ariez Thomas (Sharmeen Peeradina). Still holding on to a part of the maiden name! I should mention that much before I was married I had ruled out the option of using my maiden surname along with my married surname. With my maiden surname, I figured it would sound plain weird. Imagine Sharmeen Peeradina Thomas.
Incidentally, my husband could not fathom why on earth I wouldn’t just call myself Sharmeen Thomas, and why I’d put his name as my middle name. I tried explaining to him, and I doubt he got it. I doubt if you do too. But some of the ladies may get it. (refer: “The Crisis” at the beginning of the post) Maybe I’d be able to do that in a few years, but not as yet.
Back to police clearance certificate: With the new passport in hand, getting the PCC was no problem, although it did take a few attempts before I could manage to make the online appointment, due to large volumes of applications. Interestingly enough, when I was at the last stage of the PCC application process at the PSK, the government officer who manned that process happened to ask me in the passing as to how I got my passport in tatkaal even though I had changed my signature. Clearly I didn’t see that one coming! I muttered a reply and consciously tried to ignore the slight increase in my heartbeat that I experienced then. J
Pan Card
Being one of the most important identity documents in India, it was imperative to have my name changed on my pan card. This wasn’t too complicated. All you got to do is log on to www.nsdl.co.in and follow the link for name change on pan card. It was all quite simple, except that everything I decided to twist itself in some way.
The twist: So I sent in my application for changing my name on my pan card along with the required supporting documents. Now I had mentioned my maiden name in the given fields as follows:
Name: Sharmeen
Middle name (optional): Rafic
Surname: Peeradina
So I got an email revert from NSDL with the comment that I had to furnish proof that maiden middle name was Rafic. It was then that I figured that None of the existing identity proofs had my name mentioned as “Sharmeen Rafic Peeradina”. What a shock! The only identity proof that DID have my name mentioned so was my old PAN card; unfortunately they do not accept that as a supporting document.
I tried writing them back with possible alternatives, but never got a reply.
So I waited it out for a couple more weeks, before re-applying all over again. But this time I knew what I didn’t have to do, so I did not enter the “optional” middle name field. Since they don’t reply to emails, I guess they don’t really care if you’ve tried applying before. I was successful and received my new pan card within a month. You should know that the PAN number remains the same.
The name on my PAN card appears as “Sharmeen Thomas”; as I do prefer to use the name as is for all official documentation. Funny how I can’t get myself to do that on facebook. Not yet.
Oh well, another confession to stupidity as for the above- I had mailed in b/w passport sized photos along with my application- for the mere reason that I had run out of colour photos and was trying to make-do with these. Well, it didn’t work and the second time around, I mailed in new colour photos with the application.
My changed name now reflected on my passport, pan card & a name change certificate.
Bank account
For changing my name on my bank account, I had to go my home branch and make a written application and submit a copy of my marriage certificate. The change process took 2-3 days and I was issued with a new cheque book within a week. This was clearly the easiest J
Investments
I had made a couple of small investments, mainly for the purpose of tax-saving and so it became an incentive to save up some money. Changing my name and signature on my tiny little investment holdings is still underway, but it required me to submit a letter endorsed by my bank stating the name change, along with a copy of my marriage certificate, besides filling up the mutual fund forms again.
Driver’s License
This was the only identity proof that now remained- actually, still remains. I was out of time, energy and motivation, so I conveniently decided to keep one identity proof with my maiden name, if I ever needed it.
So that was my nomenclatural journey, as I’d like to call it.
All you need is patience, and evidence.
