Adopting your husband’s last name is an essential step at the beginning of your married life. While more and more women decide to keep their names even in marriage, there are still thousands of new wives in Nigeria who take their husband’s last name. Here are the documents you need to update after marriage.
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1. Which documents do you need to update?
After the wedding, you have a year to change your official documents and accounts. But given that processing the requests often takes a while for Nigerian officials, it’s best to not hesitate with this step and apply for the document update shortly after you get married and return from the honeymoon. These are the most important documents to change.
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1. National Identification Number
If you already have your National Identification Number, you should get your new name on your card. Your NIN will remain the same, only your name field will change. The procedure for changing the name on your NIN is simple: visit the official NIN website to find your nearest office, supply your court affidavit, newspaper print, and marriage certificate, and pay the fee of ₦500 for changing the name. Here is how you can do it online.
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2. International passport
If you are a frequent traveller or plan to leave for another country soon, your Nigerian passport should reflect your new name. You will need to visit your nearest passport office and supply the required paperwork, which includes the sworn affidavit, newspaper cutout, copy of your husband’s passport name page, your passport photo, application form, and letter of application to the Consular General. You will also need to pay a fee of ₦30,000 plus ₦25,000-₦70,000 depending on the type of passport you want to get.
2. How to officially change your name
Name change in Nigeria is not a very complicated procedure, but it still involves a few crucial steps. To make your name change perfectly legal, you will need to supply your marriage certificate. Once you have the certificate, here are the steps you need to take:
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- Get a sworn affidavit from the nearest court. This is made under oath and needs to be authorized by a government official.
- Get a national newspaper to publish the information about your name change. These days, you can do it online, but since you’ll need a newspaper cutout with the announcement for the further steps, it’s best to do it via a regular newspaper. You will pay around ₦5,000 for this service.
- Once you have your sworn affidavit and a cutout from the newspaper with the announcement about your name change, you need to refer to your local registry office to make your change official.
- Notify the relevant government bodies and individuals about the changes in your status quo.
- Get the necessary paperwork to each entity and pay the required fee, if there’s any, to update your documents after the name change.
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