Expert guides and advice
If your birth name is misspelled, you have two routes: a General Register Office correction (for a genuine registration error, with evidence) or a deed poll (faster, to standardise the spelling going forward). Here’s which one you actually need.
A UK deed poll changes your UK legal name, but each foreign authority decides its own process. Some accept the deed poll directly; others demand an apostille and a certified translation. Here’s how to update international passports and overseas records the right way.
Changing your name while holding a UK visa or eVisa, or mid-application, can trigger delays and refusals if your documents don’t match. Here’s the safe order to do it, when to time the change, and how to keep your passport, visa and UKVI account aligned.
Dual nationals often hold passports with different name formats - Spanish double surnames, US middle names, accented characters. This 2026 guide explains the UK passport name format rules and how a deed poll aligns your documents.
Once you are a British citizen you can change your name by deed poll exactly like anyone born here. Here is how the timing works around your citizenship ceremony, and how to update your certificate of naturalisation, first British passport and BRP.
A practical UK guide to updating your name at work after a deed poll: telling HR and payroll, keeping PAYE and HMRC aligned, updating your workplace pension, and why your employment contract almost never needs reissuing - just a record update.
