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I'm getting married and would like to apply for a visa to enter Sri Lanka on my honeymoon. We're leaving for the airport straight after the wedding and so have to fill out applications for the visa in advance. When we arrive our passports will still state our original names and that we are not married. Should we state that we are married on the visa, as we will be when we arrive? And should we use the names as they will be on our passports rather than any new married name?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Sam
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3 Answers3

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In most cases you should write what was true at the time of the application.

If a remarks field is offered, you can add that you are getting married before arrival, but that your passport will not reflect your changed married status or name change.

In that way you have informed them of everything possible.

Mark Johnson
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When we arrive our passports will still state our original names and that we are not married.

So you are not married.

I don't know which country you are from, but at least in France between the instant when the mayor states "you are married" and the time this information arrives everywhere it takes an indefinite amount of time.

In the most optimal case, you will get papers (in French) wording out the fact that you are married. There are about 7 toms of exceptions to that.

Before that information gets on the passports, if it gets there at all(1), it takes all the time above + the time to get a passport.

So if you state "we are married", you may not have any paperwork for that.

This is beyond the case that at the moment of the application you are not married (you would need to check whether you need to update this information or not when you are abroad (because you leave on the same day and this will be the moment when your married state becomes technically enforceable))

(1) In France each of the newly married can use the name of the other (it is way more complicated than that, but that's the rough rule). You may want to have on your passport DUPONT ép DURAND which means that the initial name is DUPONT and the name of the other person is DURAND. Again, between the moment when you celebrate at the town hall and the moment you see this an indefinite time passes.
It gets funny when your name is SILVERSTONE and your spouse ELONGICURE and you have on your passport SILVERSTONE ép ELONGICURE and get a ticket as SILVERSTONE ép ELO because it got trimmed. This ensures wonderful memories of explaining French stuff to border control.

WoJ
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Disclaimer: my experience of Sri Lanka was during the 1980s, so things may have changed since then.

  1. The Sri Lankan immigration officer I encountered was pedantic compared to immigration of officers in other countries. He questioned the fact that I had an Australian Customs stamp in may passport, and told me that Customs officers were not authorized to stamp passports. (He made me promise that I'd never let a customs officer do that again: good luck trying that...). I recommend that you make sure that the name on your visa application matches that on your passport exactly, and that your marriage status is also accurate as at the time you apply.
  2. My wife still uses her maiden name on her passport. When we first started traveling together she carried a copy of the marriage certificate. I recall that is was useful occasionally at hostels, never at hotels, so we gave up carrying it once we had a bit more money.
Simon Crase
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