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Fenella Pearson's avatar

I really look forward to your posts! Thank you for distracting me from the doom and gloom of the newsfeeds!

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Nancy Carten's avatar

Ha! I'll see your "change of address" at the bank and raise you my "change of address" driver's license. I moved to British Columbia (BC) from Alberta in March 2020, (yes, the beginning of COVID) and as a new resident, I needed a new drivers licence. The BC services website instructed me to bring a document showing proof of name change if your present driver's license or passport name is different from your birth surname. No problem. I brought my "marriage contract" from Quebec, where I got married, and where I "changed my name", which indicated the same sur name as my birth certificate, also from Quebec, which I also brought.

After making an appointment (COVID requirement) I was told that BC does not recognize Quebec marriage "contracts" (Napoleonic code) or birth certificates issued prior to 1992. I was born in 1947. Bring us a "marriage certificate" and an updated birth certificate. I tried to explain to the agent that I was moving from Alberta, a province right next door, not Uzbekistan. The response....."next"!

I wrote to Quebec requesting a marriage certificate, only to be told weeks later that the department was malade with COVID! Fast forward....the marriage certificate arrives but is stamped in large red letters "divorced". When I brought my two newly acquired required documents back to BC services (I had found among my papers a birth certificate dated 2004) I was told that I now needed to present a copy of my divorce certificate.

By now I was what you would call a "difficult" customer. But, having no choice, I begged a lawyer friend to expedite providing me with a copy of my divorce certificate. For some reason I'd lost it! Maybe it was an unconscious way of forgetting, who knows!

Documents in hand, again, I make another appointment. I have my: 2004 issued birth certificate, a marriage certificate, and my proof of failure, the divorce certificate. And, because I no longer trusted the system I brought along my "certificate of the sacrament of marriage". Quebec is French and most French, then, were Catholic , as was I. It couldn't hurt.

And voila! It worked. But, the agent told me that if I had brought the certificate of the sacrament of marriage in the first place (even though that wasn't on the accepted document list) she would have accepted it as valid proof of name change!

Welcome to BC.

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