“I am a South African citizen living in the USA. I got married (same-sex marriage) in 2016 and applied for a new passport reflecting my new name change (surname) on the passport in 2019.
I received confirmation from Home Affairs that they have now refused to change my name because they do not recognize same sex marriages and name changes are not allowed on the passport. Below is the correspondence from them:
“Please note that we have received verification of the status of your passport: Your passport application was received by DHA on the 12 July 2019.On the 16 August 2019 your application was moved to the Citizenship for verification of SA Citizenship. On the 25 October your application was moved to the Marriage Section to confirm your marital status. According to the DHA, with regards to same sex civil unions name changes are not permitted, thus all parties concerned will keep their last name. ie: Jason Roelof Saunders will remain Jason Roelof Saunders and not Turner. On the 04 November 2019 your passport was moved for capturing and processing and will take another 6-8 Months.”
I feel that this is some sort of discrimination, as I have many women friends from South Africa who got married and changed their names to match their husbands with no issue. I would not care if it were not for my line of work. I am an airline pilot and am having many issues when travelling to different countries because my passport and green card documents all have mismatched names. It is now…
