Mahnemis

For those engaged women* who will be changing their names soon.**

Marriage Certificate

Note that this is the last time you will be writing and signing using the name you had for at least 2 decades. It’s not something sad that you’re changing your name, but it should be something treasured, Yes, I am sentimental. Hehehehe.

Write Your Name

Practice writing your new name. There will be a lot of forms that you will be filling out and it would be really embarrassing to have an erasure on those forms in the NAME FIELD, right?

Say My Name Say My Name

Hehehe. The song just popped in my head. Anyway, what I mean is, try saying your new name aloud. People will be calling you in that name (Mrs. ____ ) and you better acknowledge it is you they are calling and not your husband’s mother. Hihihi.

Try saying your name too. It would also be very awkward to stutter when asked what your name was and you still end up saying your maiden name.

Signature

Invent your new (and improved) signature. Again, you will have new forms and identifications and all of them need your signature. Practice practice practice. Your signature has to be consistent, especially with bank related documents.

When we were getting my Military Dependents ID card, I did not think I had to fill out the form and then sign it. I got stuck for around two minutes or so. I had no idea how to sign the document. The personnel was waiting for me so I had to be creative – fast. I did sign it with the best I could think of at that moment.

I probably have around 3 different versions of my signature in different documents. Tsk tsk tsk. No worries, I already know my final signature.

Passport

Your passport has to be amended after your wedding. You don’t need a new passport; they will just put an amendment note at the last page of your passport.

My husband and I are planning these trips and it’s not until someone mentioned during a military spouse orientation (yes, they do hold a monthly Military Spouse Orientation/Workshop which is greatly helpful for military-newbies like me) that since we just changed our name, we would need to have our passport amended so we can still use it for travel.

Other Documents

Start asking your banks, license offices, what happens to your account/IDs after getting married and changing your name. They might be requiring some amendments too.

** This is probably just applicable to those who will be changing their name.

* Wink wink to my sister… CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR ENGAGEMENT! :)

Drive Drove Driven

I took the Guam Driver’s License Written Exam last Thursday. After taking the exam, my husband picked me up, he then asked how was the exam and what did I say?

“Ano ba yan?!?! PERFECT!!!” Hahahaha.

Unlike my experience with LTO, getting a Guam Driver’s License is far from easy. In LTO, back in 2001, we had a ‘runner’ so all I had to do was “take” the written exam (for which the questionnaires contained the answers already) then fill up the forms and voila! An instant driver’s license! =P

The Philippine Driver’s License is valid in Guam for 30 days (unlike in most of the States for which it was valid for a year). You would need your passport (or SSN or a denial letter for SSN) and another ID (I used my military dependent’s ID) to apply for Guam license. You can then ask for LTO to fax a certification to DMV Guam (which has a sub-story*). After that, you fill out the application form and get a schedule for a written test. I didn’t need to take a road test since I have an LTO certification.

So the results were posted today at 12 noon.

My score: 39 out of 40.

Tsk. =P

Now all that’s left to be done is go back to the DMV office, have your picture taken, your eye checked up, and then finally pick up your license. With all that hassle, it’s good to know the license is valid for 3 years.

Whewww!!! ;)

* LTO Sub-Story

I asked my brother to file for the LTO certification in my behalf. He handed over my authorization letter to the LTO personnel. The letter states that my license certification be FAXED over to Guam DMV, etc. He paid 100 pesos fee. He was then asked to go back to claim the transaction after 1 week.

I was confused why LTO had my brother go back since they only needed to fax it anyway. So when my brother went back to LTO, he asked about the faxed transaction and what did LTO say?

“Ahh, i-fa-fax ba???”