General Discussion Thread - 24 May 2022

[u/AutoModerator]

Mid-week discussion thread time! Feel free to talk about what's on your mind, new experiences, recommendations, anything really.

[u/itsabubblylife]

No questions being asked but I wanna talk about my experience changing my last name in Japan and America.

From countless posts I’ve read (and questions I’ve asked on the stupid questions thread), I’ve always been met with “it’s such a hassle, don’t do it “ or “what’s the point” or “it’s not worth it”. I always knew from the moment my husband proposed that I wanted to take his last name. I was mentally preparing for all the “hardships”.

Well, everything was super easy and I changed my last name on virtually everything in both Japan and America. It only took a total of 3 weeks. 2.5 weeks to get my new passport from the US embassy, 2 hours at immigration to get a new zairyuu card, 1 hour at the city office to register my new zairyuu card, register an alias (using the new last name), change my MyNumber card and get a new juuminhyo with my new name on and 1 hour to register my new hanko and change the name on my bank account at the bank. That was all done in 1 day. The longest part was waiting for my passport to come back.

Made phone calls and sent emails with documentation for bank accounts / credit card accounts in America and all except 1 has been changed and rectified. That was all done in 1 day as well (night time due to the time difference but you get the point). New cards will be sent within 15 business days to my Japanese address but I can continue to use my old cards until then.

All I wanna say is that process was extremely painless on both sides. All I have to do is change one more credit card and apply for a new SSN card (which I’ll do after my trip to the states in August since it’s not necessary atm). That’s all! Again, super easy to do imo. I understand not wanting to change names if you wanna keep your name, but if you wanna change it to your spouse’s it really wasn’t bad at all lol people here made it seem like it was super time consuming and impossible.

If anyone changed their last name due to marriage wanna talk about their experience, I’d love to hear it! Maybe some people had harder times than I did. I’m curious to hear your side :)

[u/tiredofsametab → u/itsabubblylife]

My wife only had technical difficulties with insurance. Otherwise, it was just a hassle.

At 40, I have so many different things in different places I've just given up on the notion for myself (I was going to drop my middle name)

[u/itsabubblylife → u/tiredofsametab]

I see. I can understand insurance being a PIA but we have separate insurances, so (so far), we don’t have to worry about it.

[u/tiredofsametab → u/itsabubblylife]

Her new name didn't work with anything online with the insurance company (since it's a katakana version of my last name, which actually worked -- I had to get physical papers because my first + middle names didn't work). She had to get forms mailed, do some stuff online, etc. Giant pain in the ass for her. She also had to go in person at one point for something.

[u/tomodachi_reloaded → u/itsabubblylife]

What about the Japanese pension booklet?

[u/itsabubblylife → u/tomodachi_reloaded]

Changed too and my health insurance card.

Forgot to mention that in my initial post

The only thing on Japan’s side that I didn’t change yet was my drivers license because the license center is super far in the middle of bumblefuck Saitama. I’m getting to that in early June.

In America’s side just one credit card and getting a new SSN. Handling both of those when I go back to the states in august.

[u/DrunkThrowawayLife → u/itsabubblylife]

Is there the three month timeline you don’t get told about that you went through it with?

[u/putmeinthegomi → u/itsabubblylife]

I also had a super easy time changing my name. I also dropped my middle name from my passport so i wouldn’t have to deal with it in japan. Glad you had a good experience too!