If you live in California, and you are looking to change your legal name, then one of the questions you may be asking yourself is how long it will take to change your name in California. There are 3 stages involved in changing your name in California. Each of these stages takes a specific amount of time. If you are looking to understand how long it will take and the process of changing your name, read the short article below and get well informed.
The 3 Stages of Changing Your Name in California
If you want to get your Name Change recognized by government authorities and agencies, banks, schools and any other organizations, you have to present these entities with a Court Order from the California Superior Court. Below are the steps to getting a Court Order.
• Prepare a petition to Change Your Name
• File your petition in a court of law to get a court order
• Change your records using a certified copy of a court order
How Long Does the Entire Process Take?
The duration of time spent on each of these stages will depend on the amount of time that you dedicate to each stage. The amount of time that it will take to change your name will therefore depend on you. This is fact is well demonstrated in the discussion on what happens in stage 1 and 3.
1. Prepare A Petition to Change Your Legal Name
The name change petition is basically a bunch of court mandated forms. You have to fill between 5 to 15 forms during this process. The number of forms that you will need usually depends on your location and the requirements in your location. When applying for a name change petition, IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW LONG YOUR NAMES ARE. You can get the forms that you need for this process from any Superior Court. For an average person, it should take several hours to go through the forms and fill in the required parts. However, this can take longer for some people. If you are preparing the petition without any help, you should budget for additional time to go through the forms that you may not know about. Remember that if the petitions forms are filled inaccurately or wrongly, it can result in the petition being delayed, rejected or denied.
For most people, it can be hard to set aside between 3 to 6 hours uninterrupted hours to fill the petition forms. It can take several days, weeks or even months before you are able to complete these forms correctly. If you contact us online for help on how to fill the petition forms, it can take between 7 and 15 minutes for us to help you get your forms filled properly. After a few days, we will then send you a fully completed petition marked with areas for you to sign that you can then file immediately. We will also provide you with personalized and customized easy to follow instructions to help you complete every part of your petition properly.
2. File Your Petition, Go for A Hearing and Wait for A Court Order
This part of the Change Name process can take some time. You need to first file your petition with the proper court and then wait to receive a Hearing California Start Now Assignment. After this, you need to post a public notice advertising your name change as required by the California Name Change Laws. (Refer to the California Code of Civil Procedure, Section 1277a). Remember that the judge hearing your petition has to see proof that you correctly advertised and published your Name Change before approving your petition. On contacting us, we will guide you through this process and ensure that you do it correctly.
The court handling your petition will then schedule a hearing for your proposed Name Change. This hearing typically comes 6 to 8 weeks after you have filed your petition. In most instances, you are likely to get a Court Order signed by the presiding judge on the day of the hearing. There is not much that you can do to speed things along once you have filed your petition. However, remember that you can slow down the process even further if you file an inaccurate petition or do not do the required advertising properly.
On receiving a signed Name Change Court Order from the judge, you can get A CERTIFIED COPY of the order on the same day from the same court. If you want your important records changed to reflect your change in name, you must have a Certified Copy of the court order.
It usually takes between 6 weeks and 6 months (around 8 weeks) to get a court order.
3. You Can Now Change Your Records
You cannot get your important records changed for you automatically. There are some inexpensive services that you can use for this process but you will still need to do the bulk of the work. If you follow our CHECKLIST (We include the checklist in our petition package), you can get all your important records changed one by one. In order to get important documents like your social security number, DMV records, passport and birth certificate changed, you will first have to provide a Certified Copy of your Court Order as well as some sort of identification. In some instances, you may be asked to provide your fingerprints. Many of our clients usually get their school records, bank records, DMV records and social security information changed in one day.
Like in Step 1, the time taken in Step 3 usually depends on how much time you dedicate to the process. In each place that you go to change your details, you will find specific procedures that you have to learn and follow to the letter. If you have a Certified Copy of The Decree Changing Your Name, you can get your DMV records, bank and school records as well as social security information changed within two days of the hearing. However, it can take between 2 and 6 months to get all your accounts changed.
A Summary on How Long You Require to Get Your Name Changed in California
To prepare a Name Change petition, it can take between 3 and 6 hours or even more. However, with our help, this will take 7 to 15 minutes.
To file your petition, it can take between 3 and 6 hours. With our full services, this will take no time at all. It usually takes between 2 and 3 months before you are able to get a hearing in court. You can get a decree allowing you to change your name immediately after the hearing if your petition is approved.
To change your records, it can take between 2 and 3 days to change your most important records and between 2 to 6 months to change everything.
With our help, you can change your name in California within 2 to 3 months. Start the process today and change your current name to your desired name.