How Much Does It Cost To Change Your Last Name In Georgia

Updated December 02, 2021

A Georgia name modify form is used to formally request a name change for an adult or a minor who resides in the Country. All documents must exist submitted to the superior courtroom which has jurisdiction in the canton where the applicant resides. If the bidder's name is being changed because of a marriage or a divorce, the proper name modify forms are not needed. Instead, the person can simply point their desire to change their name when establishing their spousal relationship or divorce policies. Changing one'south name for any other reason volition crave the applicant to file the proper name alter forms and pay the respective fees.

Laws– § nineteen-12-1

Name Modify After Marriage

Your wedlock license application volition comprise a infinite in which you tin specify a new concluding proper name. The new proper noun can be either your spouse's terminal proper name, a hyphenated name containing both your and your spouse'south concluding name, or a name which is a combination of the two. Enter the new proper name in the applicable space of the class and file your marriage license application. The alter of name is only constructive once the marriage is legal and the license has been issued.

Name Alter Afterward Divorce

When filling out your divorce papers, y'all will have the option to revert to your erstwhile name by entering the name in the infinite which has been defended to this purpose. This step is all that's needed to inform the court of your desire to modify your name. One time your divorce is last and you take received your divorce decree, the proper noun alter will be legal and you may begin to use the new name.

Developed Name Change (No Marriage or Divorce)

An adult modify of proper name awarding must be filed with the superior court in the county where y'all reside. The request volition exist submitted to the courtroom via a written petition that states the purpose of the alter as well as your personal information. You will be required to pay for all of the superior court filings fees unless your income is depression enough for a court canonical exemption. However, the exemption will simply apply to the fees demanded by the superior court and not those required for publication or notarization.

Pace i – Fill out Petition

Enter your alter of proper name information on a Petition to Change Proper noun of Adult class. Ensure that the example number and the signature fields are left unfilled. If y'all currently reside in a shelter supporting victims of family violence, practice not enter that address. You should instead mention the name of the shelter and state where it is located.

Step 2 – Prepare Verification Form

The Verification of Petition to Change Proper name of Adult form will be used to verify the authenticity of the contents of your Petition. Fill up out the class completely excluding the case number line and signature field.

Footstep 3 – Make full out Notice of Petition

When yous submit your filings to the superior court, you will be required to publish a observe of your petition in a local paper. The form used for this purpose is the Notice of Petition to Alter Name of Adult. Fill up out the document in the same manner as y'all did the previous forms, leaving the case number and signature fields unfilled. Note that the date you enter in the torso paragraph of the Observe form must be the bodily date that you lot file the Petition.

Footstep four – Sign Documents in front end of a Notary Public

Review your filings to ensure that they take been filled out accurately. Side by side, take your paperwork to a notary public and sign your documents in their presence. The notary will then consummate the unfilled area of the Verification form and render each document back to you. If there is a Family Police Information Eye available in your canton, the Heart tin can notarize your documents for costless. A notary can as well exist found at most banks and financial institutions.

Footstep 5 – Prepare Information Grade

Download the General Civil Case Filing Information Grade (Non-Domestic) and input your example details.

Important Information:

Select "Superior" in the upper-left portion of the form
Leave the "Docket Number" and "Date Filed" areas unfilled
Select the "Pro Se" box
Leave the "Defendants" area unfilled
Beneath "Check Chief Type," select "Other Full general Civil Specify" and enter "Name Modify"
Do non fill in the "If Tort is Case Type" box

Step 6 – Brand Copies

After completing the requisite paperwork and having the documents notarized, make several photocopies of each form. Go on these copies neatly organized and stored in a condom place for future reference if needed.

Pace 7 –File with a Clerk of the Superior Court

Visit the superior courtroom filing location in your county and submit your filings to a clerk. Be sure to bring a photocopy of each form. Upon submission of your documents, yous will be required to provide 2 filing fees; the processing fee for your petition also every bit a separate publication fee. Contact the superior court in your county prior to filing in gild to decide the verbal amount for each fee.

If you have a low income and are unable to afford the processing fee demanded past the superior court, you tin can request an exemption past filing an Affidavit of Poverty and an Gild on Affidavit of Poverty form with the clerk. Each grade has been provided below for those who reside in Dekalb county. Contact your superior courtroom to obtain local versions of these documents. Note that the Affirmation does non exempt you lot from paying the publication fee.

Affidavit of Poverty
Social club on Affidavit of Poverty

After paying the filing fees, or afterwards your exemption asking has been canonical, the clerk will give y'all a case number and postage your photocopies with a date & fourth dimension postage. Your documents will then be returned to you. Before leaving the office, inquire the clerk to tell yous which judge will be handling your instance likewise as the contact information for the gauge'south agenda clerk.

Step 8 – Publication of Notice

After your submission has been candy, the clerk will forward your Notice of Petition to Alter Proper name of Developed to a local newspaper. Subsequently, the newspaper will publish the Detect once each calendar week for four (four) sequent weeks. This process is meant to inform the general public of your request for a proper noun change and to let any interested political party to fix their objections.

The newspaper will supply you lot with a Publisher's Affidavit after the Notice has been published. Brand a copy of this form for your personal records.

Footstep 9 – Wait and Prepare for Terminal Hearing

Y'all will need to wait at least 30 (30) days from your initial filing appointment before a hearing for your case tin can be held. During this period of fourth dimension, set up the following forms and have them ready for submission:

Concluding Club Irresolute Name of Developed
- Fill out the form completely except for the judge's signature field
General Civil Instance Final Disposition Form (Non-Domestic)
- Select "Superior" in the upper-left portion of the grade
- Enter "Petitioner" above "Title"
- Enter your name in "Plaintiff/Petitioner'southward Attorney"
- Select the "Pro Se" box
- Leave the defendant/respondent areas unfilled
- Select the "Bench Trail" box in "Type of Disposition"
- Go out the "Award" and "Judgment on Verdict" sections unfilled
- In "ADR," select "No" in response to whether or not ADR was utilized

Step ten – Schedule Hearing

Contact the calendar clerk for the judge who was appointed to your instance. The contact information for the clerk should have been provided to you when you submitted your filings. Be fix to provide your case number and any additional information pertaining to your case. Inquire the clerk to suit a date and time for your final hearing.

Notation: Sure courts crave appointments for hearings while others have specific days and hours of the calendar week dedicated to hearings of this nature.

Step 11 – Attend Hearing

Become to the court on the scheduled appointment and time. You lot will demand to take the following documents with you lot and ready for submission to the courtroom:

Copy of Petition to Change Name of Adult
Copy of Discover of Petition to Change Proper noun of Adult
Publisher's Affidavit (from paper)
Final Order Changing Name of Adult
Full general Civil Case Final Disposition Form (Non-Domestic)

When you arrive at the courtroom, the judge will ask you to provide your petition data. The judge may also ask you boosted questions relating to your alter of proper name asking. The gauge will then decide whether or not your request is valid. If your request is authorized, the estimate will sign the Terminal Order form and return information technology to you. Lastly, leave the courtroom and enquire a clerk to make you a certified copy of the Final Lodge course (a fee will be required for this service). This certified copy volition be the legal evidence of your modify of name.

Driver's License

The State of Georgia requires individuals who accept recently changed their names to notify the Department of Driver Services (DDS) inside sixty (60) days of the change. However, before contacting the DDS, it will be necessary for you to apply for a new social security card.

To obtain a new social security carte, you lot volition need to submit the following documents to a Social Security Administration (SSA) office:

A completed Application for a Social Security Menu
Proof of name change, such every bit your marriage certificate or divorce decree
Proof of identity, such every bit your driver's license or passport
Proof of U.Southward. citizenship, such equally your nascence certificate or citizenship certificate

Review the SSA listing of accepted documents to find out what forms can be used. A new social security carte du jour will exist mailed to y'all after your awarding has been processed.

Next, you lot volition need visit a DDS office in person and supply them with the post-obit:

Electric current Georgia driver's license
Proof of name change, such as your divorce decree or court order (come across list of accustomed documents)
Payment for the fee (if applicable)

Your first name change with the DDS will exist free. If this is not your first proper noun change, contact the office prior to your visit in order to notice out the exact corporeality.

Note: A driver's license which expires within the next 1 hundred and fifty (150) days must be renewed. Thus, a unlike filing procedure is required. Learn more by reviewing the license renewal and Georgia identification cards webpages.

Voter Registration

Updating the name on your registered voter information can just be accomplished later yous have inverse your name with the Georgia Section of Driver Services (run into above).

Your voter registration information can be updated either online, past mail, or in person. To update online, navigate to this webpage and select the push button for name changes. If you lot'd like to update your name by mail or in person, submit a Voter Registration Form to the County Board of Registrars Function (in person) or to the Secretary of State (past mail). If submitting in person, make sure you select the "Change of Name" box found on the right side of the course.

Pocket-size (Kid) Proper name Change

A minor's name tin can be changed if both natural parents and the legal guardians (if applicative) consent to the request or have been formally served with copies of the case filings. Before proceeding with your application, consider whether or not the other parents or guardian may disagree with the decision to change the kid's proper noun as their option will affect your filing procedure. Furthermore, the procedure volition be slightly more complicated if the whereabouts of the other parents or guardians is unknown.

Step 1 – Make full out Petition

Commencement by downloading the Petition to Change Name(s) of Pocket-sized Child(ren). Fix the course by filling in the empty spaces with the requisite data. Withal, practice not make full in the case number line and practise not supply your signature.

Boosted Instructions:

If you are the child's natural parent, enter the other parent's name every bit the Respondent
If you are the kid's legal guardian, enter both parents' names every bit the Respondent
If the kid has no living parents, leave the Respondent area empty
If yous are living in a shelter that supports victims of family abuse, do not list the address of the shelter

The information provided in the above boosted instructions is applicable to all forms used in this tutorial.

Step 2 – Fix the Verification Form

A verification form will be used to confirm that you lot fully understand the effect of the request for a change of proper noun. Information technology will also be used to confirm the accurateness of the information mentioned in the Petition. Download the Verification of Proper name Change Petition for Minor Kid(ren) and fill in the empty spaces of the form. Exist certain to leave the case number and signature fields empty.

Step 3 – Provide Consent

You will need to indicate your consent to the modest'south change of name by filling out a Consent to Change Name(s) of Small Child(ren) and Acknowledgment of Service form. Do not sign the document and practice non enter the case number. If the kid's other parents or legal guardian consents to the request for the change of name, they must be provided with a copy of the Petition and fill up out the aforementioned Consent course unless either of the following exceptions apply:

The individual has not supported the child for at to the lowest degree five (5) years before the date that the Petition is filed
The private has abandoned the child
The individual has died

If the other parents or guardian does non consent to the asking for a change of proper noun, a unlike process is required (come across step 10).

Footstep 4 – Prepare the Find Form

In Georgia, all change of name petitioners must publish a notice of their petition in a local newspaper in order to notify the full general public. The grade that you will need to submit for publication is the Detect of Petition to Change Name(s) of Small Child(ren). Prepare the form past supplying the requisite petition information. At that place are two (2) areas on the course in which a date must exist entered. In the commencement surface area, the engagement you enter must exist the actual date that y'all file the Petition. Leave the case number and signature fields empty.

Step 5 – Sign in Front of a Notary Public

With your forms fully prepared, each document must exist taken to a notary public and signed in their presence. If the kid has other parents or some other guardian who has completed a Consent grade (meet step 3), they must too appear earlier a notary public and sign. Contact the Family Law Information Center in your canton to discover out how they tin notarize your documents for gratis. You can besides locate a notary public at nigh local banks and credit unions.

Step 6 – Set Information Form

The General Civil Case Filing Information Grade (Non-Domestic) must be included with your filings when your Petition is submitted to the superior courtroom. Download the grade and fill up it in with your petition information.

Additional Instructions:

Choose "Superior" in the upper-left area of the form
Practise not enter the "Docket Number" or "Date Filed"
Cull the "Pro Se" box
Exercise not fill up in the "Defendants" surface area
Beneath "Check Primary Type," choose "Other General Civil Specify" and enter "Name Modify"
Exit the "If Tort is Case Blazon" box empty

Step 7 – Make Copies

At this bespeak, your filings should be properly prepared and set up for submission. However, before filing, make several photocopies of each document. There should be enough copies to be able to provide the kid's other parents or guardian with a gear up of the forms. Additionally, make a set up of photocopies for yourself.

Step 8 – File with the Superior Court

Take your filing package to the superior court in your county and submit your paperwork, including a set up of photocopies. A filing fee must be paid at this time. Contact a clerk in advance to determine the amount. In improver to the superior courtroom filing fee, yous volition also exist required to pay for a dissever publication fee (usually $xl).

If you are unable to afford the superior court filing fee due to a low income, an exemption tin exist requested by submitting an Affirmation of Poverty and an Gild on Affidavit of Poverty. This exemption does non cover the cost of publication. These forms are available below and are meant for utilise in Dekalb county, though a local version of these documents can exist obtained at the superior court or at a Family Police force Information Center.

Affidavit of Poverty
Order on Affidavit of Poverty

The clerk will provide yous with your instance number after your filings take been processed. The clerk volition also postage stamp the set of photocopies and return them to you; keep these in a prophylactic identify for future reference. Lastly, inquire the clerk to tell you the proper name of the judge who will be reviewing your example as well as the name and contact information for the corresponding calendar clerk.

Stride 9 – Publication of Detect

After filing with the clerk, he or she volition arrange to take your Notice of Petition to Change Name(s) of Minor Child(ren) published in a county newspaper. The article will exist published one time a week for 4 (4) consecutive weeks. You will receive an Affirmation from the paper after the article has been published.

Step 10 – Serve Petition to Other Parent(s) or Guardian

It volition be necessary for you to contact the child's parent(s) and/or guardian to inform them that the request for a modify of name has been filed. If the individual has already signed a Consent to Change Name(s) of Minor Child(ren) and Acknowledgment of Service form (see pace 3), and signed said course in forepart of a notary public, no farther action is required. All the same, if the individual volition non sign the consent form, y'all must use i of the service methods mentioned beneath.

Personal Service

Personal service is when a deputy sheriff hand delivers copies of your filings to the private. This method of service can merely exist used if there is a known address where the individual tin be served. You should be able to request personal service at the fourth dimension that your Petition is filed. Otherwise, contact a local Sheriff's Section to adapt for personal service. In that location will be a required fee regardless of where personal service is requested.

Ensure that the sheriff includes a Sheriff's Entry of Service form when serving the private. One time service is completed, the sheriff volition provide you with the proper documentation indicating the service transaction. This documentation must be filed with the superior court in your county.

Certified Mail

Certified mail service should be used when the individual resides in a state other than Georgia. To serve using this method, send a re-create of the Notice and the Petition to the individual past certified mail (return receipt requested). You should receive a light-green menu from the post part after the letter has been delivered. You must so complete a Document of Service form and attach it to the green carte. Next, photocopy the greenish carte as well every bit the Document of Service and file them with the superior courtroom.

Service by Publication

Service by publication should only exist used if you cannot notice out where the private lives or works. Before attempting to use this method of service, you must accept wearied all possibilities of locating the private. The court volition need proof of the efforts taken to notice the person.

Download the Service past Publication Package which contains the necessary paperwork. The following documents are available in the Packet:

Affidavit of Diligent Search
- Must exist signed in front of a notary public
Order for Service by Publication, Return of Service, and Order Perfecting Service

Afterward completing the paperwork found within the Service past Publication Parcel, make copies of the documents. Next, file the original forms with a clerk of the superior court. The clerk will sign the Order for Service by Publication area found on folio 2 of the bundle.

The clerk will then mail the previously completed Notice of Petition to Change Proper name(s) of Small Child(ren) to the individual'southward terminal known address. Following that, the clerk will complete the Return of Service area found on page two of the packet. The remaining portion of page 2 will be completed by a approximate.

To exist as thorough as possible, information technology's recommended that yous personally postal service copies of the Petition and Discover forms to the individual'due south terminal known residential address. Exist sure to provide a render address as the post office may be unable to locate the private.

Because you take already bundled to take a discover published in a newspaper, there are no farther actions required in terms of publication. If at whatever point before your last hearing you detect where the individual lives, adapt for the sheriff to serve the private by personal service or take the person complete a Consent course.

Step 11 – Wait and Prepare for Final Hearing

Georgia law requires a waiting period between the time the last parent or guardian was served and the date of the final hearing. If the kid's parents or guardian lives in Georgia, the waiting fourth dimension is 30 (30) days from the engagement that the last individual was served. If whatsoever of the individuals live outside of Georgia, you must instead wait sixty (60) days. Additionally, the publication requirement must be met earlier a hearing can be held.

While you wait for the required amount of time, prepare the following documents:

Final Order Changing Name(s) of Pocket-sized Child(ren)
- Do not sign to a higher place the "Judge" signature field
General Civil Case Final Disposition Form (Not-Domestic)
- Select "Superior" box establish below "Courtroom"
- Enter "Petitioner" as your title
- Fill in your name every bit the "Plaintiff/Petitioner's Attorney"
- Select the "Pro Se" box
- Leave the defendant/respondent areas empty
- Choose the "Bench Trail" box in "Type of Disposition"
- Go out the "Honour" and "Judgment on Verdict" sections empty
- In "ADR," select "No"

Step 12 – Schedule Hearing

Accept your court papers on hand and contact the agenda clerk who was assigned to your example. You lot will exist asked to provide your case number every bit well equally other information relating to the change of name. After the clerk has been provided with the necessary data, ask the clerk to schedule your concluding hearing.

Certain courts do not allow for scheduled appointments of this variety. In these instances, you will instead need to nourish your hearing during the appropriate business hours.

Footstep 13 – Attend Hearing

Before showing upwards for your court hearing, ensure that you have copies following documents:

Petition to Alter Proper name(s) of Small Child(ren)
Consent to Alter Name(s) of Minor Child(ren) and Acknowledgement of Service
Detect of Petition to Modify Proper name(s) of Minor Child(ren)
Publisher's Affidavit (received from newspaper)

You must also bring the Last Order for Changing Name(s) of Minor Kid(ren) form and the General Civil Example Terminal Disposition Form (Non-Domestic).

When you appear earlier the judge, you may be asked to respond to questions apropos the reason for the change of name. The estimate volition review your case and make a ruling. If the change of name is canonical, the judge will sign the Final Lodge form and return the document to you. Exit the courtroom and inquire a clerk to brand you lot at least i (1) certified copy of the Final Order form (additional fee may be required). This document is what'south needed to legally prove that your name has been inverse.

Source: https://eforms.com/name-change/ga/

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