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Women traditionally change their last names when they get married. Most men or husband doesn't know how inconvenient it is to change their wife's name can be.

Imagine, you've been using your father's last name since you were born and let's say you've been using it your whole life then change it once you get married. Simply you will need to change your identity, your Id's, your marital status and sometimes your whole being too.

Should we get married?

By the way, I got married last year, a few months before I gave birth. When I got pregnant, my husband and I discussed if we will get married before or after I give birth. It's actually not a big deal to me because I know that he will be a responsible father and husband. I didn't even think of myself aside from the assurance that he will take care of our baby once I gave birth.

Of course, both of our parents wants us to get married before I gave birth because you know how traditional older generations could be. There were only 2 thoughts in my mind that time.

• I am pregnant and how are we going to prepare for the wedding

• Do we have enough money for a wedding?

I don't have a job that time but my husband has enough savings that we can use. My father in law told my husband that we should get married before I give birth so that we will have less paperworks when it comes to Lil B's name or in the birth certificate or whatever. In short, they want our baby to be a legitimate child.

Yey! We had our wedding and you can check the other details here, DIY NCR plus one happy kaarawan pro max wedding

Identification

Of course, after our wedding I will need to change my name. Oooops, do I have to?

Well, there are few ways or options on what name can a woman use after getting married. (I will not quote on the law but I know that it is in the law, I just don't have enough time to do the research hahaha! And I will just use layman's term so we can easily understand)

• Maiden name (simply using your name, change it to MRS. as and indication of your marital status)

• Traditional way of using your husband's last name

• Using your husband's full name and use the prefix, MRS.

• Hyphenated last name (your surname-husband's last name)

So technically, you don't have to do all the paperworks if you still want to keep your maiden name. It was just very traditional to change our last names as not all women know about these laws, which was actually nice for women to have options like this so we can still keep and have our own identity. Sometimes after being married, women tend to be always associated with their husband but mentally or psychologically, keeping our lastnames are somehow a relieve that we were not just labeled as a 'wife of someone'. You get the idea?

My Id's

Well before I got married, I lost my wallet contaiing my Id's. I think it was way back 2017. I have voter's id, philhealth id, and TIN id and a few secondary id's. I have't requested for an SSS or UMID because I don't have a fixed working schedule and it was hard to line up in the sss office, probably it will take a day for me to do so.

Well, I was only able to get a new philhealth and TIN id which are secondary ID's. When I planned to get a replacement voter's ID, COMELEC didn't approve any replacement ID requests that time because it was the time when the gov't debates for a National ID instead. So yeah, those are the IDs that I still have until now. When I got married, my husband asked me to get a valid Id to avoid any problems on requirement for a particular investment. I still haven't requested a new one yet because I find it hard to leave my Lil B at home.

Now I plan to get a postal ID, UMID and a driver's license with my married name too. Oh by the way, I am planning to use the hyphenated last name so I can still keep my name along with my husband's lastname. I just hope that my name will fit in an ID size paper HAHAHAH!

NATIONAL ID

WOW! For years of debate and the gov't decided to implement the national ID, which I have been waiting for. Well, getting a new voter's ID years ago would've been easier.

Anyway, getting a national ID is very easy. You can register and set an appointment online but now you can walk-in. I believe there are PhilSys booth in Ayala malls and SM malls.

We have a nearby Ayala mall here and I would always forget to drop by to register there whenever I buy groceries, plus when they put the restrictions to alert 3 more people were lining up in the booth. The first time I attempted to register failed because I only have IDs using my maiden name, so I will need a PSA copy of our marriage certificate before I can proceed. As soon as I have a copy, the more people lined up on the booth so I wasn't able to register immediately and then I would always forget to register whenever I pass by the mall.

Last week, we went to another Ayala Mall and we accidentally passed by a PhilSys booth. Good thing that there were less than 10 people on the booth. We went to the mall to buy clothes for the wedding that we will attend next month. After we bought the clothes we went back to the Philsys booth and registered.

Yes, I always bring my PSA copy marriage certificate with me HAHAHAH! It's always in my wallet but I still forget to pass by the booth in the mall near our house.

You only need one valid ID (primary or secondary) and National Id registration form that will be given on the booth. Just simply fill it out and they will assist you on the line.

As you can see in the picture, there were 3 lines that and it was around past 5 pm but they are still open and still calling for other people who wants to get the national ID.

We waited for our turn and they will encode the information written on our forms and then register your finger prints and do an iris scan.

No worries! They will ask you to check the information before submitting the request and printing the claim stub/form. It was just quick maybe less than 30 minutes if there are no people on the line.

According to them, residents from Metro Manila can receive the ID's within 3-4 months and 3-10 months for provincial residents. I just hope that our ID's will be delivered sooner than that.

Is the national ID a valid ID?

Well, I've been seeing posts especially for those people who are openning a bank account, the banks do not accept National IDs as a primary ID as it doesn't have any signature. This is the loophole when the government suddenly implemented the National ID. They haven't integrated businesses that requires ID or signature on IDs as a requirement. Banks are also particular about identity and most of the time they need a wet signature on paper on any documents to be signed and as well as in IDs. I checked PhisSys' FB page and they are now working on it. I just hope it gets sorted out soon too.

One more advantage of getting a national ID is it doesn't have an expiration date. Yey! No renewal fees.

Well, for any further questions you can simply drop by their page. :)

That's all for our little side trip date. :)

lead image from unsplash and pictures posted are mine unless stated