Chile Forum

Can someone suggest a deed poll for a simple alternation of name? Thanks.

There is no such thing in Chile.

Chile is not a common law country and you cannot change your name by a simple deed poll. There is a quite complicated way to change your name officially, and you can do it only once in your life. I also think that this option is open only to Chilean citizens.

La ley establece 4 órdenes de causales para el cambio de nombres o apellidos:

a)Cuando los nombres o apellidos sean ridículos, risibles o menoscaben moral o materialmente al solicitante;
b) Cuando los nombres o apellidos, o ambos, no sean de origen español, (la ley autoriza traducirlos o cambiarlos).
c) En los casos de filiación no matrimonial o en que no se encuentre determinada la filiación, para agregar un apellido cuando la persona hubiera sido inscrita con uno solo o para cambiar uno de los que se hubieren impuesto al nacido, cuando fueren iguales.
d) Cuando el solicitante haya sido conocido durante más de cinco años, por motivos plausibles, con nombres o apellidos, o ambos, diferentes de los propios.

Es importante que la decisión sea bien meditada, dado que la actual legislación autoriza el cambio una sola vez en la vida, de modo que si se arrepiente en el futuro no podrá volver atrás.
Este juicio se tramita en los juzgados civiles y la demora es de entre 5 meses y 10 meses.

I don't know where you're from, but if this change is important to you, then change your name by deed poll according to the law of your country of nationality and get a new passport from the embassy. But please note, if you do so you may be required to change all your Chilean documents and face plenty of red tape.

Yea, it can be done, and we have done it, but there is no "simple" alteration of a name in Chile. They are typically long, drawn out, expensive, and involves a court.

How difficult it will be, depends a great deal on your current immigration status. The longer you have operated under a name, such as you own a house, have full permanent residency, and so on, the harder it is to change a name in Chile.

So I have to go back to my country of origin and change it fast...

Perhaps if you explain a little bit about your situation, we might be able to help. Simply saying you want to change your name does not exactly tell us a lot.

For example, do you have a residency visa already in Chile or have you applied?

Do you own anything in Chile?

Any other official paperwork you have ever done in Chile.

Thanks. I have a visa subject to contract and need to apply a resident visa soon. Before that, I want to add a name to my name on the identity card.

The paperwork related to the visa subject to contract is probably the only paperwork I have registered with the gov. in Chile. And I own nothing like properties or vehicles.

Then you got a bigger mess than simply changing your passport name back home, as you are already in the immigration, PDI, IRS, civil registry, and so on under that name.

Is there any good reason you MUST add that name?

I have an Asian name and and an English name. Here I am known by just the English name, which is not on my ID.

It was not a problem in Asia, but here people sometimes made mistakes putting my English name only when booking air tickets and etc. Those things cause minor troubles from time to time.

Depending on how bad it is, trying to correct it might make it a whole lot worse and on a very official paperwork level that could get very expensive to fix. If you are going to go for it, I would say your best bet is to do it at the permanent residency application point, but it needs to be handled carefully as anything like that will seriously complicate your application and create an excuse for immigration to just reject it all together (very common when they are behind in processing applications).

Just think. You might even loose your jumbo shopper points.