Acquiring Egyptian I.D with name change to husbands on Citizenship Card

Foreigners who marry Egyptian spouses who are applying for Egyptian Citizenship may face the problem of having the new Egyptian ID, Citizenship Card and Passport being issued in their maiden names. This is because the Mogamma ONLY rely on your marriage certificate as proof of right to citizenship and not your passport which may be in your new married name. The marriage Certificate will obviously be in your maiden name.

This will obviously result in you having two identities.

It can be overcome in three ways.

1. If you were married abroad, you simply re marry in Egypt. That way your new passport with your Egyptian husbands name as yours own now, will be used as proof of ID and the name on your Egyptian marriage certificate will be in your married and not maiden name.

2. If you plan to marry in Egypt and live in Egypt your only solution is when you convert to Islam .
 When you convert to Islam you are asked whether you'd like to change your name to an Islamic one. You can then choose any Islamic sequence of names you like and still keep your birth first name.
So pre marriage your name may be i.e. Mary Anne Brown.

You can now change that to Mary (then your husbands names) Mahmoud Lotfi Aziz etc. Then get married in Egypt in your new name and show your Conversion to Islam Certificate which MUST be legalized by the MOJ,to the marriage registrar also in the MOJ building.

3. If you are already married and have your Egyptian husbands name on all your documents, your Egyptian Citizenship will STILL be issued in your maiden name no matter what. The only way around this is to go to Al Azhar and convert, get the conversion certificate legalized by the MOJ in Downtown, then take this to Abbasseya Civil Registration Dept when you apply for your I.D and Passport. Because it has been legalized by the MOJ they will accept this and change the name from the Citizenship one used on your Citizenship Card to the new one onto your I.D and passport.

see : Converting to Islam in Egypt

Deed polls done in other countries are not acceptable proof to change names here in Egypt.

If you are a convert to Islam and have the Al Azhar Certificate with the new name on it and have that legalized at the Ministry of Justice, you can have your married name instead of maiden name on your new Egyptian I.D.

Once you have the Egyptian birth certificate, you need then to go to any police station and ask for your criminal record. When you first apply for I.D at Abbaseya your details are entered onto the central computer and after 10 days you can pick up your birth certificate. After those 10 days you will also be able to go to any police station and they will issue you with your criminal record sheet.


If you are changing name you MUST return to the Segil al Madani in Abbaseya and not your local one. The local one is only for applying for ID if you are NOT changing surname.
You must also get the Government Form 80 from the desk on the same floor of the Segil el Madani and complete it.
You then take the birth certificate, police criminal record, and Form 80 to the change of name desk at Abbaseya Segil al Medani with one photocopy of your Al Azhar Certificate. In 21 days you go back to the same desk and collect your notification of change of name which will have been issued by the court.