My mother in law is a french citizen.
Her passport page shows her last name as "maiden name ép. married name".
We are going to Australia and about apply for an eVisitor visa.
What name should I put into the application form?
Thanks in advance for your help
Edited: 18 January 2023, 21:35
Contributor 
38,925 posts
6 reviews Put what is listed on her passport.
We're Dutch, but our passports show the same. Using made up names, my mother's passport shows Jansen e/v (which stands for "echtgenote van" = married to) Smit, with the latter being my dad's name. My parents and I are also traveling to Australia later this year and when I applied for everyone's eta/visa, I used her maiden name. She always books plane tickets in her maiden name as well, so only makes sense to apply for visas etc with that name too.
Edited: 19 January 2023, 03:23
Contributor
10,262 posts
93 reviews 
60 helpful votes What does the machine-readable zone have? That is the two lines at the very bottom of the photo page. The top line will have something like
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Contributor
15,422 posts
1 review
2 helpful votes What the password shows is not her "maiden name" and "married name" as these concepts do not really exist in France. As in quite a few other European countries women keep their legal names when getting married.
So if the passport says "Jeanne Dupont ép. Martin" that just means that here name is Jeanne Dupont, and that she married a man with the surname Martin, and choose to have that shown on her password. Some women do use their husbands name in their daily life, hence this is also called "nom d'usage" but the official name is the one you got at birth. So that you should use for a visa.
