Lily Lulonut

Hello Hello, I hope you’re doing good out there.

My name is Lily. Today I am going to talk about my name change journey in Colorado Springs, El Paso County Colorado.

To start off with, most of my information before starting came from the Name Change Project. They have instructions for changing your name and gender marker in Colorado. All the legal hoops you will have to jump through, and steps to follow. You can find their website here at Name Change Project. I highly recommend using them as a guide. They are great and I highly recommend donating if you can.

For my specific case, I filled as an adult, non-felon. There are different methods depending on if you are a felon, or are a minor. Make sure you select the choice that fits you. When it comes to legal things like this, best to follow the instructions.

My next step was to get the Federal Bureau (FBI) and Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) background checks. These are needed to summit the petition to the courts to change your name. Get these first, they are good for 90 days for the name change petition. If you try to do the name change paperwork with the courts first, they will ask for these.

For both of these background checks you can use Colorado Finger Printing. This was not too difficult to setup. I made an account and followed the instructions to setup the fingerprinting. Keep in mind there are costs when requesting these backgrounds, so be prepared for that. I managed to get an appointment within a week, and it only took a few min to do. No ink required! Easy lunchtime activity if you work during the day.

The FBI check will come via email. The important bit is once you open the link they send you, you have 24 hours before it disappears. So save, Save, SAVE! I got this the next day, though results may vary. The CBI took longer and came via snail mail. This took between 1 to 2 weeks for me to get. For me these where both just letters stating nothing criminal was found, single page each.

Once you have both of these then you can move onto the big thing, paperwork!!! For this part, follow the Name Change Project Instructions. They have a form generator to help with filling in the paperwork. I used it and it worked great. I just had to save and print it out. Don’t sign it yet. You will need to sign it at the court house in front of the clerk. You will be signing it with your current legal name.

Once I had all the required paperwork, I took the day off work. I traveled down to the El Paso County Judicial Building located at 270 S Tejon St Colorado Springs, CO 80903. It can be hectic to find parking, I ended up parking on the street a block away. Remember to bring change or have the parking app/website ready. I paid for two hours, but only needed like 30 min. When you enter the building you will need to go through security and a metal detector. Lowkey TSA.

Once past security I headed left, toward the Clerk’s Office, Room S101. It was down the hall and to the right. Signs a plenty. You wont need an appointment or a court date, you can just walk in. They do have a few windows and you have to wait in a line before being called up. It took me less than 15 min before talking to a clerk. I handed him my paperwork and he did his thing. Keep in mind there is a fee for this as well.

When he was finished he gave me a receipt with my case number on it. This way I can call to get updates if needed. They let me know it would take about 1 to 3 weeks to get. I would get the name change paperwork in the mail. That’s where I am sitting now, waiting for my paperwork to come. Then I get to work on the 50 other things ill need to change. Once finished at the court house I went and saw Wicked in the theater. I also got me some cute pajama pants at Hot Topic. All in all, a very successful day.

I hope this helps those in El Paso County with their name change. I went into this blind on the court side. The Name Change Project was great, but lacking specific info for my county. I hope this can help others in my area, lesson the anxiety a bit. Next step is to tell work, oh boy. Wish me luck!

Stay safe!