El Salvador: Knowledge Base profile
Published 1 May 2024
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About: El Salvador
This document contains useful information about El Salvador which will assist HM Passport Office staff process passport applications.
Contacts
If you have any questions about the document and your line manager or senior caseworker cannot help you or you think that the document has factual errors then email the Guidance team.
If you notice any formatting errors in this document (broken links, spelling mistakes and so on) or have any comments about the layout or navigability of the document then you can email the Guidance team.
Publication
Below is information on when this version of the document was published:
- version 2.0
- published for Home Office staff on 18 April 2024
Changes from last version of this document
This document has been updated with minor formatting changes.
El Salvador: names
This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about names in El Salvador.
Names in El Salvador consist of:
- 1 or more forenames
- surname of father’s first surname followed by mother’s first surname:
- where a father is not registered on the birth certificate the child will have both of the mother’s surnames
El Salvador follows the Hispanic naming convention which carries on the paternal and maternal family ties. These names stay on a birth certificate for life.
Change of name
When a woman from El Salvador gets married, she can choose to remove her mother’s surname and adopt her husband’s surname inserting a “de” in front of it. For example, Maria Veronica RODRIGUEZ OCHOA married Juan Fernando DIAZ PEREZ would then become Maria Veronica RODRIGUEZ de DIAZ. The change of name will be reflected in passports, identity cards and documents, except birth certificates which stay unchanged. Their children would still then be DIAZ RODRIGUEZ and not DIAZ RODRIGUEZ de DIAZ.
El Salvador: legitimacy
This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about legitimacy in El Salvador.
Legitimacy
El Salvador does not recognise a difference between legitimate and illegitimate births. This means that all births are considered legitimate whether a child’s parents are married or not.
El Salvador: documents
This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about documents from El Salvador.
Birth certificates
Birth certificates are issued to everybody by the Registro del Estado Familiar (Family Registry) of the municipality where the child was born.