The complete guide to changing your name in Lucknow, from Gomti Nagar and Hazratganj to Alambagh and Chinhat. Three legal steps, the real UP State Gazette vs Central Gazette choice, and a straight answer on the Lucknow gazette office, with verified fees, documents and doorstep service.
A quick walkthrough of the affidavit, the newspaper ad and the gazette notification for Lucknow residents.
In this video, the YourDoorstep team explains how to change your name legally in Lucknow: the documents you need, the real fees, and how we handle the whole process at your doorstep.
Changing your name in Lucknow comes down to three legal steps: a notarised affidavit, a newspaper publication, and a gazette notification. Do all three correctly and your new name is recognised across every government and private record in India. Miss one, or let a spelling drift between them, and you are back to the start, paying the government fee again. Lucknow has a small advantage many other cities do not: as the state capital, it is home to the UP Directorate of Printing and Stationery and a Government Press, so the state gazette machinery is right here in the city. This guide walks through the exact procedure, and gives a straight answer on whether you should use the UP State Gazette or the Central Gazette.
To change your name legally in Lucknow, complete three steps. Sign a notarised affidavit stating your old name, new name and reason, publish the change in one Hindi and one English newspaper, then apply for a gazette notification. Lucknow residents can use the UP State Gazette (through dpsup.up.gov.in) or the Central Gazette. The Central fee is Rs 1,100 for adults and Rs 1,700 for minors, and the total time is about 4 to 7 weeks.
Definition: A gazette notification is an official notice published in the Gazette (the UP Rajpatra, or Part IV of the Gazette of India) that turns your name change into a public, legally recognised record, accepted by the passport office, banks, UIDAI and government departments.
Every legal name change in India, Lucknow included, runs through the same three stages. There is no shortcut, and doing one or two of them does not make the change legal.
State your old name, new name, father's or husband's name, address and reason, on stamp paper, signed before a notary or oath commissioner.
Publish the notice in two papers, one Hindi and one English. Keep the full original printed pages, not photos.
Apply through the UP State Gazette or file the Central Gazette with the affidavit, cuttings, ID, photos, declaration, CD and fee. Once published, this is your legal proof.
You swear an affidavit on non-judicial stamp paper stating your old name, new name, father's or husband's name, address and the reason for the change. It is signed before a Notary Public or Oath Commissioner. In Lucknow you can buy e-stamp paper through SHCIL vendors and notarise it at the District Court complex in Kaiserbagh, or through any registered notary in the city.
You publish a short name-change notice in two newspapers, one Hindi and one English. In Lucknow, widely circulated Hindi options include Dainik Jagran, Amar Ujala and Hindustan, and English options include The Times of India and Hindustan Times. The ad carries your old name, new name, father's or husband's name and address. Keep the original printed pages, not phone photos, because they go into your gazette file.
You submit the affidavit, both newspaper pages, ID and address proof, a passport-size photo, a signed declaration and a soft-copy CD, along with the government fee. For the UP State route, you apply through the Directorate of Printing and Stationery portal at dpsup.up.gov.in and it appears in the UP Rajpatra. For the Central route, the file goes to the Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054, and is printed in Part IV of the Gazette of India, which you download from egazette.gov.in.
Lucknow is the state capital, so unlike many UP cities, the state gazette route here is close and convenient. You have two genuinely valid options.
| Point | UP State Gazette | Central Gazette of India |
|---|---|---|
| Run by | Directorate of Printing & Stationery, UP (in Lucknow) | Department of Publication, Delhi |
| How to apply | State portal dpsup.up.gov.in | File to Delhi by post, courier or a service |
| Published in | UP Rajpatra | Part IV, Gazette of India |
| Download | dpsup.up.gov.in | egazette.gov.in |
| Best for | Records staying inside UP | Passport, visa, PAN, central jobs, embassies |
Choose the Central Gazette if you need it for a passport, visa or foreign embassy; if you are updating PAN or Aadhaar and want the most widely trusted proof; if your employer runs strict background verification; or if your records may travel beyond Uttar Pradesh. The Passport Seva Kendra, UIDAI, banks and embassies all recognise the Central Gazette without hesitation.
Choose the UP State Gazette if your records, job and life are staying within Uttar Pradesh. Because the Directorate is right here in Lucknow, the state route is more convenient for capital residents than for people in far-off UP districts, and it is often a little cheaper.
Filing from elsewhere in UP, or moving for work? The gazette routes are identical across the state. See the full Uttar Pradesh name change guide for the parent state, plus our Ghaziabad and Noida guides for the NCR side, and the Delhi guide for where the central files land.
Yes, and this is where Lucknow differs from most cities. Here is the honest picture.
As the capital of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow is home to the Directorate of Printing and Stationery, UP, along with a Government Press in the city. This is the state body that manages the UP Gazette (the Rajpatra). So for the state route, the gazette office genuinely is in Lucknow, which is not the case in cities like Noida or Ghaziabad.
In practice, though, you do not need to queue at a counter. UP State Gazette applications are handled through the online portal at dpsup.up.gov.in, where you submit your documents and track the file. The Central Gazette is a separate matter: for that route, your file goes to the Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054, and is published in Part IV. So Lucknow has the state gazette office in-city, while the Central Gazette is always published from Delhi.
The pages ranking for this topic copy each other, and the same errors travel from site to site. Here is what they say, against the verified position, so your file is not built on a myth.
| What many websites say | The verified fact |
|---|---|
| "Use official websites such as lucknow.gazette.gov.in" | That portal does not exist. The real UP Gazette portal is dpsup.up.gov.in, run by the Directorate of Printing and Stationery, and the Central Gazette lives on egazette.gov.in. Typing an invented address is how people land on fake sites. |
| "The total fee is approximately Rs 1,470" or "fees range between Rs 200 and Rs 500" | Neither figure exists in the Department of Publication's structure. The Central Gazette fee is Rs 1,100 for an adult and Rs 1,700 for a minor on BharatKosh, with Rs 250 per extra alias and Rs 3,500 for applicants living abroad. The UP State Gazette has its own separate fee. |
| "The Lucknow gazette office is at Superintendent, Printing & Stationery, Prayagraj (Allahabad)-211001" | That is the Prayagraj unit's address pasted onto Lucknow. In Lucknow the Government Press sits on Minto Road, near Hazratganj, Lucknow-226001, under the Directorate of Printing and Stationery, UP. |
| "Visit the Government Press in Mumbai for your Lucknow gazette notification" | A copy-paste template leak. Maharashtra's press has nothing to do with a Lucknow name change. Your routes are the UP Gazette through dpsup.up.gov.in or the Central Gazette through the Department of Publication in Delhi. |
| "Send your application along with a DD of the fee" | Demand drafts are not accepted at all. The Central Gazette fee is paid online through BharatKosh (NTRP) only, and the fee is non-refundable. |
| "Your printed gazette copy will arrive at your address by post" | Printed Central Gazette copies stopped from 1 October 2015. You download the PDF yourself from egazette.gov.in (Part IV, published every Saturday), and it needs no certification or stamp. |
| "Any old affidavit and newspaper ad will work" | The Department of Publication does not accept documents older than one year, and documents once submitted are not returned. |
| "Fix your birth certificate spelling through the gazette" | A birth certificate correction is a Registrar matter under Section 15 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, through Lucknow Nagar Nigam or your local Registrar, not the gazette. |
Have these ready before you start. A missing or mismatched document is the number-one cause of delay.
| Document | Needed? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Notarised name-change affidavit | Yes | Old name, new name, reason, father's/husband's name, address |
| Original newspaper cuttings | Yes | One Hindi, one English, full printed pages |
| Identity proof | Yes | Aadhaar, PAN, passport or voter ID |
| Address proof | Yes | Aadhaar, voter ID, utility bill or rent agreement |
| Two passport-size photos | Yes | Recent |
| Name-change proforma / application form | Yes | Prescribed format |
| Signed matching declaration | Yes | Hard copy and soft copy match |
| CD or pen drive (soft copy) | Yes | Notification text in MS Word |
| Government fee receipt | Yes | BharatKosh (Central) or state payment (UP route) |
| Marriage certificate | For marriage | Surname change after marriage |
| Divorce decree | For divorce | Restoring your maiden name |
| Parents' ID + child's birth certificate | For minors | Guardian applies and signs |
| Deed + departmental route | For government employees | Under the MHA Office Memorandum |
Mostly, not entirely. You can draft the affidavit, book the newspaper ads, pay the fee, and download the final gazette PDF online. The UP State Gazette is applied through the dpsup.up.gov.in portal, so the state route is quite online-friendly. What is not purely online: notarisation needs a notary's signature, and for the Central route the physical file reaches Delhi by post or courier.
So "100 percent online" overstates it. Call it mostly online, with one notary step, and that is exactly the part we handle for you.
Costs vary with your newspaper choice and whether you do it yourself or hire help. Here are realistic ranges.
| Item | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| E-stamp paper for affidavit | Rs 10 to Rs 100 |
| Notary / affidavit drafting | Rs 100 to Rs 500 |
| Newspaper ads (both papers) | Rs 400 to Rs 3,000 (depends on the papers) |
| Central Gazette fee (adult) | Rs 1,100 (BharatKosh) |
| Central Gazette fee (minor) | Rs 1,700 (BharatKosh) |
| Extra alias name in the notice | Rs 250 per alias, added to the gazette fee |
| Central Gazette fee (living abroad) | Rs 3,500 as per the Department of Publication guidelines (BharatKosh) |
| UP State Gazette fee | Nominal state fee (varies, via dpsup.up.gov.in) |
| Courier of file to Delhi (Central route) | Rs 100 to Rs 300 |
| Self-done total | Roughly Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000 plus |
Plan for about 4 to 7 weeks end to end: the affidavit and notarisation take a day, the newspaper publication a few days to a week depending on the paper's schedule, and the gazette processing roughly 30 to 45 days for the Central route after a clean submission. The UP State route can be quicker for state-level use, since the Directorate is in Lucknow.
Updating your individual documents afterward, such as Aadhaar, PAN and passport, is a separate timeline on top of this. There is no official fast-track, so anyone promising a "3-day gazette" is not being straight with you.
Getting the gazette is the milestone, not the finish line. You still carry it into each record, and order matters.
| Order | Document | How to update |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aadhaar | Update at an Aadhaar Seva Kendra with the gazette; it is the base ID others reference |
| 2 | PAN | Apply for name correction with your updated Aadhaar and the gazette copy |
| 3 | Passport | Re-issue at the Lucknow Passport Seva Kendra with the Central Gazette |
| 4 | Bank & KYC | Update once your core IDs reflect the new name |
| 5 | Voter ID, licence, ration card | Submit the respective correction forms |
| 6 | Employer, PF, insurance, property, education | Update as needed with the gazette |
For each update you usually submit copies of the affidavit, the newspaper ad and the gazette notification together. Keep several printouts, because every office wants its own copy.
Here is something most Lucknow name-change pages get flat wrong: they tell you to run a gazette notification to fix a spelling mistake in a birth certificate. That is the wrong route.
A clerical or spelling error in a birth certificate, a wrong letter or a registrar's typo, is corrected by the Registrar of Births and Deaths under Section 15 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, through the local municipal body, which in the city is the Lucknow Nagar Nigam. It is not a gazette job. The gazette route is for an actual change of name, adopting a genuinely different name.
A woman changing her surname follows the same three steps and adds her marriage certificate to the file. Taking a spouse's surname is a choice, not a legal compulsion, but the gazette is what makes it stick across Aadhaar, PAN, passport and bank.
Reverting to a maiden or previous name again uses the affidavit, newspaper and gazette route, with the decree as supporting proof. The process does not change; only the reason and supporting document differ.
A parent or legal guardian applies and signs on the child's behalf. The minor fee is typically Rs 1,700. For CBSE, UP Board and most boards, expect them to ask for the gazette (and sometimes a court order) for school records.
Being the state capital, Lucknow has many government staff, and the rules differ for them. Central government employees do not file the standard self-application gazette. They follow the Ministry of Home Affairs Office Memorandum No. 190016/1/87-Estt.(A) dated 12/03/1987, which involves executing a deed, giving the required declarations, and publishing the change through the proper departmental channel.
A gazette on its own is only useful once your other records match it. We help you update your new name across all the documents that matter.
Name change or spelling correction with the gazette as proof.
Name update through the NSDL or UTIITSL route.
Name correction on the electoral roll via Form 8.
Re-issue with your new name using the Central Gazette.
Name update at the RTO with the gazette copy.
Update your name across bank accounts and KYC records.
Records for CBSE, UP Board and universities.
Correction through the Nagar Nigam Registrar under the RBD Act, not the gazette.
Name change on policies and insurance records.
Tell us which documents you need updated. Call 9540005026 and we guide you through each one after the gazette.
We handle name change work for people all across Lucknow and the wider district, with doorstep pickup and delivery.
From Gomti Nagar, Hazratganj and Aliganj to Indira Nagar, Aminabad and outer areas like Mohanlalganj and Bakshi Ka Talab, the legal steps are identical, because a name change runs on paperwork, not on which part of Lucknow you live in. The same file works across Uttar Pradesh and everywhere in India, and birth certificate corrections stay with Lucknow Nagar Nigam or your local Registrar.
Do not see your area? We still cover it. Call 9540005026 and we will confirm.
Most rejections come down to avoidable mismatches. Because the gazette fee is non-refundable, a rejection means paying again.
| Reason | What to do instead |
|---|---|
| Name mismatch across affidavit, ads and ID | Fix one exact spelling and use it everywhere, even initials |
| Wrong newspaper mix (two English or two Hindi) | Use one Hindi and one English paper |
| Photo or scan of the newspaper | Submit the original printed page |
| Incomplete proforma or missing declaration | Complete every field and sign the declaration |
| Soft copy (CD) that does not match the hard copy | Make the CD text identical to the proforma |
| Wrong fee amount or missing receipt | Pay the correct category and attach the receipt |
| Blurry or expired ID / address proof | Use clear, current documents |
| Documents more than one year old | The Department of Publication does not accept documents older than one year, so file while papers are fresh; documents once submitted are not returned |
Doing it yourself is entirely possible and saves the service fee, if you have time to draft the affidavit correctly, book two newspaper ads, prepare the CD in the right format, pay the fee, and either run the dpsup.up.gov.in application or courier a matched file to Delhi. The trade-off is the rejection risk: one small mismatch and you restart, minus the non-refundable fee.
A Lucknow name-change agent handles the affidavit, the newspaper booking, the file preparation, the fee and the submission, and tracks the publication for you. It is the sensible choice if your time is tight, if there is a deadline such as a passport appointment or an overseas move, or if your case has a wrinkle: a minor, a divorce, a government service record, or a document already carrying a spelling error.
The UP State Gazette through dpsup.up.gov.in or the Central Gazette in Delhi, we advise which fits your case and run it for you.
We book both newspaper ads for you in the correct format, in the dailies that circulate in Lucknow.
Document pickup and delivery across Lucknow, from Gomti Nagar to Alambagh, with everything else on call and WhatsApp.
We review the full file before filing, so there are fewer rejections, and we handle Aadhaar, PAN and passport after.
How much does the Central Gazette cost for Lucknow residents? Rs 1,100 for adults and Rs 1,700 for minors, paid on BharatKosh (NTRP). Each extra alias name adds Rs 250, applicants living abroad pay Rs 3,500, and the fee is non-refundable.
How fresh do my documents need to be? The Department of Publication does not accept documents older than one year, so complete the affidavit, newspaper ads and gazette filing without a long gap. Documents once submitted are not returned.
Is there a gazette office in Lucknow? Yes. As the state capital, Lucknow hosts the Directorate of Printing and Stationery, UP and a Government Press, so the UP State Gazette machinery is in the city, applied through dpsup.up.gov.in. The Central Gazette is published from Delhi.
Should I use the UP State Gazette or the Central Gazette? Both are valid. The UP route is convenient for state-level records in the capital; the Central Gazette is best for passport, visa, PAN and pan-India needs.
Which newspapers should I use in Lucknow? One Hindi daily such as Dainik Jagran, Amar Ujala or Hindustan, and one English daily such as The Times of India or Hindustan Times.
Is a birth certificate name change done through the gazette? No. It is a Registrar correction under Section 15 of the RBD Act, 1969, through the Lucknow Nagar Nigam.
We advise the right route, prepare the affidavit, book the Hindi and English newspaper ads, pay the fee, and file the gazette for you, then guide you on updating Aadhaar, PAN and passport. Doorstep service across Lucknow, honest pricing.
These are the searches people run right after this one. Here is the short, verified answer to each, so you do not have to open ten more tabs.
Central Gazette government fee: Rs 1,100 adult, Rs 1,700 minor on BharatKosh, plus Rs 250 per extra alias and Rs 3,500 if you live abroad. The UP State Gazette has its own separate fee. Stamp paper, notary and two newspaper ads come on top.
The UP route runs through the Directorate of Printing and Stationery: Government Press, Minto Road, near Hazratganj, Lucknow-226001, portal dpsup.up.gov.in. Central Gazette files go to the Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054, public dealing 10 AM to 1 PM and 2 PM to 4 PM.
The UP Gazette runs through dpsup.up.gov.in, and the Central route is partly online too: BharatKosh payment and the final download from egazette.gov.in. The complete central file still reaches Delhi by post or in person.
Same three steps, with your marriage certificate added to the file. The affidavit states your maiden name and married name. No court appearance is needed.
Central Gazette: search your name on egazette.gov.in under Weekly Gazette, Part IV, published every Saturday. UP Gazette issues are on dpsup.up.gov.in. Neither PDF needs certification or a stamp.
UPMSP and universities update records against the gazette notification, so complete the gazette first. Board-specific forms and timelines then apply on top of it.
Legally you can file yourself, since the process is paperwork, not court. An agent mainly saves you from format rejections, and because the fee is non-refundable, one bounced file costs more than most assistance. Call 9540005026.
Explore our other verified guides: our national hub Name Change Service in India, How to Change Name Legally in India, and the full Uttar Pradesh name change guide for the parent state. Same verified facts, local routes.
People also search for: Name change agent in Lucknow, gazette office Lucknow, UP State Gazette name change, name change in birth certificate Lucknow, surname change after marriage, passport name change Lucknow, dpsup.up.gov.in gazette.
The fees, portals and process on this page are checked against official Government sources, not copied from other blogs.
Government fees and timelines can change from time to time. Always confirm current details on the official portals above before you apply.
Changing your name in Lucknow is a defined three-step legal process: affidavit, newspaper publication and gazette notification. As the state capital, Lucknow is home to the UP Directorate of Printing and Stationery, so the state gazette route here is genuinely local and applied through dpsup.up.gov.in. For the widest acceptance across passport, Aadhaar, PAN and banks, the Central Gazette remains the safer route; for state-level records, the UP route is a convenient option. Match your name exactly across every document, keep your original newspaper copies, ignore any made-up "Lucknow gazette portal," and update your records in the right order afterward. Expect about 4 to 7 weeks and a realistic budget of Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000 plus. If there is a deadline, a minor, a divorce, a service record or an existing spelling error in the mix, we can handle it end to end at your doorstep.
Three clean steps and two routes: we advise which fits you, then prepare and file the gazette across Lucknow, and update your Aadhaar, PAN and passport.
