My Home Province In Canada Refused To Revert My Legal Name Change Unless I Wait Potentially 2–3 Years To Change The Name On My Citizenship Card Twice. Has Anyone Else Encountered This And Is There Really No Alternatives For Me?

Location: BC, Canada

Gonna use an alt account for privacy reasons, I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask but I am desperate. I know most people who chose to change their name probably have made up their mind unlike me so such situations must be quite uncommon.

In 2023, I legally changed my name through the provincial name change form (full legal name change, I am too embarrassed to talk about my spontaneous decision). So long story short, by 2024 I regretted it and want to revert back to my original name at birth.

Problem is, I’m in BC and I’m stuck in what feels like a completely unnecessary bureaucratic loop.

The issue is:

• My Canadian citizenship certificate still shows my original legal name (I never changed it federally).
  
• My current BC legal name is the new name.
  
• I applied to change my name back to my original name.
  

After waiting 8 months, BC Vital Statistics told me they won’t process the change unless I first update my citizenship certificate to match my current English legal name. But, my citizenship certificate already shows my old name, the exact name I’m trying to revert to.

IRCC processing times to amend or replace a citizenship certificate are a year or more, and it says so on their website last I checked. And when I called IRCC, they basically said it doesn’t make much sense to change my name just to change it back again. I assume in other countries, my old citizenship ID with my “dead name” would still count as an official piece of ID and should allow me to undo the name change.

But in my province, I’m being told that by provincial law, I must first first change my citizenship certificate to my current name (1+ year wait), then apply to change my name back to original to reverse the name change. And then presumably I’d have to wait again to change the citizenship certificate back again so I can use that to change my other pieces of identification.

That could easily turn into a 2–3 year process just to revert to my original name.

I’m going insane over this and I would like to know if there’s anything I could do, short of actually going through with waiting up to 3 years to change my name back. Has anybody dealt with a similar situation in BC? Canada? I could not find any relatable cases online and I fear I have to choose between keeping a name I regret (the consequences of my own actions) or waiting 2 to 3 years being forced to stay in Canada just to change my name back. This is honestly ridiculous and I have yet to find any similar cases online, so I’m exploring any alternatives options right now and I hope I can get some advice on what to do, and I really would like to avoid waiting up to 3 years if it is possible.