In many places, a title column is asked where I fill Mr. After getting my PhD can I "officially" change it to Dr.? Is this country dependent? I want to know about India, DrUK and US.
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7You can still sign a document with Mr/Ms/Mrs/etc. even if you passport says "Dr.". - As a general rule, I would recommend using the title only where it is (academically) appropriate (e.g. application for a research position, conference) but not where it would be simply boasting (e.g. hotel/airline reservations).– DetlevCMJul 21, 2017 at 7:21
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1@DetlevCM: Well, there's always the places where people might belittle you, and having a Ph.D. might prevent that. I have a friend in Germany and she told me that it was very hard for her to find an apartment, until she got her Ph.D. and once people see "Dr." as the official title, it is far far easier to find an apartment. (And this difficulty is partially corroborated by a different friend who wanted to live in Germany for a while, and went there with literally huge wads of cash, but still got denied by some landlords because he didn't have a stable job.)– Ink blotNov 22, 2017 at 14:21
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I heard, in Germany, that if you have a PhD then you expected to update your passport. I'm not 100% sure thu.– The GuyNov 22, 2017 at 14:26
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2@TheGuy: You can, but you don't have to.– O. R. MapperNov 22, 2017 at 16:57
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2@TheGuy You have to get a new passport every few years anyway, so you are a lot cheaper off by waiting until you have to get a new one because the old one expired.– MarkNov 22, 2017 at 18:23
3 Answers
PhD is an academic degree. It is actually dependent on person and country whether to use the title "Dr." in passports and other relevant documents.
However, using Mr. would be wise to avoid a confusion between a doctor (MBBS, MD) and a doctorate (PhD). As per UK gov website, it is not advisable [1]
I have never come across anyone using Dr. in legal documents. Moreover, it is not really a necessity to include Dr. in official/legal documents. For example, I still see my supervisor (who is a senior professor with PhD in 1990s) gets official documents with his name titled "Mr.".
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Even MBBS is an academic degree only no? They can put Dr on their passports, right? Jul 20, 2017 at 9:49
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18"I have never come across anyone using Dr. in legal documents." - it's not unusual here in Germany, and it sometimes gives you a bit of an advantage when dealing with banks and similar (in that they (irrationally, I'd say) assume they can give you a higher credit allowance etc.). Jul 20, 2017 at 9:56
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6The link you provided says that professional titles such as Doctor are acceptable without limiting it to medical doctors. It merely says that academic and professional qualifications are not allowed. So you can't have "PhD" or "MD" in your UK passport, but you can have Doctor/Dr. included as an observation.– JABJul 20, 2017 at 20:22
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1I'm down voting because the line you wrote about the UK gov guideline is not true. If you edit accordingly, please tag me and I may upvote. Jun 11, 2018 at 12:40
As far as the USA, their passports do not have a title field for marital status (Miss, Mrs) professional titles (Dr, Rev, etc) or for titles or nobility (Dame, Sir, etc) so it’s a moot point for American passport holders.
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3For what it's worth, titles are not entered on Irish passports either. Nov 22, 2017 at 20:45
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I think it depends on you whether you use Dr. or not. Getting a PhD is a very important and difficult accomplishment and you should feel proud of it. If you want to use Dr in any circumstance including in your passport (if allowed) go for it. If you don't feel like it then don't. I don't get why people would be worried about being confused with a MD A MD is a Dr just like anybody else, it has no higher or lesser importance. If someone gets confused then they can ask you what you are a Doctor of. My suggestion is use it whenever you feel like it, you worked really hard for it.