Name Change before applying for CA passport?

Can I apply for a name change when I'm out of country? Then file for a passport?

You don't "apply" for a name change unless you're legally changing your name just out of the blue. If however you've recently been married and are assuming your spouse's name, all you need to do is go to the appropriate offices and show them your marriage certificate and fill out the name change form.

A legal name change requires a court appearance IIRC.

Most of the offices where you would need to change your name (SIN, provincial healthcare, driver's license etc etc) have forms on their websites to download, then you can mail them in if you're not in Canada right now.

Do you currently have a passport? Or have you never had one and you're in the US and find you can't leave now without one due to the June 1st law that will require passports for everyone?

You can apply from the US for your passport, without having ot wait on everything else. http://www.ppt.gc.ca/cdn/form.aspx?lang=eng&region=USA You'll need to send them your birthcertificate, as well as your marriage certificate. They'll send them back. You can probably get extra copies of your marriage certificate from the county offices in the county where you were married.

Go to a Sears Portrait Studio to have your photos done. Most other US passport photo places can't/won't do Canadian passport photos. Sears did mine last month, and they knew exactly what they were doing, and the photos were accepted first try.

I wanted to take my mother's maiden name. I thought it would be easier to change my name first then get my CA passport. I do not have a passport, I have never had one. Do I need to fill out form # PPTC 140 (old form) or can I use form # PPTC 153?

If you are taking your mother's maiden name, then you will need to petition for a legal name change, and that costs money. It is not necessarily an easy or quick process. You would also have to change your name on your birth certificate, and send them your current b/c to be destroyed, pretty much completely wiping out your own birth name.

The exact process depends on what province you apply in I think, you cannot do it from the US. Just google the province + legal name change. Probably easiest to do it in the province you were born in.

There is a fee of usually over $100 + $25 for the police background check, + maybe fingerprints fees. + once it is granted, more fees for new ID documents like birth certificate, etc etc etc...

After all of that is complete, *then* you can apply for your passport. You cannot apply for a passport without any ID or documentation to prove that you are a Canadian citizen. And if you chage your name, it may be difficult for you to get guarantors.