Need Some Advice On A Name Change For A Minor After Moving To A New Country

I have a 14 year old son. We moved from Iowa, USA to Ontario, Canada 5 months ago. I have sole legal custody of my son via a court order from when we still lived in Iowa. We are permanent residents in Canada.

My son’s last name is currently hyphenated with my last name and his dad’s last name. His passport expires in November of this year, and he wants to change his name to remove his dad’s last name, so now is the optimal time to do it.

My question is, would it be better to do the name change in Canada or Iowa? If I do it in Canada, I assume I’d need to get a new birth certificate in Iowa. Will they recognize a name change from Canada?

We will be in Iowa this summer for a month. Would it be better/easier to do the name change while we are in Iowa? I’m not sure how long the order would take. I need to make sure I can apply for my son’s passport in time since we travel between the two countries.

I assume I’m good to do the name change without his dad since I have full legal custody, and he’s older.

Thanks for any advice. It’s hard to find info for this particular situation online. Not sure if this is even the best subreddit to ask in, so if you know of a better one, I’ll take that advice too.