FYI regarding maiden name, middle name, and name change

[mchakko 0]

My wife was approved for her green card, the interview in Detroit was very friendly, didn't even ask to see our pictures or much of the info we brought. Got the stamp for the passport when we told her about upcoming travel as well. We did have to wait nearly 1.5 hours.

One minor glitch - when my wife got her social security card after the wedding, she decided to use her maiden name for her middle name and to abandon her original mdidle name which she didn't really care for. I thought it would make more sense to keep the old middle name, but my mom and other people said it was pretty standard to use hte maiden name as the middle.

Anyway, at the green card interview, the interviewer told us she could only use the name on the birth certificate as the middle name; although she could hyphenate and use both last names (or without a hyphen, just a space - " maidenname [space] married name" as the official last name.)

So we decided to just go with the original middle name and the married last name; we can change it again at citizenship or petition for a name change before then through courts. Unfortunately all her job applications, drivers license, and everything else have her maiden name for her middle name already.

Hopefully this isn't a big inconvenience, but I thought I'd post this as a heads up to anyone else who isn't sure what to do about middle name vs. maiden name when getting the SSN after the wedding.