Getting Married

[Em4oAndKrisi 0]

Hello everybody! I have a silly question. I am debating now with my fiancee whether we should change her name or keep her maiden name when we get married. My only concern is the government workers that see fraud in any marriage. We want to keep her maiden name because it will save us tons of time and effort. But I want the hole process to go smoothly so I am kind of paranoid. So what do you think?

Thank you all!

[Jose Rizal 1]

Hello everybody! I have a silly question. I am debating now with my fiancee whether we should change her name or keep her maiden name when we get married. My only concern is the government workers that see fraud in any marriage. We want to keep her maiden name because it will save us tons of time and effort. But I want the hole process to go smoothly so I am kind of paranoid. So what do you think?

Thank you all!

For identification purposes, having the same family IMO name helps a lot.

Edited October 5, 2008 by Jose Rizal

[Peter&Jaime 1]

Hello everybody! I have a silly question. I am debating now with my fiancee whether we should change her name or keep her maiden name when we get married. My only concern is the government workers that see fraud in any marriage. We want to keep her maiden name because it will save us tons of time and effort. But I want the hole process to go smoothly so I am kind of paranoid. So what do you think?

Thank you all!

From your info it says you are going after a CR1/IR1 so I assume you are already married? I am the US citizen and when I married my husband I kept my maiden name just to keep everything simple during the process. When he comes to the USA I will change my name to his. Hope this info helps. I am not sure if this is possible or how it works if your wife is not the USA citizen.

[Em4oAndKrisi 0]

Hello everybody! I have a silly question. I am debating now with my fiancee whether we should change her name or keep her maiden name when we get married. My only concern is the government workers that see fraud in any marriage. We want to keep her maiden name because it will save us tons of time and effort. But I want the hole process to go smoothly so I am kind of paranoid. So what do you think?

Thank you all!

From your info it says you are going after a CR1/IR1 so I assume you are already married? I am the US citizen and when I married my husband I kept my maiden name just to keep everything simple during the process. When he comes to the USA I will change my name to his. Hope this info helps. I am not sure if this is possible or how it works if your wife is not the USA citizen.

Thank you all for the response I appreciate it. How did not changing your name affect the speed of your approval?

[canadian_wife 1,822]

It's funny that you say you didn't change her name because you wanted to keep things simple only because I didn't want to change mine and our lawyer told me I probably should to keep things simple.

I am sure it won't affect the speed of the approval, but you may be questioned on it in the interview

[pushbrk 12,878]

Traditions vary and name changing at marriage is a personal choice. For example, in China women traditionally keep their same name all their life. My wife kept hers but understands some people may call her by my family name. She's ok with that. Even in the US, it is becoming quite common for women to keep their maiden name when married.

[Em4oAndKrisi 0]

Traditions vary and name changing at marriage is a personal choice. For example, in China women traditionally keep their same name all their life. My wife kept hers but understands some people may call her by my family name. She's ok with that. Even in the US, it is becoming quite common for women to keep their maiden name when married.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

[Ana&D 0]

There are indeed many cases where ladies kept their maiden name. Some don't want to go through passport and other document changes, some feel they already gave up a lot for a new life in America and keep it for sentimental reasons, for some it is, as mentioned, a tradition. I don't see how that will effect your petition or cause any problems later on. If you have enough proof of a legitemate marriage, I doubt the issue of having different last names will be raised And if it is, you can always explain your reasons, right?

[Phillip2 3]

I don't think it matters at all because it is ap personel choice and easy to explain if asked. However, take your time and fill the paperwork out correct and you should be fine. my wife is chinese and does not want to keep her family name. She has choosen to take mine by her choice. But, it is true most chinsese women choice to keep there family name and never change it even when they marry another chinese man there.

[Em4oAndKrisi 0]

I don't think it matters at all because it is ap personel choice and easy to explain if asked. However, take your time and fill the paperwork out correct and you should be fine. my wife is chinese and does not want to keep her family name. She has choosen to take mine by her choice. But, it is true most chinsese women choice to keep there family name and never change it even when they marry another chinese man there.

Thank you all for responding. Now I don't feel silly anymore, I feel confident

[Giskat09 2]

in Phils, if we are married, we have to change our last name to our husband. It will also show in my renewed passport that i have my new last name which is my husbands. It really depends on the country you are from.

[Paul's Mrs. 0]

I didn't change my name and my processing went smoothly. I figured I would change it later but for now can't handle one more stinking piece of paperwork.

[MsZ 6]

I'm the worst of both worlds -- I changed my name on my SS card but did not on anything else. I will, but when I get around to it.

I really never felt that changing it or not would contribute much to the bonafides of my marriage. The important things are time spent together and intermingling of our finances. By comparison a name change seems trivial and it can be completely meaningless and just as open to being done for deceptive purposes.

[cmnb 0]

Hello everybody! I have a silly question. I am debating now with my fiancee whether we should change her name or keep her maiden name when we get married. My only concern is the government workers that see fraud in any marriage. We want to keep her maiden name because it will save us tons of time and effort. But I want the hole process to go smoothly so I am kind of paranoid. So what do you think?

Thank you all!

there is no law in the US and/or India (i can speak for India) that requires married women to change their name. so they cannot hold u against it if it is not a law in ur country as well.

[Ling Ling 22]

WifEy didn't change her name yet...but will when she gets to US. It didn't affect our processing....and they didn't question Insurance forms and Bank Accounts that actually do have her married name on it.

As for the tradition of name change...PSHBRK once pointed out that "most people in the world do not change their name when they get married".

Understanding that Chinese make up a large portion of the population, and that half of the people in the world who get married are men.