Travel for a visit to Ukraine while being permanent resident

[moussy 0]

Hello, guys!

Well, I am a bit confused, here's why:

I came to US and already have my Green Card, and I am planning on going to Ukraine (I am Ukrainian) this May. I understand that to come back to US I will only need my GC. BUT to come to Ukraine/leave Ukraine I will probably need to use international passport? I have one, it's not expired.. just I changed my surname, and it still has my maiden name in there... so i don't know if I will/won't have any problems on Ukrainian custom with my international passport..

Maybe some of you have been in the situation like myself? How was it? which documents did you need to go back to Ukraine? have you changed your int. passport due to changing your surname to travel to Ukraine??

Any help is highly appreciated!

[nyhazmat 2]

It has been asked and answered a bunch, and will continue to be, hey that's now we learned. Ok, there are 2 schools of thought on this, I will tell you what we did in August. My wife is Ukrainian, I bought the tickets in her married name. We took a copy of our marriage certificate (take a couple) to explain the name change from her passport and her ticket. We were asked on the way to Ukraine by the airline at JFK, they wanted a copy for their file. When we got to Ukraine she presented her passport to passport control and did not get questioned. We didn't stop at customs as we didn't have anything to declare. When we were ready to come back, the airline looked at a copy and gave us our boarding passes. Passport control looked at the tickets and the copy and stamped her passport. When we arrived back at JFK, it was green card only.

Hope that this helps.

[Brad and Vika 129]

I understand that it is a MAJOR hassle getting a passport changed to a married name. Vika will just keep hers in maiden name until she can get citizenship I think - mostly because of the hassle. So we will use this same procedure to travel.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I understand that it is a MAJOR hassle getting a passport changed to a married name. Vika will just keep hers in maiden name until she can get citizenship I think - mostly because of the hassle. So we will use this same procedure to travel.

We avoided all this mess. Alla uses her patrynomic, always has and always will. Life is so much simpler and if she changes her name she will be no more my wife than before.

[moussy 0]

nyhazmat, Thank you very much for your reply! I guessed that this question could be asked before, but really, couldn't find it in a BUNCH of topics.. your example really helps, now i will sleep peacefully I didn't worry that much about American custom, as about Ukrainian custom while leaving Ukraine.. they sometimes can do things you wouldn't expect in your nightmare.. So, thank you for sharing!

Brad and Vika, i really couldn't imagine why would i have to change passport, but sometimes bureaucracy steps in the way of best prepared things... let's hope we'll be lucky

Gary and Alla, i completely agree with your point of view, but mu husband really wanted me to have his name

Edited March 6, 2009 by moussy

[Brad and Vika 129]

nyhazmat, Thank you very much for your reply! I guessed that this question could be asked before, but really, couldn't find it in a BUNCH of topics.. your example really helps, now i will sleep peacefully I didn't worry that much about American custom, as about Ukrainian custom while leaving Ukraine.. they sometimes can do things you wouldn't expect in your nightmare.. So, thank you for sharing!

Brad and Vika, i really couldn't imagine why would i have to change passport, but sometimes bureaucracy steps in the way of best prepared things... let's hope we'll be lucky

Gary and Alla, i completely agree with your point of view, but mu husband really wanted me to have his name

Good point - I was just thinking about having a passport that was due to be renewed, and now having a different last name. Vika also says that changing her name to something obviously not Ukrainian will cause HUGE problems when she inherits property in Ukraine. I would be curious as to any one's direct knowledge of that.