Follow your path

[Ekamai 0]

My apology if this topic has been brought up before.

My fiance will be here this coming weekend with her K1 Visa. We plan to get married within a month. Once she arrives, there are lots of paper work to do : Driver license, Social Security, EAD, getting married,....

For those who have been in the same boat, can you recommend a list of things I should do in an order? Should I get her SSN first? Also, how complicate will be to change her maiden name to a married name? I heard that you can get married in California with the Name Equality Act, i.e, you can put down the married name on the certificate. Is that going to help with the process down the road? if so, should we go there to get married?

Thanks in advance for those who have walked the paths and leave the trails for the rookies to follow.

Quinn

[newlyweds2010 208]

SSN first, because you can't do much without one (for example many states require one to issue a driver's license). even to open a joint bank account the bank more than likely will ask for her SSN (they did with us).

as of EAD, you first need to get married and file it together with AOS.

my wife changed her name and it was written on the license (here in CA). I don't know if this helps down the road (we haven't done the AOS yet) but it surely doesn't hurt. I wouldn't decide on the venue of the wedding just for that though, I don't think it makes any difference.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

It's not complicated at all to change a maiden name to a married name. You don't need a special form or license. She just starts using the married name. She will apply for AOS in the married name. Her marriage certificate will let them know she married Bob Smith so now she is Mrs. Smith. She gets a bank account as Mrs. Smith. She can travel on her old passport (until it expires) and bring along the marriage certificate to show that Mrs. Smith on the reservation is the same person on the passport.

Here's my suggested list of order of doing things. It can vary a little, but this is what I would do:

Apply for SSN in maiden name

Marry

Get copy of marriage certificate

Apply for AOS/EAD/AP in married name

EAD card arrives

Maybe get driver's license (most states will give it at this point but it will expire when the EAD does, ie 1 year)

Green card arrives

Go back to Social Security and and show green card and marriage license to change to married name and get the wording removed that says SS not valid for work without DHS authorization.

Get driver's license which should be a full license that doesn't expire when EAD does. If you got one earlier with the EAD, then go back with green card and get it extended if you want to. My state gives a license marked "temporary visitor" and it looks different than a normal license. If that's the case in your state, then the green card would get her a normal license that looks like any resident of the state.

[rlogan 2,036]

Social Security Number. Expect them to not know what they are doing and give you bad information. Seriously, there are more horror stories about the social security office than any other. Know the regulations and have them printed when you go in there. Be prepared to call a supervisor over. We went through an unbelievable nightmare and have read many other similar stories. In our case, they finally got a brand new employee that wasn't a monster trying to stop us. After almost a year of meetings, calls, congressional "help", etc. and numerous illegal denials on their part, this new girl just followed the written regulations and gave it to us, ignoring the senior employee that stood over her trying to stop her.