Traveling back to home country after getting green card through K-1 visa

[Mike2011 0]

I am a U.S. Citizen and I had applied for my fiancee visa for girlfriend and she is now here, has gone through all the process and has received her green card. She is from India. My question is that now we both want to travel back to India to see her family. Would she need a new Indian passport with my last name since that is what she has on her green card now. I have heard that we can just carry our court Marriage certificate and she would be able to make the trip to India using her old passport. Could someone please guide me in the right direction? Please post any links if there is any information available on the web. Thanks in advance.

[amykathleen2005 441]

I believe you should get the plane tickets in her maiden name as otherwise they will not let her fly. Getting into India she'll just need her passport, they shouldn't care about the name change. For now the passport with marriage certificate should suffice in order to match the name on the green card when reentering the US.

[Mike2011 0]

Do you mean to say that I must get her tickets with the full name that is shown on her green card? Are there going to be any issues if I did this since her passport is going to show the last name up until she accepted mine once get got married here in the U.S.

I believe you should get the plane tickets in her maiden name as otherwise they will not let her fly. Getting into India she'll just need her passport, they shouldn't care about the name change. For now the passport with marriage certificate should suffice in order to match the name on the green card when reentering the US.

[amykathleen2005 441]

No, the plane tickets must match her passport, otherwise the airlines won't let her fly. She will only need the greencard when dealing with US customs when she enters back in the US.

[HeatDeath 430]

Having the passport be in one name and the GC in another is a very common situation. If both the passport and GC photos are obviously her, she probably won't even need the marriage certificate, but it's a good idea to have it as it provides official documentation of the name change, "bridging" the two documents together.

Women reenter the US with a GC in their married name and a passport in their maiden name all the time. Just have the marriage cert in your carry on when you hit US Immigration on the way home in case they ask for it and don't worry about it. Enjoy yourselves!

[pushbrk 13,118]

No, the plane tickets must match her passport, otherwise the airlines won't let her fly. She will only need the greencard when dealing with US customs when she enters back in the US.

Exactly correct. The ticket MUST be in the passport name or she will NOT fly. Use the combination of green card, passport and marriage certificate when approaching the CBP officer upon returning to the USA. The combination may also be needed to board a flight to the USA. Airlines want to be reasonably certain the passenger will be admitted to the USA.

[payxibka 10,047]

not a K-1 visa process issue... does not belong in the K-1 visa forum.... moving thread from the K-1 visa forum