Please Help.

[pww 0]

Hello,

My fiancé and I are getting married at the end of this month. We purchased our marriage license earlier this week and chose to hyphenate our last names. My family is helping me gain legal status and didn't tell me till days after we had already purchased our marriage license that I should have kept my maiden name. Our lawyer vaguely answered that I can use my new name to fill out the I-130 and I-485 forms.. but we're still very scared and confused that things will be complicated later on when I have to fill out other forms. The only form of ID I have is my birth certificate and an old British passport from when I was a baby coming over to the US from China.

We have already emailed our lawyer asking if the new name change is going to cause any complications, but being that it's a weekend and MLK on Monday, I can't wait and need some peace of mind.

Will the new name change affect anything? I live in Oregon, and none of the county websites say anything about changing names on the marriage license after it has been issued. My fiancé had the idea of purchasing a new marriage license from a different county in Oregon and just let the first marriage license expire in 60 days. Would that be illegal? Again, we are getting married in two weeks.

I don't want things to be complicated and delay the process for me to gain legal status. I have lived here for 22 years now and my parents want nothing more than for me to be able to work and drive and go to a university that I want rather than being stuck at a community college all my life.

Any advice or response will be greatly appreciated.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Your choice to change or to not change your name has no relevance to anything related to immigration. Why does your family think it will be an issue?

[pww 0]

I'm not even sure myself. They said that since I wasn't born here and my birth certificate shows my maiden name, the only way to change it is to go back to China? I don't understand. So changing my name won't affect any of the forms I fill out later on?

[nickbits 43]

You need your marriage certificate (not license) to change your name. License is what you get before you get married, and you get the certificate afterwards.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

You need your marriage certificate (not license) to change your name. License is what you get before you get married, and you get the certificate afterwards.

Yes and no.

In Iowa for example, at the time of getting the licence we had to write our names before and after marriage. When we collected the licence it had our names before and after written on it and it was this licence that was later put on official Iowa paper turning it into our marriage certificate. This sounds like the same situation with the OP. They have already nominated what the names after marriage will be and it's already on the licence so she has no choice, if she chooses to use that licence, but to change her name.

My fiancé and I are getting married at the end of this month. We purchased our marriage license earlier this week and chose to hyphenate our last names. My family is helping me gain legal status and didn't tell me till days after we had already purchased our marriage license that I should have kept my maiden name. Our lawyer vaguely answered that I can use my new name to fill out the I-130 and I-485 forms.. but we're still very scared and confused that things will be complicated later on when I have to fill out other forms.

Your family is helping you get legal status where? In the US?

[bigdog 376]

We filed AOS using maiden name, and IO changed it for us on her GC card like she wanted it. Now when card comes we will change social, DL Banking etc. You might need extra papers to travel by air or boat till they are all the same. The IO did say they don't like hyphenated names very much or was it (you don't want it hyphenated do you?) which to me was the same thing. How you file is how it will be in the end unless you request a change during the process.

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

Your choice to change or to not change your name has no relevance to anything related to immigration. Why does your family think it will be an issue?

Probably because they have petitioned for her and she must be an unmarried child to receive the immigration benefit.

[Darnell 8,478]

what news from the lawyer?