Name change warning

[jft 12]

If you live in a state like mine which does not have a place on the marriage license for the new name that the wife (or husband) wants to use be aware that the USCIS has very strict rules on name changes if there is not a document they consider legal documenting the name change. State-issued drivers licenses are *not* considered sufficient. You need to either a) be married by a judge or b) change your name in front of a judge using the procedure mandated by the state. Common-law name changes as used in many states are not recognized if they go outside the strict boundaries the USCIS allows. In general you are allowed to only a) replace your last name with your spouse's or b) hyphenate your last names (maybe), that is all.

My wife intended to use her last name as her new middle name and that is strictly forbidden. Strangely the reason for this is that USCIS rules don't allow legal name changes at interview time which is really strange as they determined that my wife's name was first name, old middle name, new last name which is a name she has never used. So in other words because they can't do a name change they did a name change! Our government at work.

So be warned, get married by a judge if you want to change more than your last name or be prepared to have your name changed!

[KayDeeCee 4,896]

Some states do not allow middle name changes through marriage and will allow only the last name to be changed without getting a court order name change.

~ Moved from K-1 Process to AOS from Family Based Visas - topic is AOS, not K-1 ~

[Hank_ 9,174]

If you live in a state like mine which does not have a place on the marriage license for the new name that the wife (or husband) wants to use be aware that the USCIS has very strict rules on name changes if there is not a document they consider legal documenting the name change. State-issued drivers licenses are *not* considered sufficient. You need to either a) be married by a judge or b) change your name in front of a judge using the procedure mandated by the state. Common-law name changes as used in many states are not recognized if they go outside the strict boundaries the USCIS allows. In general you are allowed to only a) replace your last name with your spouse's or b) hyphenate your last names (maybe), that is all.

My wife intended to use her last name as her new middle name and that is strictly forbidden. Strangely the reason for this is that USCIS rules don't allow legal name changes at interview time which is really strange as they determined that my wife's name was first name, old middle name, new last name which is a name she has never used. So in other words because they can't do a name change they did a name change! Our government at work.

So be warned, get married by a judge if you want to change more than your last name or be prepared to have your name changed!

AZ doesn't have any place on the marriage certificate for the new married name, and we had zero issue during AOS with my wife changing her name (just as you wife wishes to do). We filed the I-485 (etc) in the married name my wife wanted to use, she completed the SSN form in her married name, and so on .... ZERO issue anywhere.

[bob136 0]

We also had no problem with name change at uscis even with our states marriage license has no spot for new married last name.

We didn't have ssn or state drivers license at time of interview and just explained that we were working on those. Used passport with maiden name as we didn't want to give up passport to be updated until after interview.

We were approved aos with no issues.