Wife's name on forms

[chimichanga 3]

My wife changed her last name to mine when we got married but later decided to keep her maiden name. The marriage license states that her name is Jenny Smith-Foster but She wants to keep her name as Jenny Diane Smith. I do not have a problem with it but wanted to ask here as to how should we put her name in all the documents. She was married previously so her old name would go in "other names used". She called the county court to ask her name to be reverted back to her maiden name but they are asking $500. We can't afford that right now. All the documents(legal and evidence of bonafide marriage are sill under her maiden name)

So in all the AOS forms should we use her maiden name or the name on the marriage certificate?
Jenny SMith-Foster vs Jenny Diane Smith?

[A'n'L 735]

Has she changed her name on any document (passport, DL, etc) besides the marriage certificate? Which state are you in? Oh, and she is the immigrant?

Edited April 17, 2017 by A'n'L

[chimichanga 3]

12 minutes ago, A'n'L said:

Has she changed her name on any document (passport, DL, etc) besides the marriage certificate? Which state are you in? Oh, and she is the immigrant?

No she had not. Her passport is in her maiden name. Everything she has is in her maiden name except the marriage license. We are in MN and she is the petitioner

Edited April 17, 2017 by chimichanga

[bunkx 25]

By marriage license I assume you're married already, so that would be a marriage certificate. This might depend on the State but, usually the marriage certificate will always have maiden names. You have to go to the DMV and Social Security Administration office with the marriage certificate to actually make the legal name change. There is no legal name change until you officially change it with the DMV and SSA, and then get a new driver's license and social security card with the new name. So if her DL says "Jenny Smith-Foster" and you want to change it back to "Jenny Dianne Smith" that would, indeed, cost you a lot of money.

 

Just go with whatever legal name she currently has, in terms of legal forms.

 

When you have money and change it back, I assume you'll be applying to remove conditions at that point, use the new name (or old name...I guess) and include documentation about the name changes.

[A'n'L 735]

8 hours ago, chimichanga said:

No she had not. Her passport is in her maiden name. Everything she has is in her maiden name except the marriage license. We are in MN and she is the petitioner

Well, according to the website referenced below: "Getting a marriage license with your new name on it does not mean your name has automatically changed."

 

So, I would go ahead and use her "old" name on your AOS paperwork. As long as no other steps are taken, her name should not have changed.

 

http://www.usmarriagelaws.com/marriage-license/minnesota/recorder-treasurer/office-requirements.shtml

[acyland 8]

I had something similar in that on our marriage certificate I put my new name would be using my husband's last name. Since we knew we were going to be submitting AOS paperwork pretty quickly after we married though I decided to hold off on all the official name change stuff (updating Social Security card, Driver's License, Passport, etc.) since I knew that can take a good amount of time and we wanted to submit our AOS paperwork as fast as possible.

 

On all our AOS paperwork I used my maiden name and even included a note with our cover letter explaining to basically what I said above, that AOS was our priority now and to expedite the process as much as possible I elected to continue using my maiden name throughout the process, but would be changing it in the future. 

[bunkx 25]

2 hours ago, acyland said:

I had something similar in that on our marriage certificate I put my new name would be using my husband's last name. Since we knew we were going to be submitting AOS paperwork pretty quickly after we married though I decided to hold off on all the official name change stuff (updating Social Security card, Driver's License, Passport, etc.) since I knew that can take a good amount of time and we wanted to submit our AOS paperwork as fast as possible.

 

On all our AOS paperwork I used my maiden name and even included a note with our cover letter explaining to basically what I said above, that AOS was our priority now and to expedite the process as much as possible I elected to continue using my maiden name throughout the process, but would be changing it in the future. 

 

Wouldn't they then issue the GC under your maiden name and if you change your name after that would invalidate the GC and you'd have to apply for a new one, doing the whole process over again...

[acyland 8]

1 hour ago, bunkx said:

 

Wouldn't they then issue the GC under your maiden name and if you change your name after that would invalidate the GC and you'd have to apply for a new one, doing the whole process over again...

Yes, if I were the one applying for GC, I'm actually the sponsor.