Changing wife's last name (with expired visa) before, after or during adjustment of status in NJ

[yellowbrickroad5 0]

Hello everyone! I'm an American citizen - my (now) wife came from Ukraine on a tourist visa back in 2015 and the visa has since expired. We got married in February 2017 in New Jersey and are getting started on our adjustment of status paperwork. Our marriage certificate has her maiden name, but we would like to change her last name to mine. How would I go about doing this? Do I file all of the paperwork with her original last name and then file for a name change after we get all of her documents sorted? I tried calling the state but they could not give me an answer and told me to call the USCIS - when I called the USCIS they could not give me an answer either. How would I go about doing this? 

[s + j 71]

Same situation here. I filed all my AOS papers in married name. At my biometrics I only had to wait a little extra for a USCIS employee to confirm my name change and that was that. Make sure to bring marriage certificate for biometrics and also possibly you the USC  My husband had to confirm for them that he had the same last name I filed in

Edited June 3, 2017 by s + j

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

You file all the paperwork in her new name and her immigration documents will come in that name. She can then use that to change her name in order places such as banks etc...

It's enough that she is married to you. She can choose to start using your name when she pleases. The marriage certificate is the name change document even if it has her maiden name. 

[yellowbrickroad5 0]

14 minutes ago, s + j said:

Same situation here. I filed all my AOS papers in married name. At my biometrics I only had to wait a little extra for a USCIS employee to confirm my name change and that was that. Make sure to bring marriage certificate for biometrics and also possibly you the USC  My husband had to confirm for them that he had the same last name I filed in

Did your marriage certificate have your maiden or married name? Ours currently has only her maiden name.

[s + j 71]

2 minutes ago, yellowbrickroad5 said:

Did your marriage certificate have your maiden or married name? Ours currently has only her maiden name.

Maiden

[yellowbrickroad5 0]

15 minutes ago, Suss&Camm said:

The marriage certificate is the name change document even if it has her maiden name. 

Do you know if this applies to all states? The marriage certificate has only her maiden name. I was reading something online that in NJ the marriage certificate does not count as an official name change document. I just want to be 100% sure so none of my paperwork gets rejected as both her (Ukrainian) passport and our marriage certificate contain her maiden name. I don't want to trigger any red flags if I fill out all of the paperwork with my last name instead of hers.

[Juniper 62]

6 minutes ago, Suss&Camm said:

It's enough that she is married to you. She can choose to start using your name when she pleases. The marriage certificate is the name change document even if it has her maiden name. 

This logic does not work for getting State Identification, a Driver's License or a Social Security Card, as well as USCIS officials.  To keep it simple in your situation, use the New Jersey Marriage License surname for your wife name in your documents. 

 

You have a much bigger problem.  Just because your wife got married in 2017 to a US Citizen in the USA does not give her legal status to remain in the USA as she has (I assume) since 2015. Your wife has overstayed her tourist visa by more than one year.  Any foreign national overstaying their visa by one year and gets caught doing it (as will be recognized in your AOS documents), the foreign national is banned from entry to the USA for ten years and is also subject to deportation. In the current environment of immigration scrutiny, do not be surprised at a bad outcome.  This is solely based on the assumption that your wife being in the USA since 2015 and overstaying her tourist visa.

[s + j 71]

3 minutes ago, Juniper said:

This logic does not work for getting State Identification, a Driver's License or a Social Security Card, as well as USCIS officials.  To keep it simple in your situation, use the New Jersey Marriage License surname for your wife name in your documents. 

 

You have a much bigger problem.  Just because your wife got married in 2017 to a US Citizen in the USA does not give her legal status to remain in the USA as she has (I assume) since 2015. Your wife has overstayed her tourist visa by more than one year.  Any foreign national overstaying their visa by one year and gets caught doing it (as will be recognized in your AOS documents), the foreign national is banned from entry to the USA for ten years and is also subject to deportation. In the current environment of immigration scrutiny, do not be surprised at a bad outcome.  This is solely based on the assumption that your wife being in the USA since 2015 and overstaying her tourist visa.

Once she submits her AOS she's okay. Can't be deported.

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

2 minutes ago, yellowbrickroad5 said:

Do you know if this applies to all states? The marriage certificate has only her maiden name. I was reading something online that in NJ the marriage certificate does not count as an official name change document. I just want to be 100% sure so none of my paperwork gets rejected as both her (Ukrainian) passport and our marriage certificate contain her maiden name. I don't want to trigger any red flags if I fill out all of the paperwork with my last name instead of hers.

It works as a name change document for immigration. Once you get an ead or a GC with that name that is a primary I'd that you can then use for all the other things. Yes I'm sure.

[Juniper 62]

3 minutes ago, s + j said:

Once she submits her AOS she's okay. Can't be deported.

Overstaying a tourist visa by one year is a serious infraction.  USCIS in the current political environment is probably not going to forgive immigration infractions, especially overstays.

Edited June 3, 2017 by Juniper

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

3 minutes ago, Juniper said:

This logic does not work for getting State Identification, a Driver's License or a Social Security Card, as well as USCIS officials.  To keep it simple in your situation, use the New Jersey Marriage License surname for your wife name in your documents. 

They use their EAD or GC for those things. No he should not do that because then he'll have to do the name change on those documents as well later.

3 minutes ago, Juniper said:

You have a much bigger problem.  Just because your wife got married in 2017 to a US Citizen in the USA does not give her legal status to remain in the USA as she has (I assume) since 2015. Your wife has overstayed her tourist visa by more than one year.  Any foreign national overstaying their visa by one year and gets caught doing it (as will be recognized in your AOS documents), the foreign national is banned from entry to the USA for ten years and is also subject to deportation. In the current environment of immigration scrutiny, do not be surprised at a bad outcome.  This is solely based on the assumption that your wife being in the USA since 2015 and overstaying her tourist visa.

There is no problem once the aos is pending she is legal.

[s + j 71]

2 minutes ago, Juniper said:

Overstaying a tourist visa by one year is a serious infraction.  USCIS in the current political environment is not in the forgiving immigration infractions, especially overstays.

Um yeah they will forgive her overstay because of her connection to a USC. They won't call ICE and have her deported when she's filing for permanent residency.

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

1 minute ago, Juniper said:

Overstaying a tourist visa by one year is a serious infraction.  USCIS in the current political environment is not in the forgiving immigration infractions, especially overstays.

Overstay is forgiven for spouses of USC.

[Juniper 62]

1 minute ago, s + j said:

Um yeah they will forgive her overstay because of her connection to a USC. They won't call ICE and have her deported when she's filing for permanent residency.

Obama in not President anymore. Wake up and watch what happens.

[s + j 71]

3 minutes ago, Juniper said:

Obama in not President anymore. Wake up and watch what happens.

Not all rules changed simply because Obama stopped being president. This one never changed.

Edited June 3, 2017 by s + j