Submitting I-130 prior to maiden name change.

[dvaquerano 15]

Hello VJ Community!

 

I have a question for all,

 

I am a US citizen(naturalized) and I married my wife in the US last December in VA while she was on a tourist visa, we both had family in VA and some delicate family health issues made us celebrate our civil wedding over there. She has now gone back to El Salvador and she is in the process of registering the marriage in the appropriate consulate and local authorities (thats a whole another story! Apostille and everything). 

 

When we requested the marriage license in VA they told us we could only use maiden names, and that if she wanted to use my last name, she would have to do the name change in El Salvador, not here. So our marriage certificate only shows her maiden name. 

Anyhow, my question is that,  we want to file I-130 but I am not sure if I need to wait until she changes her surname in El Salvador and gets a new passport, IDs and everything changed to her new name before I can file the application. I don't want to delay the process anymore since we want to be together and we know it will take some time to go through the whole process. 

 

Should I wait until all name change process goes through and she gets all documents revised with her new name?(Which could take some time). Or is there anything else I can do in order to submit our application before that and that will not cause us any troubles in the process? What name should I use when filling the application? 

 

Thank You!

David & Rebeca

 

 

[LilyJ 1,258]

I don't think you need to wait for her to get all new documents before applying. I should think just her name being legally changed in her should be enough since you don't have to send in her ID with your petition. Just make sure she gets her passport with her new name on it and whatnot before the interview (which shouldn't be a problem since the interview won't be for a while).

[dvaquerano 15]

17 hours ago, LilyJohansen said:

I don't think you need to wait for her to get all new documents before applying. I should think just her name being legally changed in her should be enough since you don't have to send in her ID with your petition. Just make sure she gets her passport with her new name on it and whatnot before the interview (which shouldn't be a problem since the interview won't be for a while).

I see, so should I use her maiden name to send the application and then update the name during NVC part? Or should I submit the application with her new married name?

[LilyJ 1,258]

11 minutes ago, dvaquerano said:

I see, so should I use her maiden name to send the application and then update the name during NVC part? Or should I submit the application with her new married name?

As long as her name is legally changed to the married name, then you can use her married name even if you don't have her updated documents yet. I would wait to file until her name is legally changed and use the married name since that will be easier than updating it later on, but as soon as it is legally changed and recognized as her new name in her country then you can use it still.

[pushbrk 12,879]

File with the name she intends to use going forward.  Unless El Salvador requires her to register her marriage there, in order to change her name, none of that is every needed.  No apostille is required on any document used for the US immigration process.

[dvaquerano 15]

5 minutes ago, pushbrk said:

File with the name she intends to use going forward.  Unless El Salvador requires her to register her marriage there, in order to change her name, none of that is every needed.  No apostille is required on any document used for the US immigration process.

Yes she actually does need to register the marriage in El Salvador in order to get her named changed over there 😕 the apostille was needed for the US marriage certificate and make it valid in El Salvador but that has been taken care of.

 

But my hope was that if I could file the application with her new name before she actually updates all her paperwork over there, that would allow me to file several weeks ahead of time. And by the time we need the updated paperwork we would have everything set. But we don’t want to cause any issues on our application if that is not permitted. 

[pushbrk 12,879]

37 minutes ago, dvaquerano said:

Yes she actually does need to register the marriage in El Salvador in order to get her named changed over there 😕 the apostille was needed for the US marriage certificate and make it valid in El Salvador but that has been taken care of.

 

But my hope was that if I could file the application with her new name before she actually updates all her paperwork over there, that would allow me to file several weeks ahead of time. And by the time we need the updated paperwork we would have everything set. But we don’t want to cause any issues on our application if that is not permitted. 

It IS permitted.  Go for it.

[dvaquerano 15]

On 2/11/2019 at 7:11 PM, pushbrk said:

It IS permitted.  Go for it.

Thank You for your help pushbrk. 

 

Just to triple check, it shouldn't be a problem that the marriage certificate only shows her maiden name, and, that I for I-130 and I-130a purposes, use her future married name that she intents to use before she actually gets her updated passport and IDs? Is it likely that USCIS will RFE because the marriage certificate does not match her name in the application? (I also plan on writing her name on the other names section).

 

Once again thank you for your help. 

[pushbrk 12,879]

20 minutes ago, dvaquerano said:

Thank You for your help pushbrk. 

 

Just to triple check, it shouldn't be a problem that the marriage certificate only shows her maiden name, and, that I for I-130 and I-130a purposes, use her future married name that she intents to use before she actually gets her updated passport and IDs? Is it likely that USCIS will RFE because the marriage certificate does not match her name in the application? (I also plan on writing her name on the other names section).

 

Once again thank you for your help. 

Go for it.  Typically, marriage certificates show only the woman's maiden name, BECAUSE, it shows who married who.  Mary Jones marries Bob Smith.  Mary Smith does not.

[LilyJ 1,258]

19 minutes ago, dvaquerano said:

Thank You for your help pushbrk. 

 

Just to triple check, it shouldn't be a problem that the marriage certificate only shows her maiden name, and, that I for I-130 and I-130a purposes, use her future married name that she intents to use before she actually gets her updated passport and IDs? Is it likely that USCIS will RFE because the marriage certificate does not match her name in the application? (I also plan on writing her name on the other names section).

 

Once again thank you for your help. 

Maiden name on marriage certificate is normal. My marriage certificate also has my maiden name on it, since usually people don't change their last name legally until after the wedding, which is the same case for you as well.

[pushbrk 12,879]

12 minutes ago, LilyJohansen said:

Maiden name on marriage certificate is normal. My marriage certificate also has my maiden name on it, since usually people don't change their last name legally until after the wedding, which is the same case for you as well.

Exactly.  Many people do not change their name after marriage.  While most make the decision about it before marriage, marriage does not automatically change anybody's name.  Chinese women typically do not change their name with marriage.  Sometimes men take the wife's family name or there's hyphenation for either or both side.  

[dvaquerano 15]

That makes sense.

 

Thank you both!!