Name Change (First name and Last name) SSA and AOS

[lightstream 7]

Just ran into a problem. Everywhere I looked including local government websites and SSA's website, it says that once we marry, we can change the spouse's name on the marriage certificate and use that as the legal way to change her name and use the marriage certificate as proof of new name when applying for adjustment of status.

 

We decided to change my spouses name from (example) Jung Tee Yu to Sarah Jung Tee Yu to include her American name. No change in her surname to match mine.

 

We went to SSA to show them our marriage certificate for a name change and they said they cannot change her first name. They can only change the last name for a marriage certificate. I dug deeper for an answer and have confirmed that this is true based on the SSA Operations Manual here.

 

The problem is now I've applied for AOS with her new name and I can't update the SSN's name with just the marriage certificate.

 

I'm looking for guidance as to what we should do next. 

 

Also will USCIS reject my AOS application?

 

Edited June 4, 2019 by lightstream

[Jeanne Adil 1,651]

you can apply to the court for a legal name change

check your state on how to do this

my son recently changed his last name as no one could say and pronounce his legal one

[arken 4,197]

USCIS may reject your application. Marriage certificate is a proof of name change when one spouse takes the surname of the other. Your wife is changing her first name and marriage or marriage certificate has nothing to do with. Once USCIS doesn’t see any evidences of name change, it may reject it. 

[Ash.1101 1,756]

22 minutes ago, arken said:

USCIS may reject your application. Marriage certificate is a proof of name change when one spouse takes the surname of the other. Your wife is changing her first name and marriage or marriage certificate has nothing to do with. Once USCIS doesn’t see any evidences of name change, it may reject it. 

This. ^

At the end of the day when they pull her alien number and bring up her file, her first name won't match anything else in the file and they will most likely deny it. BEST case scenario they could RFE asking for proof of legal name change through the courts, but I don't even see them accepting it as a complete accurate application.

Edited June 4, 2019 by Ash.

[lightstream 7]

If it is denied, will they still charge me? The filling fee in total for AOS, AP, EA was around $1225 (all using the new name).

 

Will this hurt our chances of getting an AOS or we just need to reapply?

 

Hoping the worst case is I'm down $1k and we just need to apply again.

[arken 4,197]

If denied, you will lose the fee.

If rejected, you won’t be charged. Hope for the latter.

[jay&mildred 5]

I don't see why they would deny the case if they didn't reject it from the start.