Petitioner name change - original documents in CHANGED name

[PJWhitby 17]

Hi everyone. My wife (USC) and I (the immigrating spouse) are just embarking on our green card journey - actually for the second time (I originally successfully obtained an IR1 some years ago, before formally surrendering it at a US Consulate abroad after leaving the US for work).

 

I was wondering if anyone had any views on a query concerning the petitioner’s details in the I-130. My wife’s name at birth was changed when she was young for, basically, aesthetic reasons (e.g. from ‘Sarah Badname’ to ‘Sarah Goodname’). However, her formal US birth certificate appears to have been reissued in the new name, ie we have a certified copy of her birth certificate in the name of ‘Sarah Goodname’. I do not believe we have a copy of a birth certificate using the ‘Sarah Badname’ name.

Given all her documents required for demonstrating eligibility as a USC petitioner are in the new name, is it even worth potentially confusing things by referencing her original name that, as far as we can tell, does not appear to be recorded anywhere?  I’m afraid I cannot recall what we did when we previously filed our I-130 (ten years ago) on this but I do believe we did we ‘disclose’ it at some point, though I can’t remember if this was at the I-130 stage or later on (the from fields appear to have changed a fair bit since that time). I wonder if this means USCIS has this information somewhere and any inconsistency with our newly-filed petition might lead to an RFE... If anyone has any suggestions, that would be really useful!

 

And, just to add a supplementary question if that’s okay: presumably my A-number (from my old, successful, IR1 visa) as well as the US social security number I received ‘persist’ and are the ones that should be referenced in the relevant place in the I-130 and I-130A, is that correct? 
 

Thanks a lot everyone! I’ll start a timeline once we file the I-130; looking at the way things are, I suspect we’ll end up going down the I-129F route to see if: (I) that maybe expedites the I-130 process (which I understand has at least anecdotally happened in some cases; and (ii) we can be one of the small number of people to have a K-3 actually issued by our local US Consulate.

[JKLSemicolon 413]

Using your example, when filling out the I-130, your wife should enter "Sarah Goodname" in the section that asks for Your Full Name. Later on, there is a section that says "Provide all other names you have ever used, including aliases, maiden name, and nicknames". She should enter "Sarah Badname" in that section, and anywhere else this kind of section appears on the various forms that need to be completed.

 

There is nothing to be gained from not disclosing that information. The #1 rule you will hear on this site is to always be truthful.

 

You are correct about the A-Number and Social Security number.

 

Don't bother with the I-129F for the K-3; for all practical purposes, it is an administrative dead end. There were three K-3 visas issued in 2020 in the entire world (1 in Honduras, 1 in Yemen, and one in El Salvador) and none since April 2020. For context, there were more than 240,000 immigrant visas and over 4 million nonimmigrant visas issued last fiscal year. Although some people reported it helping during the early days of the online I-130, at this point there is no reason to believe that the I-129F will speed anything up, and in fact it could slow things down as it means more of someone's (or multiple people's) time to review the separate cases, combine them, and eventually close the I-129F. I say this having initially considered doing the same thing.

 

Feel free to look at the statistics yourself by opening the PDFs for the various months here and searching for "K3": https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics/nonimmigrant-visa-statistics/monthly-nonimmigrant-visa-issuances.html

 

 

Edited April 6, 2021 by JKLSemicolon

[PJWhitby 17]

Thanks a lot @JKLSemicolon, much appreciated! Absolutely agree there isn’t really any upside usually to being economical with details; my only concern was that I couldn’t remember whether we had ‘disclosed’ this to USCIS in our last Green Card application, or if it was at the NVC stage (so didn’t want to ‘confuse’ USCIS with what might be ‘new’ information about my wife). As you say though, better just to disclose and explain given it should be fairly simple.

 

I’d heard the K-3 visa approvals were low, but I hadn’t realised how low. Just a shame that it means a possible two-year wait and a lengthy period when we can only see each other sporadically after shelling out $’000s to do so... A familiar song for many on this site though I suppose.

[PJWhitby 17]

To update:

 

Wouldn’t you know it, we found an original birth certificate (ie in the name of ‘Sarah Badname’) and with my wife’s parents also using ‘Badname’. Should I send this birth certificate (along with the court change of name for all three people) as ‘the’ birth certificate evidencing my wife’s US citizenship under the I-130, or the one using ‘Goodname’ do you reckon? Both are certified copies from the relevant US state. Such a pain! 🙂

[Villanelle 4,122]

3 hours ago, PJWhitby said:

To update:

 

Wouldn’t you know it, we found an original birth certificate (ie in the name of ‘Sarah Badname’) and with my wife’s parents also using ‘Badname’. Should I send this birth certificate (along with the court change of name for all three people) as ‘the’ birth certificate evidencing my wife’s US citizenship under the I-130, or the one using ‘Goodname’ do you reckon? Both are certified copies from the relevant US state. Such a pain! 🙂

Im very glad you found the name change order. I was a bit concerned that they may ask for it at some point. Anyway- what you want to do is fill out the forms using her current legal name (Goodname). As posted previously you would enter Badname in the section that says other names used and would include the name change order as proof of such. You can also include the Badname birth certificate along with the name change documents but label it clearly as part of the name change paperwork. The name change document in itself will stand alone as proof of the change- she doesnt need to show the old documents along with the court order as the court order establishes the old documents existed and are now changed so the Badname BC does not technically exist anymore so to speak. She has her current BC showing Goodname and the court order showing the change. 

 

Again, her current BC is the one with Goodname. That is her name period. Do not fill it out showing otherwise- except in the part where it asks about other names used. 

[PJWhitby 17]

38 minutes ago, Villanelle said:

Badname BC does not technically exist anymore so to speak

That’s what I was thinking - it’s essentially anachronistic to some degree! (And next-to-impossible to retrieve from the authorities since all they have on record is the birth certificate in the new, changed, name). Thanks so much for chipping in, and everything you say makes absolute sense! 
 

 

[Ryan H 3,812]

Moved from Progress Reports to Process & Procedures.