I-751 - Passport/Green Card Name or Married Name?

[davemcphe 22]

We are coming up on 2 years of my wife being in the US.  When her green card was issued it was issued under her passport (Maiden) name.  In filing the i-751 should we use her Green Card/Passport Name or her Married/Divers License Name?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Dave

[Chancy 6,241]

On 3/8/2023 at 9:26 PM, davemcphe said:

In filing the i-751 should we use her Green Card/Passport Name or her Married/Divers License Name?

 

Depends on your wife's preference.  There's no USCIS requirement to change to married name.  If she chooses to use her married name as her current legal name on the I-751, that name will be listed on her 10-year GC, if all goes well.  Whichever name she decides to use as her legal name, she should list her other name(s) in the "Other Names Used" section of the I-751.

 

[Prisonmate 93]

Did you get a letter stating that your wife's LPR card has been extended for 48 months until they process your case?

 

[davemcphe 22]

Yes we did get the receipt letter stating that my wife's LPR had been extended 48 months, about a month after that we also got an appointment for biometrics, so now we are waiting for the interview appointment.

 

We did use her married name in filing the i-751 and were told that we only needed to bring proof of name change.  She has a UT Drivers license and we also provided the marriage certificate.

 

Dave

[JKLSemicolon 413]

18 hours ago, davemcphe said:

Yes we did get the receipt letter stating that my wife's LPR had been extended 48 months, about a month after that we also got an appointment for biometrics, so now we are waiting for the interview appointment.

 

We did use her married name in filing the i-751 and were told that we only needed to bring proof of name change.  She has a UT Drivers license and we also provided the marriage certificate.

 

Dave

Was the green card that has the maiden name issued after marriage?

 

If that’s the case (and someone else can correct me if I’m wrong), my understanding was that you would need to go through the court-ordered name change process in order to use the married name on a permanent resident card. The reason is that the proof of name change has to be from after the original GC was issued, so the marriage certificate would not count.

 

The other option is to wait until citizenship to do the name change.

[Chancy 6,241]

1 hour ago, JKLSemicolon said:

my understanding was that you would need to go through the court-ordered name change process in order to use the married name on a permanent resident card.

 

That's true for those who got a 10-year card as their first GC.  At least according to USCIS regulations.  For those who have a 2-year GC with maiden name, it's possible to have the 10-year GC issued in the applicant's married name.  But not all USCIS officers honor the name change request when adjudicating I-751.  In that case, the applicant will have to wait until N-400, or go through state court to change their legal name.

 

[OldUser 6,640]

19 minutes ago, Chancy said:

 

That's true for those who got a 10-year card as their first GC.  At least according to USCIS regulations.  For those who have a 2-year GC with maiden name, it's possible to have the 10-year GC issued in the applicant's married name.  But not all USCIS officers honor the name change request when adjudicating I-751.  In that case, the applicant will have to wait until N-400, or go through state court to change their legal name.

 

To keep things simple, I'm a fan of doing it either before starting immigration (I-130/I-485) or during N-400. Everything in between is OK, but could be a bit confusing as name on the docs won't match.