K1 AOS Legal change of name?

[Chancy 6,241]

15 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

 Consider, too, whether your name is so difficult or so long that you'll have to spell it out in painstaking detail in every contact with any other person for the rest of your life.  If your husband's name is easier, abide the difficulty now and enjoy the comparative ease forever after.

 

That's the biggest reason I'll be changing my name when I apply for citizenship.  It's been many years now since I first came to the US and so far, only two Americans have been able to pronounce my last name right on the first try, one being the CO at my visa interview.  Even my husband still has trouble pronouncing my last name the way it's pronounced in my native country.  But other than the minor annoyance of hearing people say my name wrong and/or being asked repeatedly to spell my name, I've had no trouble getting IDs and opening accounts using my maiden name which is listed on my GC.  No company or government employee in the US has ever questioned why my husband and I don't have the same last name.  But for situations where I don't need to show an ID, like when making restaurant reservations, I use my married name.

 

[Verrou 1,962]

2 minutes ago, Chancy said:

 

No company or government employee in the US has ever questioned why my husband and I don't have the same last name.  But for situations where I don't need to show an ID, like when making restaurant reservations, I use my married name.

 

This is the way 

[Ecofolux2427 11]

Thank you everyone for your input. So we are filling out the forms now and just using my wife's given family name as her middle name and my last name as her "new" last name. 

 

 

I'm filling out Form I-864 and Part 2 is asking about my wife. I just want to verify I should be putting my last name as 1.a (because she has taken my last name as her last name), and her "new" (never had a middle name previously) middle name is her previous last name before our marriage? 

 

Sorry to ask again, I'm just worried about the documents being rejected because of the name. Thanks!

[Lemonslice 4,843]

2 hours ago, Ecofolux2427 said:

Thank you everyone for your input. So we are filling out the forms now and just using my wife's given family name as her middle name and my last name as her "new" last name. 

 

 

I'm filling out Form I-864 and Part 2 is asking about my wife. I just want to verify I should be putting my last name as 1.a (because she has taken my last name as her last name), and her "new" (never had a middle name previously) middle name is her previous last name before our marriage? 

 

Sorry to ask again, I'm just worried about the documents being rejected because of the name. Thanks!

Does your state allow you to change your middle name when you marry?  

[Bh_sarah 942]

On 7/8/2023 at 1:41 AM, TBoneTX said:

 Consider, too, whether your name is so difficult or so long that you'll have to spell it out in painstaking detail in every contact with any other person for the rest of your life.  If your husband's name is easier, abide the difficulty now and enjoy the comparative ease forever after.

 

Thank you for the insight! Coming from a family with unusual given names (I escaped the fate), I spend an awful lot of time thinking about names. I am used to spelling my name since a little kid since I have two German names and well, I'm Brazilian. Also living abroad, I got used to spelling my name in English, and it's so much easier for English speakers to spell my last name than Brazilians. Oh and the whole "Sarah with an H" adds to it too! haha but it honestly does not bother me. Never had any issues with documents being misspelled either. To be fair, the only thing that one bothered me was my Canadian college omitting my first last name on my diploma because they thought it was a middle name (I required it to be changed).

Needless to say, I would also need to spell my soon-to-be-husband last name in the US haha it's short but it's Czech. At least I don't have a middle name to add to the confusion, but I don't want to get rid of my family names at all. It's something I will need to think about (in the next months) and research MO laws when it comes to changing names. But we already decided on simple but not too generic names for the future kids that would work on both languages.

I researched a lot about this Friday. I encountered only situations where the GC given name ended up being truncated, but couldn't find any about last names. Only one case where a letter was missing on the 10 year GC but it was an error since the conditional GC showed up the full last name. I just can't find the official character limit for last names on GC. It seems it's 18 for given names (counting spaces). Should I consider this true to last names as well? My intended full last name does fit the I-485 space and would be 18 characters long with 2 spaces.

I appreciate all the help!

[TBoneTX 45,304]

8 hours ago, Bh_sarah said:

it's Czech

A Polish man went to the optometrist for his examination.

The optometrist displayed the eyechart and said, "Can you read the 6th line?"

"Read it?!  said the Pole.  "I know the guy!"

 

[Verrou 1,962]

23 hours ago, Bh_sarah said:

It seems it's 18 for given names (counting spaces). Should I consider this true to last names as well? My intended full last name does fit the I-485 space and would be 18 characters long with 2 spaces.

 

the new GC configuration is slightly different. the section for surname, given name etc arent align from top to bottom. look it up on google for new 2023 design. i had that one. so surname is slightly to the left, therefore ( i assume) u can fit more letters on surname name than the given name because the given name is slightly to the right ( hence shorter space for given name)

[Bh_sarah 942]

38 minutes ago, HaroKitty said:

the new GC configuration is slightly different. the section for surname, given name etc arent align from top to bottom. look it up on google for new 2023 design. i had that one. so surname is slightly to the left, therefore ( i assume) u can fit more letters on surname name than the given name because the given name is slightly to the right ( hence shorter space for given name)

 

Ohhh this is neat! Possibly got one more character there! hahaha thanks for the info!