Name change AFTER Green Card?

[Bob in Boston 759]

15 hours ago, Zin-Zin said:

It is in English and it was sufficient for us to ger her green card, if that matters

It does not matter if immigration took it. Apples and oranges (Feds/States). Each state has their own ways of doing things. Documents from another country may not satisfy their requirements. We got married in the states, Changed her name on everything but her green card. I have been married befor and just treated it like a new bride going about changing her name. It worked for us. only thing was her DL expired when the green card did and we had to go with the extension letter to renew. and we did do the real ID so she could fly domesticaly under her married name.

[Zin-Zin 21]

15 minutes ago, Bob in Boston said:

It does not matter if immigration took it. Apples and oranges (Feds/States). Each state has their own ways of doing things. Documents from another country may not satisfy their requirements. We got married in the states, Changed her name on everything but her green card. I have been married befor and just treated it like a new bride going about changing her name. It worked for us. only thing was her DL expired when the green card did and we had to go with the extension letter to renew. and we did do the real ID so she could fly domesticaly under her married name.

Makes sense. Thank you

[top_secret 2,462]

1 hour ago, Bob in Boston said:

It does not matter if immigration took it. Apples and oranges (Feds/States). Each state has their own ways of doing things. Documents from another country may not satisfy their requirements. We got married in the states, Changed her name on everything but her green card. I have been married befor and just treated it like a new bride going about changing her name. It worked for us. only thing was her DL expired when the green card did and we had to go with the extension letter to renew. and we did do the real ID so she could fly domesticaly under her married name.

 

 

I 'think' they would have changed my wifes name if she had a US issued marriage certificate.  I 'think' the reason they refused to change her name with a foreign issued marriage certificate unless she changed her green card first, was they want USCIS to be the ones to evaluate and decide if the foreign marriage is legal for name change purposes.

[Bob in Boston 759]

14 hours ago, top_secret said:

I 'think' they would have changed my wifes name if she had a US issued marriage certificate.  I 'think' the reason they refused to change her name with a foreign issued marriage certificate unless she changed her green card first, was they want USCIS to be the ones to evaluate and decide if the foreign marriage is legal for name change purposes.

I think you have made a very good assesment of this. if all the ducks are lined up your good to go. if one strays it gets complicated

[Zin-Zin 21]

On 5/22/2024 at 10:21 AM, top_secret said:

 

 

I 'think' they would have changed my wifes name if she had a US issued marriage certificate.  I 'think' the reason they refused to change her name with a foreign issued marriage certificate unless she changed her green card first, was they want USCIS to be the ones to evaluate and decide if the foreign marriage is legal for name change purposes.

Makes sense. 

I think we'll wait until she can apply for naturalization and then do it as part of that process. 

Assuming that she's accepted for that, she'll have a passport with her new name, then can change with the SSA and then DPS. 

Does that sound reasonable? 

@Bob in Boston

[top_secret 2,462]

7 minutes ago, Zin-Zin said:

Makes sense. 

I think we'll wait until she can apply for naturalization and then do it as part of that process. 

Assuming that she's accepted for that, she'll have a passport with her new name, then can change with the SSA and then DPS. 

Does that sound reasonable? 

 

 

Waiting for naturalization is exactly what we are doing.  However, I don't see a downside to just going into the SS office and requesting they make the change based on the marriage certificate.  My wife was promptly refused but nothing but about 15 minutes of her time was lost in the attempt.

 

[Bob in Boston 759]

thats what we did, all good now.

[top_secret 2,462]

I think I found the definitive answer to this question specifically as it relates to Social Security numbers.  From the Social Security Program Operations Manual Systemhttps://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0110212001

 

Quote

2. Foreign born individual

A foreign-born person’s legal name is the name shown on the presented immigration document (includes hyphens and apostrophes).

The only time you may process an SSN application in a name that does not agree with the name shown on the immigration document is if the person's name was legally changed after the immigration document was issued. In these situations, the legal name is the name shown on the evidence of the name change.

 

[Zin-Zin 21]

4 hours ago, top_secret said:

I think I found the definitive answer to this question specifically as it relates to Social Security numbers.  From the Social Security Program Operations Manual Systemhttps://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0110212001

 

 

So what would the "evidence of the name change" be?

[top_secret 2,462]

2 minutes ago, Zin-Zin said:

So what would the "evidence of the name change" be?

 

In the case of name change due to marriage it would generally be the Marriage Certificate.  It seems that if the marriage occurred before the green card was issued then the name on the green card must be changed first.  If a marriage occurred after the green card was issued then SS could accept the marriage certificate being different from the green card.

[Zin-Zin 21]

1 hour ago, top_secret said:

 

In the case of name change due to marriage it would generally be the Marriage Certificate.  It seems that if the marriage occurred before the green card was issued then the name on the green card must be changed first.  If a marriage occurred after the green card was issued then SS could accept the marriage certificate being different from the green card.

Yeah, we're just going to wait til citizenship and change it then. I think that's the most straightforward and cheapest way to do it

 

[top_secret 2,462]

5 minutes ago, Zin-Zin said:

Yeah, we're just going to wait til citizenship and change it then. I think that's the most straightforward and cheapest way to do it

 

 

That's what we concluded too.