Name Change at Naturalization Headache

[top_secret 2,521]

On 1/13/2025 at 3:26 PM, Scandi said:

The marriage certificate is all she needs to update her name with SSA, she could've done that years ago, or 6 months ago, or whenever she wanted to after your wedding.

The name change document that she got when she naturalized (form N-662) is signed by a federal judge, you can cross "court order" in the application. USCIS cannot change someone's name, it has to go through court, hence it's a court order. Form N-662 is the the name change document. 

 

What we have experienced is that for a "foreign born person", if any relevant USCIS immigration document (green card, naturalization certificate etc) comes chronologically after the marriage certificate then Social Security is digging in hard and will accept only the name on the more recent immigration document and will NOT accept the marriage certificate as a name change document if it differs from the more recent immigration document.  My wife has been denied changing names based on the marriage certificate multiple times both as a LPR and as a Citizen because it does not match her immigration documents.