Philippines CR1/IR1, name changes, Report of Marriage

[Nathan Alden, Sr. 17]

Hi, all. It's been awhile since I posted. Currently, my I-130 petition for my Filipina spouse is reported to be "1 week" away from review. We'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I had filed our Report of Marriage with the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco several months ago, which was soon after accepted by the Consulate. However, I've read that the PSA is pushing seven months to process Reports of Marriage. I haven't yet checked with the PSA to determine if they even have the record yet. I am currently in Cebu City with my spouse. Is it simply a matter of traveling to a PSA office here and checking?

 

Now for name changes: when we married we did not change her name as the historical rules around name changes in the Philippines are onerous and IMO ridiculous. My spouse wants to change her full name, so I had originally decided to wait until she got to the US to do so, even knowing that it would affect several official immigration documents at that point. I did this because to my knowledge, Filipinas are only allowed to change their last names, even though I had also read that a law was recently passed stating they can change their full names. As we all know, determining what the law is and what the effective rules are in the Philippines is a nightmare. I know changing her name now will obviate future changes to immigration documents, but I have several questions:

 

1. Will this affect the I-130 petition in any way if her new name no longer matches the petition? Does it matter whether the petition has yet to be reviewed or is already accepted?
2. Do I need to notify the USCIS or NVC or embassy (as appropriate depending on the status of my case) if she changes her name before visa issuance? If so, how?
3. Is it even possible for her to change her full name in the Philippines?

 

I won't get into why she wants to change her full name as there are very personal and valid reasons for her doing so.

 

The Report of Marriage lag is extremely inconvenient. One wonders what the heck is going on at the PSA... The Consulate in San Francisco reviewed our documentation very quickly.

 

Here's a website describing the insanity required to change one's full name in the Philippines: https://duranschulze.com/how-to-legally-change-your-name-in-the-philippines/

Edited January 28 by Nathan Alden, Sr.

[Nathan Alden, Sr. 17]

I can't edit my original post anymore, but an update: It is possible to perform a full name change in the Philippines but it requires a Regional Trial Court case, and the judge may just decide (after the long, expensive process) to deny it. This option is pretty much off the table now. Now I just need to learn about what downstream effects her changing her name has on the I-130 petition, NVC, and embassy processes.

Edited January 28 by Nathan Alden, Sr.

[top_secret 2,555]

PSA doesn't really take 7 months to process a ROM.  They just tell you that so you won't hassle them.  1-2 months to process it after the consulate finishes is more typical.

 

AFTER the SFO consulate returns the original stamped ROM to you, you can check the progress towards being sent to PSA by emailing oca.crd-us@dfa.gov.ph .  In the email, ask if the "Transmittal Details" for you ROM are available yet and attach a PDF scan of the stamped ROM you received back from the consulate.
If they reply with the "Transmittal Details"

 

(1) REFERENCE NUMBER
(2) DISPATCH NUMBER
(3) DISPATCH DATE
(4) TRANSMITTAL DATE

 

It means PSA has it and if you can get someone competent at PSA (?) they can issue the ROM.

I feel that changing her full name will be an issue in the Philippines.  I do not think it would be easy. In marriage she would ordinarily drop her middle name, change her maiden last name to her middle name, and assume her husband's last name.  Alternately, she could only take your surname. Or, she could even drop her name entirely and become "Mrs husband's full name". There is also a ruling that she could retain her full maiden name "as-is".  It is not just custom, it is actual Philippine law.  I do not personally know of any option to change her name otherwise, other than the almost non-starter Philippine court process.  Anything requiring any kind of court process in the Philippines takes ALLOT of time, money, risk, and a really sketchy lawyer.

 

According to Article 370 of the Civil Code of the Philippines............

https://amslaw.ph/philippine-laws/civil-law/civil-code-of-the-philippines(4)

 

ARTICLE 370. A married woman may use:
(1) Her maiden first name and surname and add her husband’s surname, or
(2) Her maiden first name and her husband’s surname, or
(3) Her husband’s full name, but prefixing a word indicating that she is his wife, such as "Mrs."

 

If she is planning to assume her married name within the norms of Philippine law it will be incredibly helpful and many times easier and cheaper if she can change her Philippine passport BEFORE her interview. The US will issue the visa, the green card, the social security number and every other US document derived from those in whatever name is in the passport she brings the day of her interview.  If you are trying to accomplish a name change that is outside the norms of Philippine law then just wait until she gets to the US but be aware that changing a green card once it has been issued with a different name is costly and time consuming. (though probably far less costly and time consuming than doing a nonconventional name change in the Philippines)
 

[spicynujac 43]

I always get confused with these PH name change threads because people act like the PH assigns marriage names in some unique way, but they handle them EXACTLY the same as the convention where I am from (American south) which is also the standard in Scotland / Ireland and I believe most English speaking nations, so it's pretty straightforward for me and I don't get the long explanations about it (the name change convention, not the process). 

 

Wife's maiden name (last name) becomes her new middle name, and she takes the husband's last name.  Her old middle name is dropped.  That's how all my friends and family back home are named, so it's nothing new for me.  The only thing I've ever seen differently is if the wife doesn't want to change her name at all, which is what happens in either PH or USA if you don't bother to contact any government agencies to change your documents.  

 

Your marriage certificate serves as proof of the name change.  (In the PH the Report of Marriage is the domestic version of a foreign marriage certificate).

From what I've read here, it's very desirable to have the green card issued in your wife's married name, in other words, change her documents to reflect her new married name BEFORE the visa interview in Manila.

I think it's already been answered in this thread, but what we've done is:

1) obtain the Report of Marriage from the local PSA office (we went in at 5 months, they said it wasn't ready yet, went back 6 weeks later and they gave us a copy).  

2) obtain Advisory on Marriage from PSA (couple of bucks) and background check with both names/alias from National Bureau of Investigation.

3) Registered for a visa interview date in March in Manila

4) Took existing PH passport and ROM to Dept of Foreign Affairs and applied for a new passport in married name (about $15)

5) Within 3 weeks we got the new passport back.  Uploaded new passport, along with ROM, police check, and PSA Advisory on Marriage to CEAC website.

   5a) We called the embassy and they reopened the Form DS-260 that we could edit through the CEAC website. I logged in, changed 3 fields:  Current name: new married name.  Prior names: Yes / maiden name.  Passport #: changed to new #.  Saved.  From what I've read this step is optional and the embassy officer can do it at the interview, but since we called and were told to do this, we did it ourselves.

6) Will bring both original passports and original of all the newly uploaded docs (ROM, Advisory on Marriage, police clearance) to the interview.  This shouldn't cause any change to our scheduled interview as we have the same case # as before.

 

Not exactly simple, but straight forward, unless you are trying to change your wifes name to something unconventional.

On 1/28/2025 at 8:36 AM, Nathan Alden, Sr. said:

 the historical rules around name changes in the Philippines are onerous and IMO ridiculous. My spouse wants to change her full name

 

Only if you are rejecting the normal name convention of accepting your last name and keeping her maiden name.  Which also requires court approval in the USA in my state.  

 

We already have a PH passport with my wife's married name and it cost <$20 for the whole process, which is way cheaper than even getting  a new driver license in the USA.

Edited January 30 by spicynujac

[spicynujac 43]

If I'm reading your timeline correctly, @Nathan Alden, Sr. you are still waiting on your I-130 petition to be approved and thus haven't even completed form DS-260 yet, so this should be even easier for you.  When your I-130 petition is approved, fill out the DS-260 visa application using your wife's new married name.  Then you don't have to make any *changes* to any immigration documents at all.  Just fill out everything based on her new PH passport.  Your estimated timeline date is October 2025 for I-130 approval.  You will easily have her new passport by then.  It was a very simple and cheap process for us.

 

But if she's trying to begin using a totally different name than the one she was born with, yes, that is more involved and really has nothing to do with marriage or immigration so it must go through the proper legal process as it involves issues of public safety and trust.

Edited January 30 by spicynujac

[DELTAFOXTROT 78]

On 1/28/2025 at 8:36 AM, Nathan Alden, Sr. said:

Hi, all. It's been awhile since I posted. Currently, my I-130 petition for my Filipina spouse is reported to be "1 week" away from review. We'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I had filed our Report of Marriage with the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco several months ago, which was soon after accepted by the Consulate. However, I've read that the PSA is pushing seven months to process Reports of Marriage. I haven't yet checked with the PSA to determine if they even have the record yet. I am currently in Cebu City with my spouse. Is it simply a matter of traveling to a PSA office here and checking?

 

Now for name changes: when we married we did not change her name as the historical rules around name changes in the Philippines are onerous and IMO ridiculous. My spouse wants to change her full name, so I had originally decided to wait until she got to the US to do so, even knowing that it would affect several official immigration documents at that point. I did this because to my knowledge, Filipinas are only allowed to change their last names, even though I had also read that a law was recently passed stating they can change their full names. As we all know, determining what the law is and what the effective rules are in the Philippines is a nightmare. I know changing her name now will obviate future changes to immigration documents, but I have several questions:

 

1. Will this affect the I-130 petition in any way if her new name no longer matches the petition? Does it matter whether the petition has yet to be reviewed or is already accepted?
2. Do I need to notify the USCIS or NVC or embassy (as appropriate depending on the status of my case) if she changes her name before visa issuance? If so, how?
3. Is it even possible for her to change her full name in the Philippines?

 

I won't get into why she wants to change her full name as there are very personal and valid reasons for her doing so.

 

The Report of Marriage lag is extremely inconvenient. One wonders what the heck is going on at the PSA... The Consulate in San Francisco reviewed our documentation very quickly.

 

Here's a website describing the insanity required to change one's full name in the Philippines: https://duranschulze.com/how-to-legally-change-your-name-in-the-philippines/

Never understood anyone wanting to do ROM in Philippines.

 

So much easier to keep everything in her name, Me personally I don't want my name on any Philippines marriage register.

 

[Nathan Alden, Sr. 17]

3 hours ago, DELTAFOXTROT said:

Never understood anyone wanting to do ROM in Philippines.

 

So much easier to keep everything in her name, Me personally I don't want my name on any Philippines marriage register.

 

I commiserate about the concern over Philippine bureaucracy but if you visit the Philippines they already have your name and a bunch of other information. The only thing you need to worry about having a registered marriage is infidelity due to the strict laws.

I have to file a Report of Marriage because one of the requirements for the CFO seminar is a PSA marriage license. No RoM, no CEMAR.