Married in USA , but don't want to change last name. Please help!

I know people posted above said that it is not a requirement to show an unexpired passport, I assume they would ask me.
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They probably will ask for your passport, but if it's expired and you haven't traveled since it's expired it won't be a problem. It is not a requirement for citizenship applicants (or green card holders in general) to have a valid passport.

So the only reason you should need to renew the Turkish passport is if you need to travel overseas before obtaining your US passport, or if you need to visit Turkey after obtaining your US passport.
 
My advise to 'voyager99' - follow the rules of all countries of whom you have citizenship! I can speak from my own experience. You might not be affected, but your kids might be!

I fell trough all the cracks when I was born because my parents did not bother to follow the rules of their original citizenships. I ended up with NO citizenship at birth at all ! (No i have four due to changes in the law in those countries but I only carry three passports)

I don't think this would happen in your scenario - but if Turkey joins the EU and your kid wants to work or study in europe it might be harder to do so if you didn't follow proper procedure.

And yes, there are countries where you can not pick freely first and/or lastnames, this is especially true in europe! (Switzerland for example has a list with approved firstnames for swiss citizens and up until a few years back, wifes had to take the husbands name on marriage)
 
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Switzerland for example has a list with approved firstnames for swiss citizens...
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I know that some EU countries have various restrictions with names, but isn't that only for the names given to children? Are adults in Switzerland and other EU countries also limited to the approved list, if they want to change their own name?
 
I don't know all countries in europe, but I know the Swiss laws a bit. It's virtually impossible there to change your name. You need to proof that you have a disadvantage with your current name and the barrier is very high. You can't just change the name because you want to.

Fifteen years ago or so it was clear in Switzerland: A women gets married, she gets the husbands last name - no choice. Now she can pick between three variants: Husbands name, her own name, husbands name dash her name. The kid still gets the fathers last name - no choice there. Similar rule is true for Germany I think (no warranties implied here). And as a funny side note: The common spanish first name 'Jesus' for example is not allowed.

Furthermore, if you're a foreigner you need to have a confirmation from the country you're citizen that it is OK to name your kid the way you want to. And forget about the Spanish rules how a last name is formed (ending variants). This creates problems for spanish or mexicans when they want to marry.

Another mess is citizenship. France for example follows the rule 'jus soli' (citizenship trough soil - birth location) but all other European countries follow the rule 'jus sanguinis' (citizenship trough - fathers - blood). Mix in mandatory military service and you have a big mess. Now mix in which citizenship a kid gets (mother or father or place of birth or all or some) you even have an even bigger mess. It's better now, but forty years ago or so this was a problem and I got hit by this shit hard.

And to go back to the original question of 'voyager99' - if you have multiple passports with different names that is most likely OK for the US Authorities if you're a US Citizen. But again, it can create problems in foreign countries - especially for your (future) kids. This can also for example trigger a thing like "my kid gets a schoolarship / free university access or not". Think carefully about side effects !
 
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And to go back to the original question of 'voyager99' - if you have multiple passports with different names that is most likely OK for the US Authorities if you're a US Citizen.
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That's what I was trying to tell her ... if her green card says Firstname MaidenName while her Turkish passport says Firstname MaidenName HusbandsName, the officers at the US port of entry aren't going to give much difficulty (if any). And when arriving in the US with a US passport, it's moot because she won't show the Turkish passport. So this boils down to how much she wants to keep the benefits of using a Turkish passport outside of America, especially if/when they join the EU. Fortunately, the EU nations have raised concerns about women's rights in Turkey, and it's likely they will have to change this particular requirement before being accepted into the EU.
 
Ok I also sent an email to my attorney. They didn't give me a lot of info but they wrote I should keep my green card the same way it is because I will apply for citizenship.
Now I am not worry about the name change in my Turkish passport. But my worry is what is gonna happen when I apply to citizenship? Meaning that do you guys think that it is ok to keep green card, marriage license and driver license with my actual name and Turkish passport with my last name plus my hubby name. So do you think it is gonna make a problem? Turkish passport name will be different than green card, driver license etcetc...
 
Plus, let's say if I have my name, maiden a name, husbands name in Turkish passport but green card has my name and last name. Do you think it is gonna cause a problem if I go out of the country and come back here at the port?

By the way do I need to inform immigration I got married? Even I didn't change my name here???
I am totally confused and frustrated with this situation. I don't even know what to do!!!!
 
You're worrying about nothing. Many people go to the interview with two or three different variations of their name on their passport vs. GC. vs. license and still don't have a problem, as long as they listed the extra variations on the N-400 in the "other names used" section.

Put YourFirstName YourLastName for your current legal name on the N-400, and YourFirstName YourLastName HusbandsLastName on the passport and "other names used" of the N-400, and they almost surely won't bother you about the name discrepancy in the naturalization interview. If they say anything, just tell them the Turkish government forced your husband's name to be on the passport because you're a married woman, but you actually don't use his last name and you don't plan to put his last name on your naturalization certificate or any other documents. Then they'll move on to the next question without a problem.

They might not even ask for your passport in the first place, if you show your GC and DL and don't have an extensive travel history.
 
Thank you very much Jackolantern. I think I am like belt and suspenders. I want to do the right thing. It makes sense. Thanks again.
 
If they ask for your passport, show the expired passport first (assuming the consulate will give you back the expired one?).

If you show the new passport first they'll ask for the old one anyway, because it's the old passport which would have most of your travel history (or all of your travel history, if you never traveled with the new passport before the interview). Show the new passport only if they specifically ask for it after looking through the old one.
 
Jackolantern said:
Yes, I was referring to the citizenship interview.
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ok here is an update. first of all, thanks for the all replies. i have been working my way thru to figure out how i can convince my country to keep my maiden name. unfortunately, after all my emails to government, counsalte etc, didnt work.
I opted to not to renew my passport and apply to citizenship with an expired passport. if they asked me why i will tell them, it was taking a long and expensive process and i wanted to get my USA passport to use.
another reason i dont want to renew my native passport is, this issue is on the court ( there are several women with my position) so court might rule to have an option to have your maiden name. keeping my fingers cross that i dont need to go out of state until september ( my citizenship application).
 
and one more question

voyager99 said:
ok here is an update. first of all, thanks for the all replies. i have been working my way thru to figure out how i can convince my country to keep my maiden name. unfortunately, after all my emails to government, counsalte etc, didnt work.
I opted to not to renew my passport and apply to citizenship with an expired passport. if they asked me why i will tell them, it was taking a long and expensive process and i wanted to get my USA passport to use.
another reason i dont want to renew my native passport is, this issue is on the court ( there are several women with my position) so court might rule to have an option to have your maiden name. keeping my fingers cross that i dont need to go out of state until september ( my citizenship application).
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do you guys think it will cause a background check problem because i am married in the usa but i am still single at my native country. ( because i havent applied to counsulate yet)
 
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