Green card application for my wife - Should we change name now???

S

SlowJedi

Registered Users (C)
Need help!

I'm about to get my citizenship and right away will be able to apply for my wife's GC. When we got married, we left her last name as is because we would need to go back to Russia, and change her Russian passport first and it would just open a completely new can of worms. So we thought about waiting for the GC to come thru and then go to Russia, change her last name and get the new passport and all. So, the question is: Should we apply for her greencard with the name as it WILL BE or as it is NOW???
 
Did you get married here in the US? If you did and the marriage certificate says that your wife's name has been changed, it would be easy. If not, you will need some kind of id to show that your wife's name has changed, with the new name.
 
Yes, we did get married here, but we didn't change the name on the marriage certificate. Can we change it now? Any idea how it's done?

Thanks
 
Privet,

My parents in law are Russian (now USC as well as my wife).
They didn't change their last name and that's not an issue at all if the marriage is in bona-fide, as I'm sure it is.

Changing last name for the bride is just an option, not a requirement. And do not open the can of worms in Russia (my wife tried to get her birth certificate and it was a nightmare...I can imagine changing last name and passport...)
 
SlowJedi said:
Yes, we did get married here, but we didn't change the name on the marriage certificate. Can we change it now? Any idea how it's done?

Thanks
Click to expand...

If you want to change it though....your wife has to change her social security card first of all.
She has to go to SSA office with her 6 points of identity and with the marriage certificate showing the husband last name. By law, bride could change her last name in husband's last name or a combo of both, even though you didn't specify that when you got your marriage license.
 
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