Name change on Citizenship application

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gondi

Registered Users (C)
I applied for my citizenship with the new name (I wrote the new name on the application whereever they asked for the name ) I supplied the marriage certificate as the supporting document. I have my green card in my maiden name and no other document shows the new name.

Now I have received the Fingerprinting notice and it has the new name on it. Now I am concerned as to how they will identify me with the new name on application but old name on Green card. Can I take the marriage certificate to prove the new name ? Will that be ok ? Anyone experienced this ?

Thanks
AD Sept 26 2008
FP Oct 10 2008
 
Is your name legally changed? Getting married does not mean the name change is legally automatic, so the marriage certificate by itself is not sufficient as a supporting document of the new name (unless the particular jurisdiction where you married has some kind of combo process for marriage+name change in one, and the marriage certificate specifies the old and new names). As far as the US is concerned, your legal name is still your maiden name, unless you have gone through a judicial process to change your name.

If you actually followed a judicial process to change your name, bring the court papers for that along with your green card.
 
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Thanks for the reply.

I got married in india and I have the indian marraige certificate.. I didnt have any legal process to get the name change done..

Now what do I do ? FP is scheduled for Oct 10.
 
gondi said:
I got married in india and I have the indian marraige certificate.. I didnt have any legal process to get the name change done..
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Does the certificate have both your maiden name and new name? Something that says your name used to be XXXXX now your name is YYYYY?

If yes, it is possible that in that Indian state they did the marriage and name change in one legal combined process, which would mean the new name has become your legal name. But to be sure, ask somebody who knows about the applicable laws in the part of India where you got married.
 
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The indian marriage certificate does not state my new name but it has my old name (maiden name) and my husband's name so I guess that should be enough..because I am changing my middle name and last name to his name.. The fingerprinting notice has new name (new middle and last name) which is matching with his name. Do you think its good enough ?

Thanks
 
gondi said:
The indian marriage certificate does not state my new name but it has my old name (maiden name) and my husband's name so I guess that should be enough..because I am changing my middle name and last name to his name..
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If the certificate does not have the old and new name, and you also did not follow a direct name-change process in India or US or anywhere else, USCIS won't accept the certificate by itself as evidence of a new legal name, and most likely your legal name did not change at all.

Without the certificate or another legal document specifying both the old and new names, it cannot be assumed that the marriage means you have a new name, or what that new name is. That is because some newly married women in India don't change their name at all, some take their husband's last name, some put their husband's first name as their last name, and others mix and match the names in different ways. Therefore it is impossible to look at the certificate and know what your new name is supposed to be.

However, you may still be OK at the fingerprinting, because the fingerprint notice should have your A#, which would match your green card. So show the green card and don't say anything. If they inquire about the name discrepancy, show the marriage certificate and hope for the best, and point out that although your name is different, the A# matches your green card.

Assuming you get past that point successfully, the next step is to fill out a corrected Page 1 of the N-400 and bring it to the interview. Write your maiden name as your current legal name, and put the new name in the Name Change section on Page 1. Give the updated Page 1 to the interviewer and explain what has changed. Your name will become officially changed as part of the naturalization process, and the naturalization certificate will have the new name.
 
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That was really nice of you to help me with this. I guess what you say make sense.. Thanks a lot once again !
 
In Part 1 question B, what did you write? Did you copy the name as it is on your green card, or did you write the new name? If you wrote the green card name, that should also make things smoother for you, as it would match what is in their system.
 
I put the green card name there because they specifically mentioned that the name should be as it is on Green card.

By the way, I just checked and there is no middle name on the green card but I put the middle name on my application (oops)..Is it a problem ??
 
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