Name Change on GC and Passport question

abczyz

New Member
When I first came to the US, my husband was going to apply for I-485 and he told me that to avoid any complications, it's better that both of us have the same surnames. Lets say my husband's name is Anand Ganesh (All names used here are fictitious). Ganesh being his father's name. I did not not want to have my fil's name as my surname at all, I would have preferred to have my husbands first name as my last name. Many south Indian women have their husband's firstname as their lastname. But because I was young, naive, timid, newly married and stupid at that time, I said ok to the name change and I got my name changed in my passport to lets say, Gita Ganesh. Now, my Green Card, Social Security card and passport are all in the same name. The expiry date in my passport is 2009 (final) . what does final mean? How do I change my name in my passport to Gita Anand. Secondly, I've been reading that you can apply for GC name change on grounds of marriage, divorce or a court order. I don't plan to get divorced and my husband may not agree to go to a court to change my lastname here. Am I stuck with this name here?
 
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Dear abczyz,

Your husband's logic of having the same name was very correct. If you search the forums you will find people facing problems because of that.

Since, now you got GC, I don't see any problem if you change the name. For changing the name in the passport call the Indian Consulate for your region and they will tell you the procedure. For changing the name in US, there are lot of websites which provides good information e.g.:
http://www.accessnamechange.com/

Also name change forms are specific to state (I don't know if they are specific to county also). Here are some of important FAQs for name change on the internet:

Who can file a petition for name change and where is it filed? Any adult person desirous of changing his name or the name or names of his minor child or children may present a petition to the superior court of the county of his residence, setting forth fully and particularly the reasons why the change is asked, which petition shall be verified by the petitioner.

Is publication of notice required? Yes. Within seven days of the filing of the petition, the petitioner shall cause a notice of the filing, signed by him, to be published in the official legal organ (newspaper) of the county once a week for four weeks. The notice shall contain therein the name of the petitioner, the name of the person whose name is to be changed if different from that of the petitioner, the new name desired, the court in which the petition is pending, the date on which the petition was filed, and the right of any interested or affected party to appear and file objections.

Who must consent to the change of a minor's name? If the petition seeks to change the name of a minor child, the written consent of his parent or parents if they are living and have not abandoned the child, or the written consent of the child's guardian if both parents are dead or have abandoned the child, shall be filed with the petition, except that the written consent of a parent shall not be required if the parent has not contributed to the support of the child for a continuous period of five years or more immediately preceding the filing of the petition.

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Must both parents be notified of a minor's attempted name change? Yes. In all cases, before a minor child's name may be changed, the parent or parents of the child shall be served with a copy of the petition. If the parent or parents reside within this state, service of the petition shall be made in person, except that if the location or address of the parent is unknown, service of the petition on the parent shall be made by publication.
What if one parent resides outside Georgia? If the parent or parents reside outside this state, service of the petition on the parent or parents residing outside this state shall be made by certified mail if the address is known or by publication if the address is not known.

What if one someone objects to the name change? If written objections are filed by any interested or affected party within the applicable time limits the court shall thereupon proceed to hear the matter in chambers.

I don't think this is something for which you need to be stressed about. If you follow the process it is simple to do what you are trying to do.
 
abczyz said:
The expiry date in my passport is 2009 (final) . what does final mean?

That means this passport book cannot be renewed again. To renew your passport, you basically need another new passport book (which will have differnt passport number). You can renew your passport from Indian consulate (probably with fee of $40.00).


abczyz said:
How do I change my name in my passport back to my maiden name. Secondly, is it at all possible for a name change in the GC? Do I need a court order from here? I've been reading about this and I see that you can apply for GC name change on grounds of marriage, divorce or a court order

In your situation, I think, the easiest way to do it from court. However, I am not aware of the requirement of name change in Indian passport. You can call them up to know if you can change your name "just like that" (without any ground like marriage, divorce etc). You can get your GC and SSN name changed by showing your new passport. But I am not sure about drivers license (if you care for it), because every state has its own requirement to name change. But in general court order works everywhere across USA.

abczyz said:
I don't plan to get divorced and my husband would never agree to go to a court to change my lastname here. Am I stuck with my fil's name for the rest of my life here?

If it is your name, then why your husband has to agree?
 
PremChopra said:
Your husband's logic of having the same name was very correct. If you search the forums you will find people facing problems because of that.

In last two year in this forum I haven't come across an issue where different last name of husband and wife caused trouble (that does not imply I ready every thread). If you can point out that would be helpful. Different surname should not cause any problem. Her husband's logic has no ground. In fact my wife did not change her name and we applied with different surnames. She got approval without any problem.
In this forum I have seen different kind of name issues. Very common problem is mixing up first name, middle name, last names in different document in different orders - DL, marriage certificate, passport, I-485. Second type of problem is not having same name across all documents - somewhere with original last name, somewhere with husband's last name.
If name is consistent in all documents, there shouldn't be any problem.
 
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Just as an aside my spouse has retained her maiden name. I somehow have always felt it is weird for people to change names. I would not like to change any part of my name for anyone :D

Yeppo
 
My wife also retained her maiden last name. We NEVER had any problems whatsoever. All her documents ( passport, SS card, tax returns, all previous visas, green card, etc.) are in her maiden name.
 
I have to change statement a little bit, What I meant was having a different surname CAN cause a question, one more potential issue to raise eyebrows. Now, it may not depending on individual case.

One of my friends' wife got into lot of delay in Chennai Consulate for being having a different last name and proving that her husband is her husband, eventually she got the visa but my friend applied for a new passport for her in fast track so that passport and marriage certificate both match.

If I am in the similar situation I would prefer to have same last names.
 
PremChopra said:
One of my friends' wife got into lot of delay in Chennai Consulate for being having a different last name and proving that her husband is her husband, eventually she got the visa but my friend applied for a new passport for her in fast track so that passport and marriage certificate both match.

That's probably right way to do it - change passport first so that it matches the name in marriage certificate. Then apply for visa. Otherwise, consulate has no way to figure out the name in passport and name in marriage certificate belongs to very same person. All that matter is consistency. I feel if her marriage certificate contained her maiden name, she would not have any problem with her old passport.
 
Me and my wife have different last names. It's a chinese tradition. We have been living in 3 different countries and never had any problem.
 
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