Wife applying for US citizenship. I am changing my name legally.

ssk1974

Registered Users (C)
Hi,

My wife will be applying for citizenship, in first week of August. I am changing my name as it has been wrong from my Visa days. When my wife applies for her citizenship, is there any additional forms or any explanation letter, she has to do as to why I changed my name? Are there any issues with this?
 
You said your name "has been wrong from my Visa days". That seems like you're only correcting the documents that currently show your wrong name, and you're not actually changing your name itself.

Which is it? An actual name change, or a correction of the name printed on some documents to make them match the official legal name you've held since birth?

If you're only correcting some documents, your wife should just give your correct name on her citizenship application. But if you change your actual legal name in the middle of her citizenship process, she would have to update USCIS about your name change. She won't need to explain why you changed your name.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I am changing my actual legal name. From the place I come from we do not have a first name last name concept, so the passport/visa office used my father's name as my last name, which has ended up being a long name for me. I am changing it to just my name using part of my name as first name and the other part as last name.

My wife has not applied for her citizenship yet, she becomes eligible in first week of August. If I get my name changed legally before she applied for citizenship, is there any additional forms needs to be sent, or the court ordewred name change document needs to be sent with the application?

Thank you for your time and help.
 
If you're a USC and she's applying for citizenship based on 3 years of marriage to you, she would need to submit a copy of your name change court order along with a copy of the marriage certificate. That can easily be done if the name change order is available when she applies, or at the time of the interview. But not so simple if your name change is done after the interview and before her naturalization oath.
 
Top