OK, so I have not posted in months. Many months. But here I am with a quick update. Anh received her green card, a 2 year version, earlier this year. No interview was needed for some reason. I am assuming that when the 2 year is due to review for a ten year that THEN she will have the interview?

I have been told that since she has the green card she does not need to renew her working permit, is that correct? I've had a heck of a lot of trouble getting a straight answer on this one.

Anh worked in North Carolina but was very bored with her boring job. She hated it, but it was a good experience for her. NC was BORING AS HELL for her and it caused serious problems with our marriage. She was miserable and that made me miserable, so we were both miserable.

Long story very short, we have moved to New York and are currently in Brooklyn. Because Anh is tri-lingual she had immediate multiple job offers. She was shocked at how many offers she had, but I wasn't. Meanwhile I cannot get arrested. No job yet. Very frustrating.

But we are here in the city and she is much happier and feels better about life. Better food. Things to do. We have friends here. And it is cold, with real snow and she wants snow on Christmas, etc. I'm freezing, but it's OK.

So now we have to figure out how to change her name. The government has her name different on every single piece of paper they have! Sometimes her last and mddle names are reversed and sometimes her first name, which is like two names, is reversed. t's made banking and other things a pain in the you know what.

So what is the best way to change her name? I have read and read and read and it is terribly confusing. We are just lost in regards to this. She wants her name to read, Her first name, her last name, my last name. Right now most of the documentation reads like, Her First name, Her last name, her middle name. So maybe we can drop her middle name and replace it with my last name? What do we do and how?

Next year is 2008 and we hope it is a great year for us. No more boring North Carolina. Better food. Better jobs. Better life.

Merry Christmas to all here. I'll try and be a more active member here from now on.

Nice to hear things are going well for you. I don't think Sheriff Taylor, Barney Fife, Floyd and the gang will like hearing you weren't happy with N.C. though!
Merry Christmas!

Way to go Matt Stevens!

We were asking about you recently

Every state has different rules about this, but in Iowa, all you have to do is go down to the courthouse and file a petition for a name change. Here, it costs you $80. I assume it will be more costly in NY.

My ex-wife had the same sort of issue because the law in Iowa says that when you get married, you can either replace your surname with that of your spouse's or you can hypenate. It does not allow you to simply add a surname, or change anything else around. So the name change was the solution. I think it should be very easy.

By the way, I was born in North Carolina.

That's good that she likes NYC - I'm in love with NC and would never move to NYC (already got away from Bangkok.. never again big city!)

Good luck and have a wonderful white christmas (or holiday )!

Good to hear from you Matt.... glad things are working out better for you both....

Is her greencard in the right name?? if not the file a I-90 pay the fee and get her name changed on that.... once that is done you can then change her SSN and her State ID/DL and other things such as bank accounts...

Kez

Great to see you back on VJ and that things are going well for you both...

STL_HCMC

Thanks for the kind words, everyone.

Her Green card has her middle and last names switched. Guess I need to have her file the I-90.

You should check her name on all of the green card, SS card and ID. She need to remind them for the exact name from beginning. She may use only First and Last name, but in the Green card, SS card and ID card, she should have the same name.

My name have 4 words, it's not easy for the Americans to pronounce and remember but they did for me exactly name on SS card and ID card. On Green card, they only list First Name and Last Name but the Alien number is their base to check.

So, you can tell her to use First name and Last name for her convenience. The middle name can be listed by the first letter as abbreviation.

like Hien Said just use first and last


most of the time they use middle which is confusing when u look at it.