Hey guys,

We're going to file for my removing of conditions on June. Just curious if I can apply for US passport after getting my 10 year GC or whatever extension of staying here. Kinda wandering cuz we're planning to visit my family back in the Phil. My passport is still on my maiden name on it too. Do i have to file paperworks to change my maiden name to my married name? Do I still have to file Advance Parole in order to travel outside US after getting the 10 year GC? Little bit confused... Hope to get some answers and advices from you guys.

Thanks,
Lira

You can only apply for a US passport after getting US citizenship.

Only US citizen are qualified to acquire US passport, in your case being 10 yr. GC holder are not qualified. I don't see any problem if your passport is still in your maiden name, just bring along with you your marriage certificate and GC, you can still come back in the US anytime after your vacation from the Philippines. No need to file AP since you had your 10 yr. GC. You can also renew your passport in the Philippines and you can change your maiden name to married name if you want to.

I agree, only US citizens can apply for a US passport, in your case your not qualified for apply for citizenship yet. To change your name on your Philippine passport you have to contact the Philippine consulate in Chicago and file for passport ammendment to change name. Since you already have a greencard you don't need to file for AP.

This is the information of the Philippine Consulate in Chicago:

PHILIPPINE CONSULATE GENERAL
Hon. (Ms.) BLESILA C. CABRERA
Consul General
30 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 2100
Chicago, Illinois, 60602 U.S.A.

Tel. Nos. (312) 332-6458 / MP. 1-312-5016458
Fax No. (312) 332-3657

Email: chicagopcg@sbcglobal.net / chicagopc@dfa.gov.ph
Website: http://www.chicagopcg.com

(Jurisdiction : Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Illinois, and Wisconsin)

As mentioned only citizens can have a US passport which you are not. Maybe down the road at some point you can file for that and eventually get one. As for travelling there is no Adavance Parole you have a 10 year Green Card. Just use your normal passport and your Green Card when comming back to the US. That's all...

Only after you become a US Citizen.

Thank you guys for all your responses. I appreciate it a lot. Good luck to me and to everyone... Take care and God bless

is it that easy to just go and apply for the passport.....no its not u need to file the n-400 to become a usa citizen

Is there a certain amount of prestige by having a consulate office in downtown Chicago, took us four hours to cover 270 miles between our town in WI until we hit O'Hare, then another 3 1/2 hours for that last 30 miles to hit downtown Chicago creeping along at 2-3 mph. Only to get there and find no place to park. Venezuelan consulate is also there, but has three free parking spaces in front if you have consulate license plates. Found a place to park about ten blocks away for 18 bucks an hour. That was three years ago, this time I got smart and took at train only having to pay a buck fifty with plenty of parking in Antioch, IL. Train fare for the three of us was 37 bucks, but the Union Station was only a two block walk.

But hey! We only had 300 miles to go, with four only such consulate offices in the USA, we could have had to travel as much as 1,500 miles. And depending on train schedules, some of our friends got struck paying over 300 bucks to stay in one of their dirty hotel rooms for a night.

There are restrictions to the ten year card, have to pay taxes, sign and get a form approved if you are planning on leaving the country for over a year, sign up for selective service if you are a male between 18 and 26, and show allegiance to the USA. Ha, all of the privileges of being a USA citizen, especially that part about paying taxes, and do we have to pay taxes. But you cannot vote nor get a passport.

Wife and daughter still have family down there that can't come and visit us once in awhile, impossible for them to get a Visa to come to the USA due to our state department rules, another US agency, so I am forced to go down there to renew their passports that isn't exactly easy, because my wife and daughter already lived her for five years. Have to get on my knees and kiss butt and give a little gratuity on the side. While the people down there are very nice, Chavez and Bush don't seem to get along very well. And I don't need a Visa to visit Venezuela.

I admit to being dump and stupid, but it seems to me if you are a permanent resident of this country, you should be able to get some kind of USA passport, I mean, as a permanent resident, you are paying taxes and can be selected for the draft if that is called for. I am so stupid as a matter of fact, I don't even know what a permanent resident is. Okay, I filled out that ten page form and teaching my wife and daughter that we have a flag that is colored red, white, and blue and sent in the $675.00 for each of them, while some of you may think this is expensive, is dirt cheap compared to trying to maintain a foreign passport that our law requires you to do. As a veteran of a foreign war, beneath my dignity to have to bend over and kiss someone's butt, but hey, this is my family!

Ironically, they could have become USA citizens over a year ago if it wasn't for delays in the USCIS, claim it takes months for an FBI check when I can get that done in two minutes if I want to buy a gun. What else bugs me as a spouse to a permanent resident, has forced to sign that I-864, no problem now, but things do happen, some dingbat can shoot me, disable me, and I won't be able to work. But see thousands of illegals here getting all kinds of free governmental and private aid.

Wife and I wanted to do everything legally, but really wonder why, has occurred to me more than once that this country I could have laid down my life for is a bit screwed up.

Do not see any need to be a permanent resident, wasn't true in the older days, either you are a US citizen or not, and we all are immigrants to this country, and yes, that also includes the Indians, but they didn't have laws here 12,000 years ago.

Lira, if your Philippine passport is not about to expire yet you can continue to use it when you travel overseas. Just be sure to have your plane tickets issued in your maiden name and take a copy of your marriage certificate with you.

If you are ready to have your passport renewed and would like to change it to your married name, you have to file for a Report of Marriage with the Phil Embassy or consulate that has jurisdiction over where you live right now. You can submit the Report of Marriage together with your passport renewal application.

We had to register our marriage in my wife's home country as well before she could change her passport to her married name. The stickler was to get an Apostille of our original marriage certificate, but after some digging found I could get that from the secretary of state of our state. We went into her consulate, both of us together with that marriage certificate with the apostille, I brought along full identification for myself that as a born US citizen wasn't that much, my drivers license and birth certificate, wife had a whole bunch of stuff to prove her identity plus her old passport.

Was it worth this effort? I would say yes, while we traveled through a couple of countries in South America without problems, had some difficulty getting back in the good old USA. But having an expired green card at the time with the original one year extension notice, my wife with a passport with our married name on it, made it much easier.

Ha, getting my passport was the real problem, suppose to take two weeks when you pay the premium price, took over 3 1/2 months, but with enough yelling and screaming on my part, got it 12 hours before our flight was due to take off. I hate listening to that crap about an FBI check causing delays and even questioned the officer on that point. Ha, I believe in fairness between government employees and we that pay their wages, but don't try paying your taxes five minutes too late.

Thank you guys. I know I need to file for whatever papers for citizenship and I know it's not easy. For all you guys who shared thoughts with me, a lot of thanks to you. It's just a long process but I guess I/we have to do it. I'm almost there....

Have to keep the USCIS happy and better to send more evidence than less, we send some color photographs of us to let them know we are real people. I used Adobe Acrobat 8 to copy the evidence from the M-476 manual that just applied to us to make a condensed list on Word, printed that out and put everything in the order they called for.