Getting my fiancé a SSN is getting very frustrating!

Ok, I'll tell you what has happened so far.

First trip, We go on a 30-40 min. trip to St. Paul MN to the "local" SSA. Get lost on the way. Circle around for a while just to find a place to park. And then finally get to the office, take a number, wait, and now we get to talk to a person. We show her the Hong Kong passport, I-94, SSN application, and what we thought was our wedding certificate. Turns out those were not certified ones and only just copies. She tells us to go to another building a few blocks away to get certified ones.

We go where she tells us, after getting lost again and then not being able to find the right building. We take another number and wait some more. Now its our turn to talk to the next nice person He tells us that since we got married and registered in another county he can't help us and to go to our local county. Well this was not so good so far.

We drive back to the local marriage office and ask for our certified copies and she tells us they just mailed them to us today and it should be there in 1 or 2 days. So now we go home empty handed.

The next day it came and we went out again to try a second time.

Second trip, with our new certificate in hand and a smile on our face we try again! Drive for a while, take a number, wait, its our turn! We hand her all the paperwork and documents needed. She stops halfway thru and tells us that because we got married and my wife changed her name from Wing Yan Ding to Julie Yan Barris she cant enter her in the system because the name wouldn't match her I-94 or Hong Kong Passport. She tells us to go to some INS building next to the Mall of America and talk to them... Yet again another failed trip!

We come back here to check what other people have done about this only to find that you can get a SSN even if you changed your name!

So what gives? Can someone answer some questions?


1. Her I-94 expires on September 6, do we still have time left to get a SSN with it?

2. Was that lady just very confused that told us the names wouldn't match so she couldn't not do it?

3. Julie should be using her new legal name for everything from now on? (AOS + EAD)

4. We should now work on EAD and AOS right?

Many people have experienced what you have. The easiest solution is to not tell them you are married and get the card issued in her maiden name (leave the marriage certificate at home). After you have the card, it is alot easier to get the name changed later. You have until 14 days before her I-94 expires to do this. I used the SSA office in St. Paul and had no problems.

It is now to late for her to get a SSN based on her I-94, they will not issue a SSN if the I-94 will expire in the next 2 weeks.... she will need to wait now until she has her EAD or Greencard then she can apply for a SSN.... make sure you use her married name on the AOS and EAD forms if that is the name she wants to use....

Kez

According to the Social Security instructions, provided your marriage certificate lists her prior name (maiden name) exactly and her married name (new name) exactly, you should be able to process the name change. I am only aware of two states that do this, Iowa and parts of Minnesota.

However, most marriage certificates just list the maiden name, which means you are only allowed to change a wife's last name with that marriage certificate; and you listed both a first name and last name change.

That's exactly what I did. Once you have the SSN you can use it for bank accounts or whatever, and change the name later. We were within 14 days of I-94 expiration when we tried to change the name so they would not change it, but that's no big deal, we got the number already.

My wife also got her state ID card in her married name and then changed the name on that afterwards. It's a nice ID and you don't have to carry passport everywhere.

Since your I-94 expires on Sep 6, SSA will not issue a SSN because you are now within 14 days of expiration.

You can just get your AOS in married name and SSA will accept that as ID for new name.

Also, you can just get your AOS in married name and SSA will accept that as ID for new name. However, marriage entitles a woman to change first name (and usually middle name too), but not first name. I suspect USCIS will refuse to change of her first name solely due to marriage, in which case you would have to do that later.

Why will the USCIS refuse to change her name solely due to marriage?

Marriage licenses in some counties in Minnesota (where the OP is) entitles either party (not just the woman) to change first, middle and last name, should they so choose. My wife changed the spelling of her first name, adopted a middle name and changed her last name. I guess I will see if the USCIS will have heartburn.... The county sure did not care one bit....

I never heard of a woman being allowed to change her FIRST name upon marriage. That's a new one for me. I could be wrong though.

This all sounds so familar except we went through it when getting Claudeth's passport renewed. SSA will need a document from the USCIS with your married name. We had applied for Claudeth's social security card after she had been her for two weeks so we thought that after we were married it would be easy to get her name changed on the SS card! Not a good assumption. Once Claudeth's EAD arrived we went back and they accepted that but it still took about six weeks to get a new card. I guess they had to get some sort of confirmation from USCIS.

Marriage certificate is supposed to be legal proof of a name change. Otherwise, how is she supposed to legally assume that name?

No. Some MCs do not even have the married name on it, either printed OR signed!

Name change after marriage seems to involve 3 things - Driver's License (or state non-driving ID), SSA (SSN), and for some of us, DHS/USCIS docs.

Apparently we have no single authority or official "Keeper of the Legal Names" in the US.

Name changing in the United States is very interesting.

The laws behind it can vary from state to state.

There are some states that allow the marriage certificate to document a fill name change (first, middle, last) and the two that I know of are Iowa and parts of Minnesota. There may be more.

In New Jersey, the married name is not listed on the marriage certificate; however Social Security has a process which allows for the following;

If the groom's name before marriage is John Albert Smith
and the bride's name before marriage is Lisa Jennifer Poole,

then the bride would be allowed to change her Social Security name to any of the following after showing sufficient proof of identity and the marriage certificate:

1. Keep it as "Lisa Jennifer Poole"
2. Change only Last Name to get "Lisa Jennifer Smith"
3. Change only Last Name to get "Lisa Jennifer Poole-Smith"
4. Change only Last Name to get "Lisa Jennifer Smith-Poole"

(last name changes are allowed implicitly by Social Security rules upon presentation of the marriage certificate with only maiden names)


Now, for the states lucky enough to show the maiden name and married name on the Marriage Certificate, that allows only (2) options.
1. Maiden Name exactly as listed.
2. Married Name exactly as listed. (First, Middle and Last Name changes allowed, as the marriage certificate is explicit proof of name change.)


Feel free to check out this thread for more details about First Name Changes... http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...t&p=1095510

Also, my state (NM) allowed my wife to change her middle name (she took her maiden name as middle) on her state ID, and we submitted AOS with that married name. We were past the 76 days of her I-94 so SSA refused to change her name, but they said they had no problem with changing the middle name.

If you want to have some fun, search around for the legal issues (or lack thereof) with respect to middle names.

Geez, didn't figure on that one!

I presume this means both the husband and wife are allowed to exchange last names after marrying in these states...

However, first name changes allowed to be completely changed without being given on the certificate, that seems hard to believe...

As for middle name(s), I know SSA rules state that middle name(s) are not part of your legal name, so they'll do whatever you want with them (add/remove/change/initial) without any documentation whatsoever, so long as the total name still fits.

California MC has the groom's full name, the bride's full maiden name and a bunch of useless biographical information, like how many years of education they both have It doesn't state what names the bride and groom are going to use after the marriage. The assumption is, either one of them can change the last name or keep the same name. I suppose, hyphenated names are also allowed.