Hi, everybody!

Did anyone have similar experience at this Consulate trying to put a stam into international passport about new married name?

Today I wend to Russian Consulate in Houston, TX hoping to get a stamp into my international passport shoing my new married name. I had a certified copy of marriage certificate with me. Well, they refused to do it saying that I must present any American official photo ID, such as Green Card, Drivers Licinse, etc. I asked why and they said that they need to verify my new last name against that official ID.... and marriage certificate is just not sufficient!!! I pointed at their own website instructions which say that "if you changed your name due to marriage you need to show marriage certificate"; and "if you want this stamp due to "accuired transliteration of your name on US documents" then you need to have a foreign ID showing that transliteration". Their reply was "yeah... but... we still prefer having your photo ID to "verify your new last name". So frustrating... I just keep thinking something is wrong with it. When you get married in Russia all you need is your marriage cert in order to change passport into new name... And I was able to get debit and credit cards, SSN in my married name here just showing the marriage cert. Yet, I cannot get this stamp in my passport????

Vera.

Welcome back to Russia. "Today we're doing it like this."

In all actuality, they're probably not taking just the marriage certificate because it would be very easy to forge and they have no way to authenticate it. (They can't look it up in a data base or anything like that. I know it's public record, but it's not their public record.) A Green Card on the other hand, is a lot harder to forge so at least they have some kind of piece of mind with these "foreign" documents.

Just wait a few weeks, months, etc. You'll get your EAD or GC or something like that and then you'll have no problems. We had a similar deal getting her SSN card updated and it was the U.S. government that wouldn't accept a marriage cert.

The only thing this will really affect is travelling outside the U.S. and if you're going to do that, you need AP anyway. With AP you shouldn't have anymore problems getting other things changed. So, you're right back where you started.

"And by 'we're doing it like this' we mean just this office or location. It will take several months or years for the rest of the offices in the country to get/read the memo, so good luck with that. By then we'll be doing it differently again."

The Consulate in San Francisco didn't even want to see my marriage certificate - just the green card. They were super nice there.

She doesn't have a green card yet.... and that's the whole problem!

Who knows, maybe the people in Houston would've been super nice too if shed've had a green card. But, since it's Russia, by the time she gets her green card and takes it in to show them she has LPR status, they'll probably say "OK. Now where's your marriage certificate?"

I know that. That's too bad. The whole name thing can get very complicated at times, I even wish I had kept my maiden name to avoid all this bureaucracy.

Guys,

Thank you a lot for your comments. "Back to Russia!" that's exactly what I thought. Why did I even hope that consulates must be different? So naive... Anyway, since I cannot travel outside the US right now I'm just gonna wait for my EAD and AP and then try again. Hopefully they won't get any other new rules by that time.
I agree that the name change is extremely complicated and I wouldn't do it if my maiden last name was easy. But it is "Dvoryanskikh". It sounds great in Russian but I have not met any native English speaking person so far who could spell or say it correctly. I'm proud of my husband who was able to learn it by heart and say it right! But I thought since I am going to live in this country I better take his last name which is much easier to deal with....

Anyway, thanks again, Vera.

Basically what they told us at the USCIS office in Cincinnati was once you're married and you have a paper saying you're allowed to change your name to his, you can start using that name on everything inculding the application for Green Card, EAD, AP, etc., and SSN forms. Also on all State IDs and things of that nature although they often times require a higher form of ID as well.

So, you're still pretty much waiting on your EAD or AP or something to show up, but, officially you can use your new name.

Yes, Slim, there is nothing else to it but waiting, waiting, waiting. Looking forward to a day when it is over... Thank you again for your input.