papasmf

Indeed, and I do believe you are one of those who've helped us in the past, so thank you as well!

Did you do the interview yet? That is where you take care of the name change. There is an additional form to fill out and sign, if you didn't already request it on the N-400. Once you've done that during the interview, it gets sent off and takes anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. Our Oath Ceremony occurred a little under 4 months after the interview, because of the name change. Then, during the Oath Ceremony, they will make the name change official that was requested during the interview. Here is more information for you: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/correcting-your-name-when-obtaining-us-citizenship.html Edit - quote from the link above: Instructions on how to fill out Form N-400 and include your name change preference are found in Filling Out USCIS Form N-400 Application for Naturalization. If you have already submitted your Form N-400 and did not indicate a name change preference, it's not too late. At your interview, you can ask U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to let you complete a Petition for Name Change. If you are approved for citizenship, and if naturalization swearing-in ceremonies are conducted by a court in your area, then you will be able to change your name legally at the ceremony. Your name change will take effect immediately after the ceremony has ended. The new name that you choose will be shown on your Certificate of Naturalization. In addition, you should receive a separate piece of paper that indicates you had a legal name change and you will be able to use the separate paper as proof of your new name.

We completed an approximately six year process from K1 -> AOS -> ROC -> Citizenship back in mid-August this year. I updated our timeline back then, but I just felt the need to log in and take a moment to give thanks, so: Thank you so much to VisaJourney and its community! We seriously could not have done this without you. This is quite possibly the most useful and active forum on the internet. Anytime we had a question, the answer could be found here and/or we could ask it ourselves and get a solid answer. Those answers always came back same day, if not within seconds or minutes from posting. Even the most obscure issues are solved here in a moments notice. You've helped us save thousands of dollars avoiding the use of an immigration lawyer, and rescued us from millions of headaches or bouts of anxiety. The knowledge here far exceeds anything that could've been paid for professionally, and all of it.. at no cost to us. The end-result: I get to be together with my wife, every day, and for the rest of my life. Plus, she now has all of the same rights as any other American citizen, and soon... her passport will arrive in the mail and we can finally travel to places we've only ever dreamed of seeing. I feel like the best way to continue giving thanks is to stick around and help other members of the community with the knowledge we've learned along the way from our experiences and from you. Once again, and with the utmost appreciation and regard for all of you here, thank you! I wish you all the best in your own visa journey and in your lives moving forward beyond it.

If you took care of the name change during your interview before the ceremony, then I don't believe you have anything to worry about - just go to your Oath Ceremony at the address they provided for it.

Thanks much

It is certainly possible she may have misunderstood, and I wasn’t there. I was however surprised to see First Middle Last on the ceremony invite, especially after hearing about the conversation she said they had plus the -45 day wait for the invite, and just want to make sure we don’t need to do something here beforehand, and I’m just hoping there wasn’t a mistake where the officer tried to change it to what it says now because of that potential miscommunication. Sounds like we can just tell them what we want on the certificate at the end of the ceremony regardless though, thank you again for your replies.

Thank you for the prompt reply, much appreciated (both replies). So, all prior communications from USCIS post-marriage/AOS showed First Maiden Last, but now the ceremony invitation letter has First Middle Last, and this was after the interview officer told us that she needed to do a legal name change to keep First Maiden Last as her legal name and then inputting whatever he did on his computer to do so. Our N-400 application initially didn’t request any changes and listed that same name that was on all prior communications from us and them. The whole thing has been confusing since the officer suggested we needed anything done here, during marriage process they said SS office handled the married name change, which is where we had it changed to begin with, prior to getting GC and ID/DL. Still think we’re good to attend the ceremony or should we reschedule as suggested in the other reply above your’s?

@Scandi(or anyone else on here) would you happen to know the answer to this? One of my wife's friends said just goto the ceremony and they can fix it there, but I haven't seen anything that says you can do that at the end of the ceremony. Edit: correction to "The interviewer gave her the forms to fill out and sign" - wife said he actually just filled them out for her on his computer and had her verify information on the screen.

@JimmyHou my wife's IDs and SS card have her name as FirstName MaidenName MarriedName. When she went in for the citizenship interview, the interviewer said she would need a name change or would otherwise have to use FirstName MiddleName MarriedName (in her case Middle Name is her mom's maiden name, not a real middle name). The interviewer gave her the forms to fill out and sign and told us to expect it to take longer before her ceremony letter would come in. It's been 7 weeks since then and today we received the ceremony letter, but it is using FirstName MiddleName MarriedName, as opposed to what was requested on the forms and shown on her GC, driver's license, and SS card. At this point we aren't sure how to try to resolve this, and her ceremony is in two weeks. Would you happen to have any advice for us? Thank you for your information on here and thank you for you time.

Citizenship interview was today, and success! Now, we wait for the ceremony letter. Depending on how quickly that comes in the mail and is scheduled, we may need to reschedule the ceremony. Wife is traveling to Philippines in 2 weeks on her Philippines passport, and will be gone for 6 weeks, so we'll see.