How to change name of foreign spouse?

[maadams2004 0]

Hello, All. Following the receipt of my wife and step-daughters’ visas they’ll be joining be back in the U.S. I’ve got a few questions regarding the process for officially changing their names. I’m hoping someone here may have some experience with this already and can possibly assist me.

How exactly can my wife legally change her name? I know that when most American women get married they simply file for a change of name/new social security card with the Social Security Administration. Would it be the same for my non-U.S. wife? When she is legally able to obtain a social security card is it a matter of her simply providing her new “Americanized” name on the application? My wife is Dominican and in Latin American culture a lot of people, like my wife, have a first name, a middle name, and two last names. As we move forward in our life together my wife and I want her name to reflect our unity.

The other option was to have her change her name in the Dominican Republic. But they will simply format her name in accordance to tradition in Latin America….with regard to marrying Americans anyway….by giving her my last name with “De” in front of it. For example, First Name Middle Name “De Jones.” I’d prefer not to go this route.

With regard to my step-daughters, they both live with my wife, but she doesn’t officially have full custody of the children. That is the biological father hasn’t renounced the children (although he didn’t claim the youngest and only did so this year so that my wife could take a completed birth certificate to the local government and obtain a passport for my step-daughter); he is actually not an active part of the girls’ lives. He left my wife when she was pregnant with their second child. The first daughter was one at the time. He had never seen the second child until we needed his assistance in order to get the girls’ passports. She’s now six years old.

Regardless, the biological father has given us written permission to take the two girls out of the country. That being the case can the girls legally take my last name? My own children have my last name, my wife eventually will have my last name, so I’d like my entire household to have the same last name. There has to be a precedent for this? I just don’t want my step-daughters being the odd ones out. I want them to feel just as much part of the family as my own kids. If you’re under my roof I consider you my child. I make no distinction. So it would be nice if I can make this happen.

Does anyone out there have any experience with this or possibly dealt with a similar situation? Comments welcome.

[Mononoke28 134]

Your wife can just take your marriage certificate to the SSA office to get her social under her married name and any other document after that, including her green card if she's filing for AOS. She will however, keep her maiden name in the Dominican Republic unless she officially changes it over there. This means that she will use one name here in the US and another in DR. I also have to deal with this since I don't want to go through the hassle and agony of trying to change my name in Colombia.

As for your step-daughters' last name, you will have to go to court to get this done. Each state has information about this, so if you go to their web site you should be able to find it. I believe you will need to file paperwork, get the father's permission to do so (regardless of how involved he may have or may not have been in their lives) and pay a fee.

Diana

[maadams2004 0]

Your wife can just take your marriage certificate to the SSA office to get her social under her married name and any other document after that, including her green card if she's filing for AOS. She will however, keep her maiden name in the Dominican Republic unless she officially changes it over there. This means that she will use one name here in the US and another in DR. I also have to deal with this since I don't want to go through the hassle and agony of trying to change my name in Colombia.

As for your step-daughters' last name, you will have to go to court to get this done. Each state has information about this, so if you go to their web site you should be able to find it. I believe you will need to file paperwork, get the father's permission to do so (regardless of how involved he may have or may not have been in their lives) and pay a fee.

Diana

Diana,

Thanks for the info. This sounds solid. As for the biological father of my step-daughters, suprisingly he actually approached my wife yesterday about giving us full custody of the girls. He seems to want whats best for the girls, but I also believe he is seizing the opportunity to rid himself of any financial obligation to the girls. In any case I will look up the information in my state on how to get this done. Thanks again.