Name Confusion

[ThaitoUSA 15]

Good day to you,

My wife and I are putting together the AOS paperwork and we had a few questions regarding her name.

She would like for her name to be FIRSTNAME HERSURNAME MYSURNAME. We were told when we were married in US Virgin Islands that we would have to go to our local courthouse and have her name legally changed, which we intend to do this week. She has already received a Social Security number with her name listed as FIRSTNAME HERSURNAME.

Our questions are:

1) Can we list her name throughout the I-485 petition as she wishes it, although it has yet to be legally changed?

2) On the 2nd line of G-325A, under "All Other Names Used" should she list FIRSTNAME HERSURNAME or reversed HERSURNAME FIRSTNAME?

3) At the bottom of G-325A where it asks to write name in native alphabet, should she include my surname, as she wants it to be, or should it remain as it is on her Thai documents?

4) Shall a disrepancy between her name on SS card and EAD be an issue? I've read that one cannot change one's name on SS card until Green Card has been received.

Thank you very much for any assistance or advice.

[rsn 135]

Good day to you,

My wife and I are putting together the AOS paperwork and we had a few questions regarding her name.

She would like for her name to be FIRSTNAME HERSURNAME MYSURNAME. We were told when we were married in US Virgin Islands that we would have to go to our local courthouse and have her name legally changed, which we intend to do this week. She has already received a Social Security number with her name listed as FIRSTNAME HERSURNAME.

Our questions are:

1) Can we list her name throughout the I-485 petition as she wishes it, although it has yet to be legally changed?

2) On the 2nd line of G-325A, under "All Other Names Used" should she list FIRSTNAME HERSURNAME or reversed HERSURNAME FIRSTNAME?

3) At the bottom of G-325A where it asks to write name in native alphabet, should she include my surname, as she wants it to be, or should it remain as it is on her Thai documents?

4) Shall a disrepancy between her name on SS card and EAD be an issue? I've read that one cannot change one's name on SS card until Green Card has been received.

Thank you very much for any assistance or advice.

Hello Pete! First off, congrats to you and Nern on your recent wedding. Second, regarding your questions (to get things started off)

1. I did some research on here before Kat and I filed our AOS docs. Everyone seemed to agree that your wife's name on the AOS forms should be the name you want on her green card. I seem to remember some cases where the name could be changed at the interview, but I'm not sure how that works if you don't have an interview (that is, if your case is transferred). We used Kat's married name on her docs (my last name) and her maiden name is now her middle name.
2. We went with the former. I'm not sure it matters, but maybe someone else knows for sure (??)
3. We forgot to do this entirely and left it blank. Hopefully someone else knows the answer to this one.
4. I'm not 100% certain about this one. However, I can tell you that Kat was issued a SS card shortly after she moved here, and then she applied for a replacement one with her married name shortly after our marriage (she received it a few weeks ago). This was before we filed for AOS. I don't think it should be a problem to change the name on the SSN; it wasn't for us.

Edited August 17, 2009 by rsn

[ThaitoUSA 15]

Thank you very much Ray. Same to you and Kat. Nern has kept me updated on your new life and it seems like things are going quite well. Should be mailing AOS paperwork this week, but now that she's here it doesn't seem like a big deal waiting. I am loving the daily Thai meals!

Take care and all the best