A little help - a couple questions

[mrc 0]

We are starting the naturalization process for my wife. A little background:

- My wife has been a resident since 11/2007 (received 10 year card in Feb 10)

- I am active duty military for over 20 years

- My wife came here on a Fiance Visa

- She has not left the country since she came here

When we got married, my wife took her maiden last name as her middle name (as many Filipinas do). She took my last name as her last name. All of her documents are like this but her old passport from the Philippines lists her current middle name as her last name.

My wife recently got a call from her friend about how someone got denied due to a similar situation...something about possible fraud. I told my wife that her case isn't unique and I'm sure there have been countless others like this. There has to be some other mitigating factors.

Immediately after talking to her friend, she goes on an on how she needs to get a lawyer to change her name back. Obviously, this would present many problems since all of her documents since she got here have her previous last name as her middle name.

My question is this: can anyone shed any light on this? Is this an issue or an obvious misunderstanding and overreaction on her friend's part? I tried to search the forum but admittedly, have taken a break from the process (until now) because it's draining working full-time, running a part-time business and dealing with all of this. Now that she's approaching her three year residence mark, we are trying to start her papers. To me this reeks of overreaction but I'd like to know if there is any validity in this. I told her that if she starts changing things then that will definitely look sneaky and that her situation probably isn't new.

Thanks for your help. Sorry if this seems "newbie" like but I really don't want her stressing out and stressing me out in the process. Everything up until this point has been done without lawyers and I plan to keep it this way.

[DanTes 21]

We are starting the naturalization process for my wife. A little background:

- My wife has been a resident since 11/2007 (received 10 year card in Feb 10)

- I am active duty military for over 20 years

- My wife came here on a Fiance Visa

- She has not left the country since she came here

When we got married, my wife took her maiden last name as her middle name (as many Filipinas do). She took my last name as her last name. All of her documents are like this but her old passport from the Philippines lists her current middle name as her last name.

My wife recently got a call from her friend about how someone got denied due to a similar situation...something about possible fraud. I told my wife that her case isn't unique and I'm sure there have been countless others like this. There has to be some other mitigating factors.

Immediately after talking to her friend, she goes on an on how she needs to get a lawyer to change her name back. Obviously, this would present many problems since all of her documents since she got here have her previous last name as her middle name.

My question is this: can anyone shed any light on this? Is this an issue or an obvious misunderstanding and overreaction on her friend's part? I tried to search the forum but admittedly, have taken a break from the process (until now) because it's draining working full-time, running a part-time business and dealing with all of this. Now that she's approaching her three year residence mark, we are trying to start her papers. To me this reeks of overreaction but I'd like to know if there is any validity in this. I told her that if she starts changing things then that will definitely look sneaky and that her situation probably isn't new.

Thanks for your help. Sorry if this seems "newbie" like but I really don't want her stressing out and stressing me out in the process. Everything up until this point has been done without lawyers and I plan to keep it this way.

[DanTes 21]

THINK I WOULD CONTACT THE NEAREST PHILIPPINE EMBASSY/CONSULATE, AND SEE ABOUT GETTING HER A NEW PASSPORT. MARRIAGE CONTRACT, NSO BIRTH CERTIFICATE, DEPENDENT I.D., AND PASSPORT PHOTOS SHOULD BE ALL YOU NEED TO GET IT DONE.

[Lhiz21 1]

We are starting the naturalization process for my wife. A little background:

- My wife has been a resident since 11/2007 (received 10 year card in Feb 10)

- I am active duty military for over 20 years

- My wife came here on a Fiance Visa

- She has not left the country since she came here

When we got married, my wife took her maiden last name as her middle name (as many Filipinas do). She took my last name as her last name. All of her documents are like this but her old passport from the Philippines lists her current middle name as her last name.

My wife recently got a call from her friend about how someone got denied due to a similar situation...something about possible fraud. I told my wife that her case isn't unique and I'm sure there have been countless others like this. There has to be some other mitigating factors.

Immediately after talking to her friend, she goes on an on how she needs to get a lawyer to change her name back. Obviously, this would present many problems since all of her documents since she got here have her previous last name as her middle name.

My question is this: can anyone shed any light on this? Is this an issue or an obvious misunderstanding and overreaction on her friend's part? I tried to search the forum but admittedly, have taken a break from the process (until now) because it's draining working full-time, running a part-time business and dealing with all of this. Now that she's approaching her three year residence mark, we are trying to start her papers. To me this reeks of overreaction but I'd like to know if there is any validity in this. I told her that if she starts changing things then that will definitely look sneaky and that her situation probably isn't new.

Thanks for your help. Sorry if this seems "newbie" like but I really don't want her stressing out and stressing me out in the process. Everything up until this point has been done without lawyers and I plan to keep it this way.

She doesn't need a lawyer to change her name. She can go to court and apply for a name change. Here is a link to someone who had a conflict with middle name complications:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/231841-passed-the-n400-interview-but-didnt-took-the-oath-reasons-are/

[mrc 0]

I'm seeing a bigger problem with that other thread. Like that one, my wife took my last name but her previous last name is now her middle name. Every document is labeled the same way except her Philippines passport (which obviously has her names different).

I guess I'm failing to see a problem. The other thread mentioned a conflict with another file, which shouldn't be a concern here. Everything we've done has been consistent and she has three names, not four like the other thread.

Is she worrying too much here? I don't see a need to change her name. Everything was done the same (SSN, DL, Mil ID, Marriage Cert, Green Card, etc) after we got married...no discrepancies.

Finally, her Philippines passport is expiring...is it necessary for her to renew it? She just wants to get a US one after her citizenship is finished.

Thanks!

[Lhiz21 1]

I'm seeing a bigger problem with that other thread. Like that one, my wife took my last name but her previous last name is now her middle name. Every document is labeled the same way except her Philippines passport (which obviously has her names different).

I guess I'm failing to see a problem. The other thread mentioned a conflict with another file, which shouldn't be a concern here. Everything we've done has been consistent and she has three names, not four like the other thread.

Is she worrying too much here? I don't see a need to change her name. Everything was done the same (SSN, DL, Mil ID, Marriage Cert, Green Card, etc) after we got married...no discrepancies.

Finally, her Philippines passport is expiring...is it necessary for her to renew it? She just wants to get a US one after her citizenship is finished.

Thanks!

She doesn't need to renew her passport not unless she wants to apply for dual. Once she apply for dual the passport application is included on the process and it takes the same day for the process and passport will be mailed to her.

[mrc 0]

Liza,

Ok...well, when Susie got off the phone with you earlier today she was all worried. It seems to be a misunderstanding on her part. That is what I thought.

Matt

[Lhiz21 1]

Liza,

Ok...well, when Susie got off the phone with you earlier today she was all worried. It seems to be a misunderstanding on her part. That is what I thought.

Matt

Yeah. I told her to explain to the IO about culture differences in the PI about how we take our father's last name as our middle name if she will asked about it. She just got some few concerns on why US born citizen siblings have different midddle names from each other and I explained to her that here you can make up your own middle name to what you want it to be. Where in our country you take your mother's middle name before marriage and take your father's middle name after marriage then your spouse lastname...LOL

It's kinda complicated! Im sure there are other cultures that are more complicated than ours;) Goodluck on the process!

[pookaphilus 12]

Yeah. I told her to explain to the IO about culture differences in the PI about how we take our father's last name as our middle name if she will asked about it. She just got some few concerns on why US born citizen siblings have different midddle names from each other and I explained to her that here you can make up your own middle name to what you want it to be. Where in our country you take your mother's middle name before marriage and take your father's middle name after marriage then your spouse lastname...LOL

It's kinda complicated! Im sure there are other cultures that are more complicated than ours;) Goodluck on the process!

Good day...since her Phil passport is expiring, then just get a new passport with the corrected middle(her last name as her middle name) name whenever she would apply for dual citizenship...if ever, she would change her middle names on the other documents, that would take a long process...

[mrsean 4]

she needs to go to consulate closest to you and get passport amended they stamp married name in it,very simple if expired get in married name [new passport] then every thing she has is proper!!!

[Lhiz21 1]

she needs to go to consulate closest to you and get passport amended they stamp married name in it,very simple if expired get in married name [new passport] then every thing she has is proper!!!

I just finished with my "report of marriage" and passport ammendment process two months ago. Before she can have your last name on her passport, she has to apply for "Report of Marriage" first and then have her passport ammended. If she does not report your marriage with the Phil. Embassy then her name will stay the same as her maiden name. The process won't take long as long as she have all the documents required with her during the process. The officials at the consulate will help her through it. Once she had your marriage reported and ammended her passport then her name on passport will be the same as the rest of her US documents. All in all the process only takes few hours in one day. The report of marriage can also be done by mail but the passport had to be done in person. But like I said, it would be easier to do it in person and have all of them done in one day.

We don't have a Phil. embassy here in WA. The closes we have is in California but they hop from state to state from time to time. We had to call them if when will they be around the area. Last time they we're in Oregon and we had to drive more than 5 hrs just to get the paperwork done!lol

[mrsean 4]

She doesn't need to renew her passport not unless she wants to apply for dual. Once she apply for dual the passport application is included on the process and it takes the same day for the process and passport will be mailed to her.

if your philippina[born there]then you certainly would want dual citizenship

[NickD 202]

Wife also tacked her maiden name on just about every document she got since we were married including her green cards, SS card, and our marriage license. For the N-400, she said, let's drop that maiden name, for one thing, in our phone directory, her surname was under the T's, mine was under the D's.

Zero problems at the interview, matter of fact, her super strict IO said, good move, very confusing in this country. Her certificate only has her first, ,middle, and married last name on it. So does her US Passport and new SS card, SS also said no problem, DOS goes by whatever is on your certificate. Her name in our new phone directory is right below mine.

Ironically, her maiden name was never including in our bank and credit cards, bank told her, there isn't enough room to include that, would have to issue a wider card they cannot do.

Perhaps I should said something from the start that including your maiden name is not part of our custom, but still many American US citizens do that. But just from our experience, we had absolutely no problem in dropping her maiden name. But that is just our experience, no telling what your IO will say.