Passport Question About Trip Back Home?

[Snag 57]

So, we leave for Australia (home country) this week from the US. What exactly do I need? Passport? Green Card? Both? My Green Card obviously says my married surname, whilst my passport still has my maiden name (unable to change it unless in person, something I plan to do when we're over in Australia). I didn't think ahead and booked the ticket in my married name. Do I need to change my booking or will I be okay with, say, a marriage license?

I'm a Permanent Resident with Conditions.

Edited December 2, 2013 by Snag

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Change the ticket to passport name. Bring the passport and GC. The passport lets you travel generally and lets you go to Aus. The passport + GC lets you back in the US. You can bring a copy of your marriage cert just in case, but it shouldn't be needed.

[Snag 57]

Change the ticket to passport name. Bring the passport and GC. The passport lets you travel generally and lets you go to Aus. The passport + GC lets you back in the US. You can bring a copy of your marriage cert just in case, but it shouldn't be needed.

Harpa Timsah, saving the day for the umpteenth time this year. Thank you! I'm on the phone as I type this to change my maiden name.

[Neonred 3,461]

We made several international trips including a trip to Australia and always had the ticket in my wife's married name and the passport in her maiden name. We always carried her green card and our marriage certificate and never had a problem.

[Lainie B 465]

Just FYI, you can get a new Australian passport in your married name by mail, you don't have to do it in person. Probably not relevant in your case since you are heading back to Australia soon and plan to do it while there, but useful for other Australians to know. It's free if you do it within 1 year of marriage.

[NickD 202]

Of course your foreign passport will be in your maiden name, you weren't married yet. And the only way to get your conditional green card is to get married, so therefore your green card will be in your married name.

And the only way you can come back here is to show your green card. Looking at the calendar back then would be at least three years before my wife could get her US passport, so we took a day off and drove to the nearest consulate, for her country, had to show up in person. They just stamped it with her married name in it.

After we she received her US passport, thought we were done with this. But learned about an agreement our DOS had with her home country, because her place of birth was shown in her US passport, still have to maintain her foreign passport, but only to visit her home country. And still get that married stamp in it. What we have to go through, even to change her country ID is enormous even though our marriage is registered in her home country.

Its just one more thing we have to do. And while she may feel what she has to do is in conflict with her oath with the USCIS, Not dealing with the USCIS anymore, its the DOS. And its not dual naturalization like the DOS states it is, its dual citizenship, you will never get your home countries passport without maintaining that citizenship.

Its either doing this for her, or never seeing her family again. Like her only son that just happens to be a degreed professional architect. Economic conditions are so poor, can't even get a job. And without a good job and lots of money, cannot get a visa to come here. So we have to go down there to see him once in awhile.

If you can get your passport modified by mail, that is a blessing.