Name Change

[Ed and Gina 45]

My wife is in the Philippines. She wants to change her existing passport to her married name. Her K3 Visa petition was just approved by USCIS and sent to NVC.

I checked with the Passport Issuing office in the Manila area - according to their website, she has to have a certificate from the Commission of Filipino Overseas Counseling...etc... To get that, she has to have a Visa, according to their website. It's a Catch 22!!

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

[TeacherAlan 0]

Ed,

I am doing a CR1 visa for my wife, who is also in the Philippines. My wife also wanted to change her passport to her married name. As far as I understand it, your wife does not need a visa to get the certificate from CFO, but does have to be in the petition process. My wife's visa is still in NVC processing, and as soon as the I-130 petition was approved, my wife went to CFO and took the seminar, and got the certificate. The catch is that to leave the Philippines en route to the US, she has to have a sticker from CFO. That sticker is only granted after the visa is granted. So my wife will have to go back to CFO after her visa is ready and get the sticker. Everything that happens in the Philippines is a redundancy nightmare, but it's just the way it is. I hope this helps!

[JbTin 51]

She can attend the CFO seminar even though she doesnt have the visa yet..they will give her a certificate after attending the seminar. She will present that certificate to DFA to have her name and status changed in her passport. Now once her visa has been issued, she needs to go back to CFO (she has to bring her cfo certificate and new passport with visa) to register and get the sticker. Thats what i did when i was still waiting for my I-130 approval.

[Sweetheart75 0]

She will need your marriage certificate and of course the other supporting docs.that DFA requires to change her name, CFO will need her passport coz they will put sticker on it after the seminar.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Sweetheart75