Sponsor’s surname, financial questions

[fatsoforgotso 1]

Hi everyone,

My wife has filled out her affidavit of support for us to post this Friday but we’re wondering whether she fills in her maiden name or her new surname. She’s the petitioner and I’m the immigrant, she now has my surname and has had it changed at the social security office - does that mean she now fills any government-related documents in with that name? Or does she use her maiden name since that’s what she filed the K1 petitioner under?

Also, we have a joint sponsor - does my wife still need to put her bank balance in section 7? The form says it’s optional.

Finally - she has a joint bank account with her gran from when they lived together. Does she need to include this? Her income goes into her own account and not this one, but her gran’s social security/retirement money goes into it.

[Caryh 5,206]

She uses her married name, that is her name now. They're kinda of used to seeing women taking their husbands surname after marriage.

Putting in bank account information is optional, as it says. If you put it in, you'll need to document the account. It is normally only included when someone is using the assets of a bank acocunt to make up for a lack of income. With a cosponsor, you're relying on the co-sponsors income, so keep it easy and leave it out.

[Ian H. 207]

Once the name change is official, i.e. you're married and you opted for the change, you have to begin using it across the board. You will have no issues whatsoever about this because the marriage cert itself proves the change.

In my case my spouse had to change her name after she moved to the US because in the DR they use the very sexist and patriarchal form of married surname "de" which means that the wife belongs to the husband. If she had opted for the change in DR her passport would have had a different name from the rest of the docs.