Dual Citizenship/Passports

[pretzelchoc23 0]

So I have two passports, a british and australian passport, when I applied for adjustment of status I applied with my british passport. Only because I had entered the US on my british passport.....I am about to have my green card interview next week which I am very excited about, however I would like to know whether I can now use my aussie passport going forward....only because both of my passports are still in my maiden name and I need to have my new married name on them. Australian embassy will change my name for free and British passport will take forever to get back and will also have to get a whole new passport.......my work authorization says I am from the UK and my file would say this too...can someone help or give some advice here?

[aaron2020 11,651]

Stick with the British passport. Switching passport is just going to confuse USCIS and create problems for you. Is saving the cost to change your British passport worth the potential problems? Remember you are one filer among many, you will be treated as a number rather than as a real person.

[pretzelchoc23 0]

It's not the cost factor but it's the time factor that is more important. I have someone who wants to hire me but requires me to have a passport in my married name. The Australian embassy is super quick and the British embassy can take months to renew my passport. I don't want to lose this job just because of a passport.

[aaron2020 11,651]

It's not the cost factor but it's the time factor that is more important. I have someone who wants to hire me but requires me to have a passport in my married name. The Australian embassy is super quick and the British embassy can take months to renew my passport. I don't want to lose this job just because of a passport.

Why would a US employer need a foreign passport with your married name? In all states, you only need your marriage certificate to legally be able to change your last name to your spouse's last name. Even if your name on the EAD and passport don't match, your marriage certificate would link the two documents under state law in all of our states. You have an employer who may not understand the law, and unfortunately, you will have to educate him/her on what the law is about name changes after marriage.

Google "last name change after marriage in [state of your residence]."

[pretzelchoc23 0]

Sorry should have been more specific but its an airline flight attendant position. I will just have to use my Aussie passport but keep my aos case in my British. One other question, if I'm traveling out of the country and I use my Aussie passport to leave and come back will this cause confusion with immigration officers? Obviously I will show my green card but it will say that my nationality is British.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Sorry should have been more specific but its an airline flight attendant position. I will just have to use my Aussie passport but keep my aos case in my British. One other question, if I'm traveling out of the country and I use my Aussie passport to leave and come back will this cause confusion with immigration officers? Obviously I will show my green card but it will say that my nationality is British.

Probably not. The green card gets you back into the US.

[newacct 688]

The passport is not really relevant for entry of permanent residents (a permanent resident is not even required to have a passport to enter the US), so which passport you use as a permanent resident doesn't really matter.

[TBoneTX 43,058]

*** Thread moved from AOS/Family-Based main forum to the Working & Traveling forum -- topic involves work & travel. ***