Name

[Sledge 11]

Hello. My fiancee just recently arrived a few weeks ago and we're having some confusion/difficulty regarding her name. She doesn't technically have a first name and her passport/visa only has a last name. Her visa has her first name as FNU (first name unavalaible). Is there was for her to get her name rearranged?

[LionessDeon 2,060]

What is on her birth certificate? What did you list on the K1 forms? Did she apply for SS#? If so, what did they use? What will you put on your marriage license?

I'm not sure how to get it all taken care of, but I would think at marriage would be best especially if she's changing her last name. Maybe inquire then. Possibly change it through the courts, if necessary?

Edited August 17, 2016 by LionessDeon

[Sledge 11]

Everything in america inclusing her visa, passport etc all say just her laat name and first name is fnu.

Birth certificate is just the one name.

[B&Z 201]

What is the problem? What does she want to change her name to? If she is not changing her name, then it's correct for her to have FNU listed on her documents because she doesn't have two names and our computer systems must say FNU as the first name if there is only one name. LNU (last name unknown) is not accepted by many government databases.

[Sledge 11]

Thats cool. But she wants her current last name to be her first name because thats what she considers her first name and my name to be her last name. So how do we make that happen?

[B&Z 201]

Get married first, then

https://www.theknot.com/content/name-change-101

Google is your friend.

Edited August 18, 2016 by B&Z

[Sledge 11]

So are the thousands of people standing by on my local friendly "help" forum. Appreciate your assistance.

And thats just for last name which defeats the purpose. Thats easy to do. We dont want to get rid of her other name. We need to change first name. Last name is easy.

[B&Z 201]

She doesn't have a first or a last name...she only has one name. In essence, you're adding a last name to her one name. For the purposes of systems and documentation, she's listed as FNU. You don't need to change her name from FNU to something else. FNU is not her/a legal name.

I give up, dude. For one thing, you're not even married yet and she can't change her name to yours until after you get married. For another thing, you're not willing to do any research on this for yourself and the best time/place to do it is when you're applying to get/getting married. How about asking the city clerk when you apply for a marriage license, or asking while you're getting your marriage registered after it's been finalized? It's not like they don't have any experience with people wanting to change their name after marriage and they can include her name change in the marriage documents, which you then take to all of the other places you need to change her name.

[Sledge 11]

I have talked to customs, the social security office and the court house. Nobody knows. Not everyone is from places with frequent immigration or problems like this.