i-130 Change of last name while waiting for ROC approval

[Jeric Barredo 1]

My wife and I are awaiting her approval for her ROC and we filed it to the California branch last Nov. 26, 2016 got NOA a week after and now still waiting for it. She has used her maiden name on all of her USCIS forms and now we are thinking about changing her maiden name to her married name. We are also wanting to renew her passport and do ROM while we're there. 1. We can change her maiden name to her married name and change all of her forms but how will we proceed with her N400 and i130? Do we have to file to change her greencard name eventhough it hasnt been approved or even looked at yet? 2. Do we use married name when we do her philippine passport renewal and ROM? Please help guys. I have not seen anybody with the same situation as we are in right now. Thanks.  

[gypsyqueen 103]

I suggest to wait until N-400 to change her name.  I read it here that it is easy to change your name when applying for citizenship.  Renew the passport with her maiden so it's an easier process too.

[Jeric Barredo 1]

gypsyqueen hi yes so just renew her passport in philippine outreach program here in Dallas as well as her ROM in her maiden name so it's easier and more consistent? How do you think we should proceed with her maiden name changing to her married name while we wait for her ROC because when I checked online, CSC are still just looking at June 2016 filers. We filed November 2016. We will start her n400 as soon as her 90 days prior to November 2017. Do we do her married name then or shoud we file for change of last name for her green card as well?

[gypsyqueen 103]

11 minutes ago, Jeric Barredo said:

gypsyqueen hi yes so just renew her passport in philippine outreach program here in Dallas as well as her ROM in her maiden name so it's easier and more consistent? How do you think we should proceed with her maiden name changing to her married name while we wait for her ROC because when I checked online, CSC are still just looking at June 2016 filers. We filed November 2016. We will start her n400 as soon as her 90 days prior to November 2017. Do we do her married name then or shoud we file for change of last name for her green card as well?

Let everything else be in her maiden name except for the N-400 that you will be filling soon.  In the N-400 form, you can legally change her name to her married name.

Edited July 26, 2017 by gypsyqueen

[gypsyqueen 103]

I recently renewed my Philippine Passport at the embassy.  While waiting, I saw a few people ahead of me encountering problems with renewing their passport and changing name to their married name.  They require a lot more paperwork like ROM, NSO Marriage Certificate from the Philippines, etc. It is definitely easy to just get the passport under her maiden name.  Hope everything works out for you guys.

[Jeric Barredo 1]

gypsyqueen Well thank you so much for your input. we will proceed with her maiden name. I was gonna do that to begin with and I was really confident until I came across with this dilemma of waiting versus using her married name, that's why I started researching about it and not a lot of people arein the same boat as we are. So we will use maiden name for now because we might travel soon and will change it in the future if we have to, Thanks a lot!