Last name change and Social Security

[atina 12]

Hi everyone,

 

I know this has been asked before in a bunch of different ways, but I can't seem to find anything that is recent. My partner and I got married a week ago in Jersey, and currently we're waiting for our marriage certificate. I was not asked if I want to have my last name changed when we applied for our marriage license (actually, both of us want to merge our last names and use that last name instead of our current ones). Our marriage certificate will therefore state his last name and my maiden name, no changes. I did not go to the Social Security office upon arrival as I already had an SSN from being in the US on F1 before. My questions are: do I have to go to the Social Security office to let them know I got married, and do I initiate my last name change process there? Any suggestions or advice regarding this situation?

 

I am also guessing that if I initiate my last name change process, then I'd use my new last name on my AOS application forms.

[GabiMatch 161]

23 minutes ago, atina said:

Hi everyone,

 

I know this has been asked before in a bunch of different ways, but I can't seem to find anything that is recent. My partner and I got married a week ago in Jersey, and currently we're waiting for our marriage certificate. I was not asked if I want to have my last name changed when we applied for our marriage license (actually, both of us want to merge our last names and use that last name instead of our current ones). Our marriage certificate will therefore state his last name and my maiden name, no changes. I did not go to the Social Security office upon arrival as I already had an SSN from being in the US on F1 before. My questions are: do I have to go to the Social Security office to let them know I got married, and do I initiate my last name change process there? Any suggestions or advice regarding this situation?

 

I am also guessing that if I initiate my last name change process, then I'd use my new last name on my AOS application forms.

I got married in the state of Florida and over here, you can't make any name

changes on the marriage certificate, it will always state the maiden name of both parties...I decided to use his name when I filled AOS and as far as I understand, this is pretty common...as soon as I got my NOA1, that came stating my husband’s last name, I went to DMV with my marriage certificate and NOA1 and got a new drivers license with my husband’s last name on it 😊 After the change of the drivers license I had an ID with his name, so I changed my name on everything else. You don’t need to wait for the name change process to file with his last name...you can change your name while waiting for your case to be processed...you’ll need something to pass time anyway 😉

Congratulations on your wedding and good luck with your AOS!

[atina 12]

On 9/29/2017 at 4:58 PM, GabiMatch said:

I got married in the state of Florida and over here, you can't make any name

changes on the marriage certificate, it will always state the maiden name of both parties...I decided to use his name when I filled AOS and as far as I understand, this is pretty common...as soon as I got my NOA1, that came stating my husband’s last name, I went to DMV with my marriage certificate and NOA1 and got a new drivers license with my husband’s last name on it 😊 After the change of the drivers license I had an ID with his name, so I changed my name on everything else. You don’t need to wait for the name change process to file with his last name...you can change your name while waiting for your case to be processed...you’ll need something to pass time anyway 😉

Congratulations on your wedding and good luck with your AOS!

That's really helpful! It seemed super complicated to me so I almost decided not to add his last name at all. This way it sounds like as long as one has a marriage certificate, regardless of it stating their maiden name, the AOS application can be used as some sort of an initiator of a last name change.

 

Thank you! I hope your AOS process is going smoothly!

 

One question though: did you use your new last name on ALL forms in the AOS packet?

Edited October 3, 2017 by atina

[GabiMatch 161]

3 hours ago, atina said:

One question though: did you use your new last name on ALL forms in the AOS packet?

Yes, I used my new last name in every single one of them but most of them ask for "name" and "maiden name" so they will know your maiden name as well