Name Change Issues

[Kristina&Baz 0]

My husband has (finally!) gotten to the final stage of the naturalization process and is scheduled to take his oath ceremony soon. We're so grateful that we were able to get to this point, and so thankful for every piece of information we've been able to get from VJ.

 

We're running into a small issue regarding his legal name. Sorry if it seems confusing (it is). My husband was born with a different last name than he currently goes by - lets say he was born with the last name EDWARDS and his current legal last name is ROGERS. Not really, but just as an example. So he went with the last name EDWARDS from birth until 4 years of age when his mother remarried. His stepfather never officially adopted him, and no legal paperwork or name change was ever filed. A family lawyer simply advised them to just start using the new last name ROGERS and that it would just "become" his new recognized last name (ugh). To be fair, it worked - he lived with the new last name from the age of 4 onward and used it throughout school, professionally, and to get a passport and driver's license. He didn't even realize it was an issue and that it wasn't his last name at birth until his mother sent him his birth certificate when we were going through the initial green card process.

 

We were able to get through all the green card and citizenship paperwork using his current last name (Rogers). The only thing in any of our gigantic paperwork pile that states his birth last name (Edwards) is the photocopy of his birth certificate and where they ask for other names used. When we got to the naturalization interview, the interviewer questioned him about this and seemed suspicious. We told him what had happened, and he said that it should have been noticed by USCIS at the initial green card level. My husband, who has wanted to legally change his name to Rogers anyhow, since it's the only name he's ever known, asked what he should do, and the interviewer gave him the paperwork to do the legal name change, which he filled out and gave back to the interviewer. We had to submit further evidence and received the letter for the oath ceremony about a month after we submitted the evidence...which is great!

 

Except the oath ceremony letter was addressed to his birth name (Edwards) - the name that shows up only twice in all documentation (and nowhere else) and not the name that he wrote in on his legal name change paperwork at the n-400 naturalization interview when prompted by the interviewer. Now we think that the naturalization document is going to have the birth last name, where literally every other piece of paperwork connected to him is going to have his current last name, not to mention his drivers license, passport, and all legal stuff in both the US and his home country.

 

Here's where it gets messy - my husband is actually thinking of going back to his birth name anyhow, and forgoing his current last name. I have no problems with this, and if the naturalization certificate shows this, then great. But the problem is that the name change documentation currently in play shows that he is changing his name legally to the one he currently uses (Rogers) and not to the birth name (Edwards). We're fine with filing the paperwork to change it back to his birth name, but will this "jam up" the system so to speak? It seems like the name change paperwork he filled out and handed in at the interview with the last name Rogers wasn't filed (or was filed after USCIS approved the n-400 application and sent out the oath ceremony notice). Would filing a new name change with the original name change still in limbo be risky? I wouldn't even know where to figure out if the initial name change went through - it's a public record here in New York, but I don't know if it was filed with Queens (were we live) or Manhattan (where we were when he filled it out and submitted it), plus where to even start looking.

 

i don't really know what to do when we get to the courthouse for the oath ceremony and his naturalization certificate has his birth name. Should I bring it up then and there? If it has his current name (Rogers) then obviously we'll just sail through and we'll just wait it out to see if we get any notification or confirmation on the name change he submitted at the interview - it's not time sensitive and something he's still just considering. If it has his birth last name (Edwards), should we attempt changing it by using his green card, country passport, and drivers license as proof of his current name? It's so overwhelming and stupidly complicated, and we're at the point where we don't even know what name the US government is recognizing him as.

[Wuozopo 4,294]

I think it's possible that the interviewer is going by his birth certificate name as his correct name and that is why the letter came to Edwards. His name for USCIS and immigration purposes will not be Rogers until he takes the oath. The certificate will probably say Rogers.