Surname Question

[barashka 97]

Hello and good day!

 

I have a question about how me and my fiancée will handle our surname situation when she comes over to the states. She just recently passed her K-1 visa in Moscow on the 31st of May (so exciting)!  So, when she comes here, we don’t know how to put her last name. Let me give you guys a quick background on me. I am a first generation Russian-American guy. My parents are from Russia but, I was born and raised in the United States. Inevitably, I have a Russian surname and in my case, it ends in “ov”, such as the surname, “Ivanov”. I will use the common surname, “Ivanov”, as my example for our case (obviously, it is not my surname, ahaha). Since me and my fiancée are both ethically Russian, we want to preserve our culture. This would mean that instead of having her surname, for example, “Ivanov”, we would want to have it as, “Ivanova”, adding the “a” to the end of it. As Russians, it would look totally bizarre to us seeing a female with a last name ending in, “ov”, and not, “ova”. I understand, however, in the United States, the naming customs are different. When we get married, will adding the “a” cause us any problems living in the United States? Also, in our culture, we have a patronymic name after our first name. My parents didn’t add mine to my full name so my name is just my first name and given name (since the patronymic name is not a middle name). Should we remove her patronymic name on her Social Security card, Marriage Cerificate, and so on? On my initial I-129F package, I used her patronymic name as her middle name but, on the DS-160, I left it out. That won’t be a discrepancy or a problem if I don’t use her patronymic name from now on, right? Her visa is not in hand, yet. She will have it sometime this week. Since I left out the patronymic name on the DS-160, her K-1 visa will be issued to her in her first name and surname (without her patronymic name), right? I will have to use her first and last name (without her patronymic name) from now on such as the I-485, I-864, I-765, and I-131? I apologize for the long post but, I feel as though my questions are a bit complex due to my unique situation. I also apologize for anything that may have come off as confusing. Feel free to ask me and I will elaborate. Any feedback, advice, or comments will be greatly appreciated. 

 

Заранее спасибо!

Edited June 3, 2018 by barashka

[mcdull 474]

Probably have to go through deed poll

[Alabamak1 688]

My wife is from the Ukraine and i am not aware that what you want is even possible here in the US. Let's say Igor Ivanov marries Natalia Petrova. When you marry in the US...she would be take your last name like Natalia Ivanov and not Natalia Ivanova. Ivanova would not be your last name and therefore she wouldnt be taking your last name. She would be just taking some other name. You have another option is to go through the court sistem and legally change her last name and add the letter "a" or wait for naturalization and have it  changed to whatever she wants. That's how i was explained it. 

[barashka 97]

4 minutes ago, Alabamak1 said:

My wife is from the Ukraine and i am not aware that what you want is even possible here in the US. Let's say Igor Ivanov marries Natalia Petrova. When you marry in the US...she would be take your last name like Natalia Ivanov and not Natalia Ivanova. Ivanova would not be your last name and therefore she wouldnt be taking your last name. She would be just taking some other name. You have another option is to go through the court sistem and legally change her last name and add the letter "a" or wait for naturalization and have it  changed to whatever she wants. That's how i was explained it. 

I see your point. She can change it to whatever she wants at naturalization?

[barashka 97]

11 minutes ago, Alabamak1 said:

My wife is from the Ukraine and i am not aware that what you want is even possible here in the US. Let's say Igor Ivanov marries Natalia Petrova. When you marry in the US...she would be take your last name like Natalia Ivanov and not Natalia Ivanova. Ivanova would not be your last name and therefore she wouldnt be taking your last name. She would be just taking some other name. You have another option is to go through the court sistem and legally change her last name and add the letter "a" or wait for naturalization and have it  changed to whatever she wants. That's how i was explained it. 

Kind of like you said, I can have her come and keep her maiden surname, “Petrova”. However, when would I go through the court system to change her name to “Ivanova”? Will I have to do this before I submit documents for AOS, EAD, and AP?

Edited June 3, 2018 by barashka

[Alabamak1 688]

Just now, barashka said:

I see your point. She can change it to whatever she wants at naturalization?

I quote this from my lawyer and the immigration officer at the interview.  They both asked me the same question and i had a choice to do it on both times. I have 2 first names and 2 last names, as it is customary in latinamerica. I still went for my whole name no changes. I didnt change it to "Eduardo de las Mercedes Ponce del a Cruz Roman Astudillo" Hope this makes you laugh, not informational the last part. ))))

[Alabamak1 688]

My 2 cents, and not trying to encourage anything...keep the name change as Ivanov till she gets citizenship. That way there are no confusions with immigration. It is complicated enough having to explain that for marriage license and then on top tackling the US goverment burocrat 

[CM&KV 72]

So I want to give you some facts before I tell you my story....

• I have a special type of drivers license that allows me to travel to Canada and Mexico and a few other places by boat and car without a passport. It goes thru DHS.
• My husband has been to the USA a few times before us getting married
• He has two different passports, Ukraine and Russian,

 

I don't even know what I did was correct, my husband's last name follows your example, and I had problems at the DMV after we got married. Keep in mind I have no ties to Russia besides being married to my husband, to that I know of. When we got our marriage license we put his patronymic as his middle name (because that's how his past visas were setup as). NO WHERE on the marriage license even asks you for new names, I had to fight for my female version of my husband’s last name. I got was "Well there is no "a" on here etc etc. and I can't give it to you etc etc etc." "Where do you plan on living when you are old (I said we were going to work and live here in the USA and retire in Russia)" "This might cause problems later on." It took 5 hours at the DMV to finally leave it with them finally giving me the female last name of my husband. My husband and his family and I choose to go with the female version of his last name and my closest friend and family members thought it was cool that were are trying to celebrate his culture as best as we can. His family understood that if the USA government refused to give me that A.

Before I even went to the DMV I went to the social security office to get my name changed, the girl that was helping had to talk to her boss to get an okay, which took less than 3 minutes. I left that office with  my card with that A on it. But sadly that card never showed up because I wasn't registered with my new last name on my mailbox...... more than 45 days later I went in and they refused to help since my IDS mismatched... so I had to go to the DMV. DMV told me that my names better match what was on file with the SS office and that my last name with that A could be seen as a nickname.....(like #######?!?!) You would think in a country like this one would have a guide book going in depth of the last names of each country or something. Who do people with many last names do this!?!?!

 

And yes I was told I could get a court order to change my last name..... Also what we are doing as a just incase is having a will made out with my current legal last name and my birth last name. and we have copies of our certificate to show my ties to him. 

 

 

[barashka 97]

1 minute ago, Alabamak1 said:

My 2 cents, and not trying to encourage anything...keep the name change as Ivanov till she gets citizenship. That way there are no confusions with immigration. It is complicated enough having to explain that for marriage license and then on top tackling the US goverment burocrat 

Or, she could just keep “Petrova”, right? She doesn’t have to take my surname?

[Alabamak1 688]

That is what my wife did. Her dad's name is Simionov, hers is by birth Simionova. She kept her Ukranian documents and marriage certificate like that. No changes, no headaches, IMO 

[barashka 97]

2 minutes ago, CM&KV said:

So I want to give you some facts before I tell you my story....

• I have a special type of drivers license that allows me to travel to Canada and Mexico and a few other places by boat and car without a passport. It goes thru DHS.
• My husband has been to the USA a few times before us getting married
• He has two different passports, Ukraine and Russian,

 

I don't even know what I did was correct, my husband's last name follows your example, and I had problems at the DMV after we got married. Keep in mind I have no ties to Russia besides being married to my husband, to that I know of. When we got our marriage license we put his patronymic as his middle name (because that's how his past visas were setup as). NO WHERE on the marriage license even asks you for new names, I had to fight for my female version of my husband’s last name. I got was "Well there is no "a" on here etc etc. and I can't give it to you etc etc etc." "Where do you plan on living when you are old (I said we were going to work and live here in the USA and retire in Russia)" "This might cause problems later on." It took 5 hours at the DMV to finally leave it with them finally giving me the female last name of my husband. My husband and his family and I choose to go with the female version of his last name and my closest friend and family members thought it was cool that were are trying to celebrate his culture as best as we can. His family understood that if the USA government refused to give me that A.

Before I even went to the DMV I went to the social security office to get my name changed, the girl that was helping had to talk to her boss to get an okay, which took less than 3 minutes. I left that office with  my card with that A on it. But sadly that card never showed up because I wasn't registered with my new last name on my mailbox...... more than 45 days later I went in and they refused to help since my IDS mismatched... so I had to go to the DMV. DMV told me that my names better match what was on file with the SS office and that my last name with that A could be seen as a nickname.....(like #######?!?!) You would think in a country like this one would have a guide book going in depth of the last names of each country or something. Who do people with many last names do this!?!?!

 

And yes I was told I could get a court order to change my last name..... Also what we are doing as a just incase is having a will made out with my current legal last name and my birth last name. and we have copies of our certificate to show my ties to him. 

 

 

Oh my goodness! I am sorry to hear of your troubles! That is really complicated! This is what I was fearing before I even started this process. I might have to keep my fiancée with her maiden surname and afterwards, legally change it to my surname with an “a”, explaining that we are doing this because of cultural tradition and whatnot. I always joke with my fiancée saying I don’t want to have girls (for these type of reasons) and rather have sons because it will be easier for them to receive my last name.  Imagine me having 3 girls and having to legally change each of their surnames so they all have our customary “ova” endings, so they can all be “Ivanova” and not “Ivanov”. 

[barashka 97]

3 minutes ago, Alabamak1 said:

That is what my wife did. Her dad's name is Simionov, hers is by birth Simionova. She kept her Ukranian documents and marriage certificate like that. No changes, no headaches, IMO 

Ah, so your wife never adopted your last name? She still has her maiden name now?

[Alabamak1 688]

4 minutes ago, barashka said:

Ah, so your wife never adopted your last name? She still has her maiden name now?

Wanna hear the complicated story...I am by first name (russian name), last name like any other chinese-latin american. 2 first names and 2 last names (fathers chinese last name, mothers last name). My wife is born in USSR, but lived since age 5 in Ukraine. We didn't want all kinds of headache with internal passport and travel passport and delays in the change of names, so she didnt change nothing. We kept our sanity and she will not have to change deeds for her house and else in Ukraine. Name changes don't just complicate things in USA, but also in Ukraine. All of her college and other documents turn into a nightmare from ####

[barashka 97]

8 minutes ago, Alabamak1 said:

Wanna hear the complicated story...I am by first name (russian name), last name like any other chinese-latin american. 2 first names and 2 last names (fathers chinese last name, mothers last name). My wife is born in USSR, but lived since age 5 in Ukraine. We didn't want all kinds of headache with internal passport and travel passport and delays in the change of names, so she didnt change nothing. We kept our sanity and she will not have to change deeds for her house and else in Ukraine. Name changes don't just complicate things in USA, but also in Ukraine. All of her college and other documents turn into a nightmare from ####

Wow! It seems we all have complicated stories, no? I guess what I will do is have her keep her maiden surname, "Petrova", and then after she gets her Green Card, change her to my last name, feminized, such as "Ivanova", through our local courthouse. As an ethnic Russian, it just seems too bizarre for me to have her as "Ivanov", ahaha! She wouldn't want to have a masculine surname, neither. We just can't do that, it totally seems odd. How does this plan sound? Or, can I legally change her last name to "Ivanova" before I submit the AOS, EAD, AP documents?

Edited June 3, 2018 by barashka

[CM&KV 72]

We are trying to embrace as much of his culture here as much as possible, even our rings are on the right hand, on my left I have an old ring my mom and I brought that matches. (He bought my a heart shape locket as the engagament ring)

 

He even thought about switching his name to my last name. Or do the combo name. Since I'm an old fashion person that comes to marriage traditions, I wanted to follow his culture rules.