Spouse name change during Administrative processing

[badhumor 8]

To all the respected and experienced members here, I have a question to ask about that my case is in under Administrative processing since 12th December 2018, upon our wedding my Wife wanted to change her name officially by putting my name in her last name, but we did not went ahead cause it would require her to go back to US, and do the process legally which even cancel her family insurance which we could have needed, but after a little bit of reading i got mixed opinions from Attorney's , some say its not required/important for a spouse to change her name officially but some suggests it does puts a positive effect on your petition/case , Now we both decided to go ahead and change her name officially meaning on her Passport , Social security card , etc but as our case is in administrative processing i would like to know If we can do it ? and how do we even inform the Embassy that the name of Petitioner is changed ? Should we wait until the AP ends ? 

[Khallaf 649]

31 minutes ago, umerdec08 said:

To all the respected and experienced members here, I have a question to ask about that my case is in under Administrative processing since 12th December 2018, upon our wedding my Wife wanted to change her name officially by putting my name in her last name, but we did not went ahead cause it would require her to go back to US, and do the process legally which even cancel her family insurance which we could have needed, but after a little bit of reading i got mixed opinions from Attorney's , some say its not required/important for a spouse to change her name officially but some suggests it does puts a positive effect on your petition/case , Now we both decided to go ahead and change her name officially meaning on her Passport , Social security card , etc but as our case is in administrative processing i would like to know If we can do it ? and how do we even inform the Embassy that the name of Petitioner is changed ? Should we wait until the AP ends ? 

1. send the proof of name change to embassy

2. its just another small piece of evidence on marriage not that it makes it bonafide in the name change. I never changed mine, the AP for my husband lasted 42 days

3. what took place at interview? did they keep the passport? have the updated CEAC date regular?

[badhumor 8]

5 minutes ago, Khallaf said:

1. send the proof of name change to embassy

2. its just another small piece of evidence on marriage not that it makes it bonafide in the name change. I never changed mine, the AP for my husband lasted 42 days

3. what took place at interview? did they keep the passport? have the updated CEAC date regular?

Interview was relatively long , I was noticing time for many Candidates (mostly Females) compared to them mine was 10-15 mins longer , Yes they still have my passport , at first my case updates every month but last it update in July than they haven't updated until recently 8 November . 

[Khallaf 649]

12 minutes ago, umerdec08 said:

Interview was relatively long , I was noticing time for many Candidates (mostly Females) compared to them mine was 10-15 mins longer , Yes they still have my passport , at first my case updates every month but last it update in July than they haven't updated until recently 8 November . 

has your wife reached out to ask her state senator to reach out to get a status update?

[badhumor 8]

Just now, Khallaf said:

has your wife reached out to ask her state senator to reach out to get a status update?

Yes we have reached to Senator Lindsey Graham, and his PA contacted us . But embassy response to him was the same that case is under AP , now we are still waiting but we both are thinking about name change and later filing a Writ of Mandamus .

[Khallaf 649]

1 minute ago, umerdec08 said:

Yes we have reached to Senator Lindsey Graham, and his PA contacted us . But embassy response to him was the same that case is under AP , now we are still waiting but we both are thinking about name change and later filing a Writ of Mandamus .

I do not recommend a writ of mandamus, all that will do is force them to make a decision if the background checks are not complete it will come back with a rejection, it will then take 1-2 years to fully complete to second interview.

 

going through the steps to chance the name will not likely have any effect on the decision of the case, if its a personal choice go for it, but if you think it will help the AP it likely will not.

 

try sending off another email checking status all you can really do is wait it out. I have seen couples in both Pakistan and Egypt sit in AP for up to 2 years before.

 

and more and more rejections are coming down the pipeline from Pakistan.

 

IMO and I know its hard to do and easy for me to say but stay patient and send them an email every 90 days to check in.

 

if you haven't seen an update since July I would shoot them off an email to check the status.

[badhumor 8]

27 minutes ago, Khallaf said:

I do not recommend a writ of mandamus, all that will do is force them to make a decision if the background checks are not complete it will come back with a rejection, it will then take 1-2 years to fully complete to second interview.

 

going through the steps to chance the name will not likely have any effect on the decision of the case, if its a personal choice go for it, but if you think it will help the AP it likely will not.

 

try sending off another email checking status all you can really do is wait it out. I have seen couples in both Pakistan and Egypt sit in AP for up to 2 years before.

 

and more and more rejections are coming down the pipeline from Pakistan.

 

IMO and I know its hard to do and easy for me to say but stay patient and send them an email every 90 days to check in.

 

if you haven't seen an update since July I would shoot them off an email to check the status.

As per US state department the AP process last maximum 6 months, so we think that its just a delay on embassy part , or maybe its not .. we are still figuring out how to move forward , we still have worry about some 5000-10000$ for attorney/fees etc . 

 

Changing name was actually something we personally wanted to do, it wasn't for AP but my wife wanted it . Its just i look into it if it will affect AP or not .

 

My thinking is that if i file a WOM and got rejected, than I can restart the process which roughly take 1.5 years to complete , I know some 30-40 people who went to US by marrying and their process roughly ended in 1.5 years maximum , so if i restart the process at least i would than know that I will go with the process again , this time i will have Joint sponsor which wasn't the case before . But right now nothing is final we as couple are still talking this out .

 

Honestly we are waiting patiently and other than sending inquiries we can not do much .

May God ease our process and make this stressful time go away , Soon it will be our 3rd anniversary which we spend far from each other, first few years are actually Honeymoon period for any newly wed couple, and we are still struggling here .