What was your experience changing your name during naturalization?

[sunshinelove 52]

I'm aware that this is a personal decision but I want to get a whole picture before making important decisions. My wife came to the US on a K1 visa and we made the decision to not change her name after marriage to make everything easier for AOS instead of changing it. In a month, she's eligible to apply for citizenship and we've been talking about changing her name. She doesn't have a middle name so she'd take her maiden name as her middle name and she'd take my last name.

Is it a real pain in the butt to get all the documentation switched over to her new name? 

And also, I've heard that the name in your passport has to be the name you travel with. If she had dual citizenship, she'd present her Belgian passport (old name) in Belgium but her new US passport (new name) when coming home. So which name would we fly with? Or would we just have to apply for a new Belgian passport in her new name to be on the safe side? Thank you for any input. I know this is ultimately a personal decision but it would be nice to get personal opinions from people who have done this. 

 

[JeanneAdil 6,202]

not hard at all

You can indicate a name change on Form N-400, which is the main form for naturalization. Even if you do not ask for a name change at this point, you can ask to file a Petition for Name Change at your USCIS interview.Apr 8, 2019

 

 

if you travel with a round trip ticket ,  i (would guess) the name for flying to and from should be the same (one passport or the other)

[SparklePony 238]

Just be aware that name changes need to be approved by a judge and that may potentially impact how long it takes to schedule the oath ceremony. I had initially requested a name change in my naturalization paperwork but today, at the interview, I was told that because courts are closed throughout the southeast because of Covid, that could mean a waiting period of up to a year, or even longer, for my ceremony to be scheduled. I decided it was best to get the ceremony done now and pay to change my name later, than wait for the combo. Things may be different where you're at, and given that you haven't filed yet, by the time your case gets to that point everything will be resolved. But I wanted to give you the heads up.

[ThaOne 101]

On 1/30/2021 at 6:19 PM, sunshinelove said:

I'm aware that this is a personal decision but I want to get a whole picture before making important decisions. My wife came to the US on a K1 visa and we made the decision to not change her name after marriage to make everything easier for AOS instead of changing it. In a month, she's eligible to apply for citizenship and we've been talking about changing her name. She doesn't have a middle name so she'd take her maiden name as her middle name and she'd take my last name.

Is it a real pain in the butt to get all the documentation switched over to her new name? 

And also, I've heard that the name in your passport has to be the name you travel with. If she had dual citizenship, she'd present her Belgian passport (old name) in Belgium but her new US passport (new name) when coming home. So which name would we fly with? Or would we just have to apply for a new Belgian passport in her new name to be on the safe side? Thank you for any input. I know this is ultimately a personal decision but it would be nice to get personal opinions from people who have done this. 

 

Will delay your naturalization process. Especially now with COVID since this has to go through courts, you COULD be looking at months more of waiting without knowing for sure why you are getting no updates.

[EternalForeigner 57]

In terms of travel, it really will make it much less of a pain to fly if she keeps her name the same on both passports. It's not a must and she could still travel even with a changed name, but since both the US and Belgium require Advanced Passenger Information, it could stand to complicate things a bit.