Questions about Name change at San Francisco Field Office

[Hanayuki 2]

Hi all,

 

I just applied for citizenship yesterday and on the form I indicated that I wanna change my name at the naturailization. When I go through some past posts on visajourney I know that I have to go through a separate name change order at court since my field office at San Francisco is not eligible to do that legally. I have some questions about the process and would appreciate if anyone can help me answer:

 

1) Do I really need to do the name change at San Francisco court if I'm living in Hayward? Since from the package it says the services at County of San Francisco is for SF residents only, can I do the name change at the local court in Hayward and show the decision at SF USCIS field office on the interview date? 

 

2) Should it be a problem if I do the name change now? Or I have to wait until a few months before the interview to process? I'm asking because I don't know if the court decision gonna affect the biometrics scanning that USCIS gonna do on my old name.

(I was notified that my biometrics from i-751 can be reused) 

 

I appreciate any help from you all,

Thank you

[pdx5 3]

I recently went through the interview at the SF field office. I also had requested a name change on my N-400 application.

 

Even before the interview started, the officer said that she saw the name change request on my form and explained that since SF wasn't a judicial office, they didn't have authority to make the name change possible. I could either go through the name change process through the local courts, and then come back for the oath, or just complete the interview and oath on the same day, get my naturalization certificate and then before applying for a US passport go through the local court for a name change.

 

Given that I didn't want to further delay the application and come back to the field office on yet another day, I chose to just finish the process that day.

 

You will have to go through the Alameda County court for the name change, not SF. That is the relevant local court. You'll simply be going to the SF field office for the interview.

 

As for going through the name change before the interview date, I'm not sure what the correct answer is there. In my opinion, it shouldn't be a problem because during the interview they will see that you requested a name change and you can simply present them with the court order (and in fact you can upload it as supporting evidence if you filed online).

 

Hope this helps.