Question about last names on paperwork/documents

[oldgreg 28]

Looking for some assistance or guidance. My wife arrived to the US on her IR-1 visa last week. We filed all the paperwork with her taking my last name. Her visa in her passport has her maiden name. Today we got her social security card and it has her maiden name. Any idea of the green card will come with her maiden name or my last name? 

 

In the Latin American culture they generally don't change last names and we were not going to do it but we were advised to do it to make things easier. 

 

If the green card will have her maiden name, I am fine with sticking with her maiden name. Have any of you dealt with this?

[Moda25 76]

What paperwork did you do to change her last name? With just the marriage certificate, you could have gone to SS office to get her new name on the SS card. If she entered the US with her maiden name on her passport and visa, then it’s likely her green card would be issued in that name. 

[oldgreg 28]

We filed the visa paperwork using my last name. For example, everything was Raquel Smith. Now her social security card and Visa have Raquel ibarra abarca. 

[Moda25 76]

@oldgreg Her passport?

[oldgreg 28]

We got married in Costa Rica, never filed any paperwork down there to change her name. Her passport with the visa still has her maiden name. The only reason we filed paperwork with my last name is the lady helping us with suggested it would make things easier. 

We don't want to complicate things and if everything is with her maiden name, that is fine. 

[pushbrk 13,874]

11 minutes ago, oldgreg said:

We got married in Costa Rica, never filed any paperwork down there to change her name. Her passport with the visa still has her maiden name. The only reason we filed paperwork with my last name is the lady helping us with suggested it would make things easier. 

We don't want to complicate things and if everything is with her maiden name, that is fine. 

It would have made things easier, only if you also changed the name in her passport.  Next opportunity to make an official name change without going to court, is when she naturalizes.  Visas and green cards always match the passport name.  Evidently, "the lady helping you" was not fully informed, or did not fully inform you.

 

Edited Monday at 11:33 PM by pushbrk

[OldUser 10,576]

17 minutes ago, oldgreg said:

 

The only reason we filed paperwork with my last name is the lady helping us with suggested it would make things easier. 

 

That lady told you a lie. Was she a notario? Don't ever pay notarios, they harm more than they help. Changing name does not make things easier by definition. The easiest is keeping the same name, always.

 

Next time, please research the process yourself (you can ask VJ for help) or pay a real lawyer. Paying notarios, paralegal online services is a bad idea. They don't care about your case and they lack education in the subject.

Edited Monday at 11:41 PM by OldUser

[Crazy Cat 45,425]

43 minutes ago, oldgreg said:

Now her social security card and Visa have Raquel ibarra abarca. 

That will be the Green Card name.

[oldgreg 28]

Appreciate the info. Makes things easy bc I was thinking half would be in maiden name and the other half would be in married name. You guys are the best.

[pushbrk 13,874]

55 minutes ago, oldgreg said:

Appreciate the info. Makes things easy bc I was thinking half would be in maiden name and the other half would be in married name. You guys are the best.

Remember that for international travel, reservations and tickets must be in the same exact name as the passport.  Imagine traveling back to the USA with a passport in the maiden name and a green card in the married name.  It actually does work, but you have to travel with the marriage certificate and/or name change documents too.

[Dashinka 26,176]

9 hours ago, pushbrk said:

Remember that for international travel, reservations and tickets must be in the same exact name as the passport.  Imagine traveling back to the USA with a passport in the maiden name and a green card in the married name.  It actually does work, but you have to travel with the marriage certificate and/or name change documents too.

Honestly, not really a big deal as compared to the bureaucratic mish mash required to change one's name on documents in some countries.  It is interesting, and of course anecdotal, but in over ten years of my wife traveling internationally with her Russian passport in one name, and her GC, and now US Passport in another name, not a single person (border guard, airline clerk, etc.) in any country has asked to see the marriage certificate.

[pushbrk 13,874]

1 hour ago, Dashinka said:

Honestly, not really a big deal as compared to the bureaucratic mish mash required to change one's name on documents in some countries.  It is interesting, and of course anecdotal, but in over ten years of my wife traveling internationally with her Russian passport in one name, and her GC, and now US Passport in another name, not a single person (border guard, airline clerk, etc.) in any country has asked to see the marriage certificate.

GC and Passport in the same name is the key.  I'm assuming she only uses her Russian passport when traveling to Russia or FSU countries.  GC is irrelevant once she has Russian Passport.  Did she ever return to the USA with her Russian Passport and GC?  Details matter.

[Dashinka 26,176]

3 hours ago, pushbrk said:

GC and Passport in the same name is the key.  I'm assuming she only uses her Russian passport when traveling to Russia or FSU countries.  GC is irrelevant once she has Russian Passport.  Did she ever return to the USA with her Russian Passport and GC?  Details matter.

Russian passport with her maiden name, US GC with her married name, and she traveled between US and Russia (including layover stops in China) more than 10 times with that configuration re-entering the US multiple times using her Russian passport and US GC in different names (about a year of that including an extension letter).  I agree, when she naturalized and got her US Passport in her married name it was easier since we could now book the tickets with her US passport instead of her Russian passport (except for domestic flights in Russia) and her Russian passport in her maiden name was used only for entering and leaving Russia although Russian border officers always demand to see both passports.

 

Our original intention was to change all documents in Russia to her new married name, but after researching it, and looking at the time investment needed in country (1-6 months due to having to deal with everything tied to the national ID used in Russia a.k.a. Russian Domestic Passport).  I would never discourage anyone from pursuing bringing all IDs to the same name, but I do want to point out that there are other options that aren't too bad when the bureaucracy of doing that is excessive.

Edited Tuesday at 02:45 PM by Dashinka

[S2N 492]

1 hour ago, Dashinka said:

Our original intention was to change all documents in Russia to her new married name, but after researching it, and looking at the time investment needed in country (1-6 months due to having to deal with everything tied to the national ID used in Russia a.k.a. Russian Domestic Passport).  I would never discourage anyone from pursuing bringing all IDs to the same name, but I do want to point out that there are other options that aren't too bad when the bureaucracy of doing that is excessive.

In some Latin American countries it might not even be possible. The concept of changing last names is very foreign in a lot of the Spanish speaking world. To the point where the law to change names might not exist just because no one in power has ever realized it’s something anyone would ever want to do.

Edited Tuesday at 01:16 PM by S2N

[Crazy Cat 45,425]

15 hours ago, oldgreg said:

I am fine with sticking with her maiden name. Have any of you dealt with this?

My wife never changed her name, and it has made things a lot smoother.  Had she changed her last name, she would have had to jump through a lot of hoops regarding her finances, passport, her retirement pension, and a whole host of things in her home country.  Keeping her maiden name has created zero issues there or here.

 

As Shakespeare said (my paraphrase) "A Rose, if called some other name, is still just as sweet".  

Edited Tuesday at 01:43 PM by Crazy Cat