chicagoan23

Hi, my wife's citizenship/name change oath ceremony is in Chicago at the Dirksen federal courthouse this Thursday. Which order would you suggest I do the below in? Check-in is at noon and the ceremony starts at 1pm. The social security office closes at 4pm and usually there's always a long line. Passport office closes at 4:30pm and the office to get a updated IL State ID with the new legal name closes at 5pm. All offices are walking distance from the courthouse. I know it says to wait 10 days before going to update your SSN record but I read on these threads of other folks who went in after the ceremony with their certificate, it just takes longer like 2+ weeks as opposed to walking in to social security office with your new passport.

Our plan is after the ceremony go to the social security office which might be 2pm depending on how long or how many people are at the ceremony, it should be less since these are folks that want to change their name. If the line looks crazy we may just walk out and save this for another day but I would rather get this over with since we are taking a day off from work and the office is very close to the courthouse. Or if ceremony is super long we may have no choice but to skip SSN since they close at 4pm.

Next walk over to get a new/updated IL State ID. Hopefully they don't ask to show a new SSN card with the new name. Her SSN is not changing so I think showing the current State ID with the old name and showing the certificate of naturalization and court document of name change is enough.

Lastly go apply for a new passport. If time runs out for us by 4:30pm we can always go on Friday to apply for a new passport. Or if social security line is crazy long then we save this until we receive the new passport. Please let me know your thoughts and thank you!

Hi everyone,

I love this forum Here is a quick timeline about us:

Met online August 2010

Met in person in Brazil October 2010

Met in person in Europe December and January 2011

Met in person in Argentina May 2011

Will meet in person in Brazil October 2011, I will propose to her

She will visit me in Usa December - early February 2012 on a tourist visa

August will mark 1 year together, October is when we actually met in person. Should I file for K-1 now or wait until August/October? I know I haven't physically proposed yet but from reading the posts K-1 is not a short process. The reason I am asking about waiting until the 1 year mark is perhaps anything under a year is a red flag? I'm very close to 1 year

The next thing I'm worried about is the 2 month visit this December. I have not bought the plane ticket yet. I'm debating if I should file K-1 before the trip or after the trip. She does have strong ties back home such as enrollment in college and employment letter. She wants to visit my family and the last time she was in the US was when she was 7. I'm 33 and she is 23, not sure if that's another red flag. How many red flags do I have haha. I'm not doing anything illegal, we won't marry in Usa until we get the proper visa. Thanks for your help this is so stressful

George & Isa