Rowela and Jeff

Thanks to everyone for their support in our time of waiting. 8 months is a stressful time to wait when you've had biometrics and your status has no update on the date since "Your application has been received..."

We didn't have any interviews or requests for evidence, but we found out our green card was ordered for production on november 8. My wife was a February 28 filer, and it was being processed in Vermont.

Shouldn't that have been her decision/responsibility and not yours?

Well, I feel responsible for the mistake because when she wanted to do first name - maiden name - new last name, I thought she was talking about a hyphenated last name (example: John Doe-Smith), so I asked her "why wouldn't you want it your new last name only?" So, in a way, I talked her out of what she originally wanted to do, and then I understood a month or two later that the old last name becomes the new middle name and it wasn't hyphenated.

I saw where we could do a name change when she does her US Citizenship (and yeah, she would like to change the middle name to her maiden name), but I'm not sure if that would mess up the paperwork involved in trying to get her dual citizenship back with Philippines, and getting a new Philippines passport.

When my wife and I got married 3 years ago, I encouraged her of the USA practice of only changing her last name when she got married, not knowing until later of the Philippines custom to change both the middle name AND the last name (for those of you that don't know, the maiden last name now becomes her new middle name).

We reported the name change to the Philippines embassy in Chicago and pressed on. We're now to the point where we can almost apply for her citizenship in USA (3 years if married to USA citizen), and we thought about changing her middle name to the one she would have liked when we got married.

We had initially thought to let her Philippines passport expire in 2014 and then later when we had the $$$, we would go to Chicago to apply for her dual-citizenship. However, with her passport being one name, the change of address form showing a different name, and her naturalization certificate showing a third name, would she have any difficulty in obtaining another Philippines passport with her new U.S. name? (The one with her new middle name) Are any other documents required other than the application, passport, marriage license, Philipines name change document with the name from the marriage license, and Certificate of US citizenship? What do we need to do in order to change her name legally with Philippines?

Wish I understood the name change custom from the beginning...