jesarmie

To name change or not? That is the question.

My wife is filing for her citizenship under 319b as I am a govt contractor working abroad. We are about to schedule our interview and the VA field office sent us a letter stating that legal name changes must be processed in a judicial ceremony at the Alexandria VA or Washington DC court house, and at the present time, court ceremonies are being scheduled in approximately 3 months. However, in this same letter it also states to bring to the interview:

A copy of your travel itinerary to reflect a departure from the U.S. within 45 days of your interview en route to the location where your spouse is working in their qualifying employment for your 319(b) filing

Currently my wife is in VA while I am working abroad, and I want to visit home when my wife does her oath taking. So if we do decide to do the name change, it seems to be a logistical nightmare. IF we do a name change I'm predicting it will play out as such:

1. Purchase wife's plane ticket scheduled to depart within 45 days of interview
2. Conduct & Pass Interview
3. Wait for name change/oath taking ceremony in court house. Could be as soon as 1 month or as long as 4 months. This would probably occur past the date of plane ticket, so I would have to rebook the plane ticket.
4. Finally get her passport and be back together abroad

If we have her interview in October, according to their approximation, doing a name change will re-unite us abroad around January 2015.

However, if we don't do a name change, if what people say about the Fairfax VA location is true, she would probably have the oath taking ceremony same day of her interview, and passport in hand before this month is over and reunited abroad in a matter of weeks.

Now, if someone could please enlighten me on the purpose of a court order name change. There are only 3 main things that my wife would need a name change court order for: USA passport, Social Security, and VA driver's license.

For the passport, according to the travel.state.gov website, a marriage certificate could be used as a name change document (http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/services/correction.html#Changes), and if we do it within 1 year, there will be no passport or processing fees. We could probably even do this abroad at the local consulate.

The Social Security website (http://www.socialsecurity.gov/ssnumber/ss5doc.htm) says that a certified copy of a marriage document would work, but we got married abroad so not sure how that would pan out. But, if she has her USA passport with her name changed, that itself should be enough evidence to process her name change on her Social Security.

As for the VA driver's license, a marriage certificate should suffice as well (https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/general/#records/update_add.asp)

Could anyone give any good reason that we should do a name change as part of my wife's naturalization process? I want to make sure I'm not missing anything. Thanks in advanced!

Hello wang & marko_wk, any updates to either of your situations? Our N400 application under 319b just got accepted & pulling up the case status on USCIS website says the same thing: "suspended processing because finger print fee submitted was incorrect." What did you guys do to have USCIS continue processing your application? We did our fingerprints at a military base overseas.

Thanks!

I am an American working & living in Kuwait. I met my wife here who is from the Philippines.

Are you here and your spouse abroad? and is the petitioner PR or USC?

I'm looking at my hardcopy notice for the transfer and the Priority Date is actually blank. The Receipt Date has April 11, 2013. I don't see my priority date on the USCIS website either.

jesarmie what is your priority date?

I was transferred to the California Service Center, and yes I am indeed an April filer

I don't think I am expedited. I called USCIS only once ever and talk to tier 2, but the lady was so rude to me that I never bothered calling them again.

Hello all, we have a priority date of April 15, 2013, was transferrred on October 31, 2013, and received email notification that our I130 was approved on November 12, 2013. When I check the case status, it finally moved from "Initial Review" to "Post Decision Activity". I hope that everyone in April will get theirs approved soon

Hey all,

I'm in the same boat as gabrielv here. What address should I put for myself? I am a US citizen and I own a home in Virginia, but I work on the army base in Kuwait, and live in an apartment in Kuwait. Should I put my VA address, my army APO address, or my Kuwait address?? oohpartiv, so should I be expecting to receive something via mail? Or will the paperwork be sent to the Kuwait embassy here? Thanks to anyone for the help!