scubagirl

If he changes his name after you have already applied for the green card in another name, then if you are planning to file for naturalization later, you could wait until then and have your name changed for free at that time. Besides the $450 for getting a new green card, if your name change is not due to marriage, then you would also have to pay to get your name changed through the court. If he legally changes his name after you marry, that won't automatically change yours too.

KayDeeCee,

I see. This makes sense to me now.

Thank you so much for your kind information. You were a great help

This is a silly thing to even think of, before you go through the AOS, and get a GC.,.,then I question, why not wait until, all the "legal stuff" is done.,.,.then change your names to whatever.,,.,

There is just so many more important things to take care of.,.,especially after a long immirration process, than thinking of a "stage" legal name change.,..,to me., get your priorities in order.,,most important, legal immigration.

Thanks for the comment raven52

To answer your question... the reason I asked this question here is because I wanted to ask some friends out there who has experienced this situation and if so, some advice. Now I know we will need to pay $450 if we wait til we get all the AOS, GC done. did you know that?

Can I as you... How do you know this is not an important issue? We all have different, unique cases who are on VJ and we are helping/ asking each other for receiving / giving advice.

Please do not judge whether this is not an important thing or not. There are many people who has their own questions / problems.

If this is not your priority and thats TOTALLY fine. Leave it to that.

I don't know your background and what you are going through, but you have no right to say this is silly to someone who is seriously asking a question here.

OP: Your fiance can legally change his name, but it will take some time, as far as I know. Will you have enough time before the 90 days runs out? You could do it after marriage, change both, but it will be an added expense and you'll have to pay for a GC replacement.

Gabi: Are you talking about just normal name change due to marriage, or taking a third name? Because it sounds like your lawyer is trying to make more money off of you.

Thank you Harpa Timsah for your information!

As you said, we might not have enough time for my fiancé to change his name before our marriage. Plus, he has a short term work coming up in a different country soon and I think that adds more complication changing it now.

So, I think reading everyone's post and thinking things through, our best option will be to change after marriage and pay $450..... Booo

Sure not a problem. We are getting married under our current names. We will have our former names our marriage certificate and I asked the lawyer and she said we can not change the names on the certificate. In all honesty though you dont use the marriage certificate much.

Thank you for your reply Gabi and Uri

Yes, I agree with you. I don't think marriage certificate are used that much.

Although since we probably might not make it in time for my US fiancé to change his name before marriage, we will probably have to use our current name when getting married and also for the green card.

It's a real pain though to pay $450 to change the name for my green card...

http://www.uscis.gov/i-90

The price is very shocking!

I can not speak to most of it but my fiance is wanting to change his name once we arrive in the states. I too want to take my fiance's name (I am the USC). I am from South Dakota and per a lawyer there: they said that once we are married and he has his temp green card (around 6 months) we will be able to change our names. Our lawyer is able to do both our names at once (he is changing his first and last and I am just changing my last). It does have to be done by a court hearing. She said it is rather easy to do but it is a bit expensive.

Hope this helps!

Hi Gabi and Uri!

Thank you so much for your response and sharing your experience!

Can I ask you...

When you get married, will you and your fiancé use your own current name and surname on the marriage certificate?

1. I put my receipt number on the form and did not encounter any problem at all. Some others put their case numbers and still worked though.

2. I did not put any surname of my mother since she has a single name like mine.

Thank you Girl from Celebes!!!!

Hello friends.

I have a couple of questions on the DS 160.

Hope you guys can fill me in with some answers.

1) Is it correct to fill out my USCIS receipt # for "Application Receipt number/ Petition number"?

The DS 160 form says "Your application receipt/petition number was given to you by the Department of Homeland Security’s United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) after you filed your petition application at a USCIS Service Center. The application receipt/petition number is 13 characters long and the first three characters are letters."so I'm assuming it is the USCIS receipt number but just wanna make sure since I have seen ppl here to put in the Case number instead.

2) Mothers full name and date of birth.

Will I need to fill in my mothers maiden name for her surname?? It does not clearly state whether or not it is the maiden name on the form. Any thoughts??

Thanks y'all.

Thanks for the share TeamM&M!!! I just got my NAO2 still a long way ahead but any information for us is appreciated. Thank you and Congrats guys!

Hang in there. every couple whether long distance or not, have fights but it does makes it harder when you're apart.

We are all going through rough roads, LOTS of ups and downs, we need to stay strong and keep doing what we're doing, calling/ texting/ talking about the wonderful future ahead etc. One of the things I really enjoy with my BF is we would start watching the same TV show at the same time while on the phone. It kinda feels he's there with you:)

I am from Japan, lived in the US for 5 years but there are many times when I feel frustrated about not being able to fully express myself language wide and cultural wise. But we try to work it out. My bf tries very hard to understand me even though I know it is hard.

He always tell me communication is the most important thing in a relationship. I think so too.

There are times where we can't come to an agreement point on certain things. But I think it is OK unless the 2 of us tries to process each others opinions and tries to understand their best.

Maybe it might be good to let your fiancé know what you are feeling in your heart and just talk….

Don't tell your partner sorry if you don't mean it. It just stresses you out and I don't think sorry is the answer your partner wants.

The stress or anger your fiancé has may be coming from somewhere else or multiple things.

Communication is the key.

Best of luck and always remember the VJ here are going through tough times too. You are not alone!

Hello all. Just a quick question on the affidavit of support form, I-134.

We were trying to get a head start on filling the I-134 since we received our NAO1. my fiancé is coming to visit me soon so was thinking of filling it out while he was here, but It looks like it expires on 12/31/2013 .

Does anyone know if the USCIS updates this form soon after/before it expires? Not a critical question or anything if someone has info on this that wold be great.

Thanks all!

If your fiance is coming for the interview, then it would make things even easier!

I may have mentioned this in the old post but we went to the Embassy an hour before they opened and there was already someone waiting in the line. So we were second plane in the line. When we went in, they gave us a packet to put all our paperwork into in a specific order. Then we waited for them to call us. They called my wife first and after ten minutes, they called me. The interviewer asked me a few questions (mostly related to work) and then said that we were approved.

Then we went to a nearby place for breakfast. It was very easy and quick. Most of the time was just waiting to be called.

That's also good to know! I bet it ended up being THEE best breakfast for you two

We will make sure to go earlier than our interview time.

btw, do we need to inform the Embassy that my fiance will also be coming before hand?

Hi scubagirl! Here is a copy and paste of a recent post I made with some links for preparation for the Tokyo embassy in case there is anything helpful there. Anyhow the interview was very quick and they even asked me to join and asked some very basic questions. It lasted only ~15 minutes.

Thanks so much Yagisama for all the great information! Wow! I didn't know interviews are that short! My fiance is planning on coming to jpn for the interview, I'll have to let him know about this

Hey guys My name is tony and im new to this site. I had a few questions my fiancée and I have just started filling out our forms. For the Letter of intent form and for the 325 A forms I was told that her signature cannot be zeroxed. I emailed her the form and she printed it out to sign her name in pen then send me a copy. Will that be a problem?

Hi Tony. SparklePony is right. ALL documents must be printed and signed by a pen.

I would agree that Other Names is in regards to legal name changes, like the ones you have when you marry. A stage name is not a legal name.

Hi SparklePony! Thanks for your advice! We're hoping to send all the docs very soon! Hope everything is going smoothly at your end as well!

Yes I concur. The only names relevant are legal names.

As neko said, you can provide supporting documents that show that the name in the emails is his stage name.

But in my opinion, email, chat logs, etc are not very significant proof of relationship and I would go as far as consider taking them out of the application and not worry about the stage name at all.

I definitely overdid the evidence of a relationship when applying for the K-1 visa. I even included a receipt for a coke in narita airport but didn't include any emails (I did include Birthday, Christmas, etc cards). And a lot of the extra stuff I had included really slowed us down in the Tokyo Embassy. We were second in line when they opened but it took hours for them to get to us probably since they had to go through all the useless stuff I had included.

Anyhow your call whether you want to include the stage name poster, emails, etc, but there's no need to write the name in the forms.

Hello Yagisama! Thanks for your advice and your experience with the Tokyo Embassy! This helps me a lot!

I totally understand what you mean by overdoing the evidence of the relationship...

We're having a bit of a challenge on what we should and should not include. Like our texting that exceeds over 400 pages(which we def will not include the whole things), restaurants receipts, bunch of pics etc. ect.ect.ect.ect....... I feel like my heads gonna explode!

But we're gonna try and keep it simple, just our passport stamps/boarding passes/pics/couple of our texts.....

I think that you don't have to write the stage name on the form, since it is not something that he uses to get a plane ticket, ID, etc. Just my opinion.

If I were you, I would provide documents that shows that is his stage name, along with the email threads you are going to send in. Something like flyers and posters for his shows from the past would work? Or something from the organization he belongs to; production company or something.

At least, that's what I would want to see, if I were the examiner at uscis;)

Good luck!

Ai

Hi Ai! Thanks again for your advice! The more we go over the forms, we find little bits of this and that we become uncertain about. Maybe we're over thinking it.... but always good to have some advice from "SENPAI" VJ'ers! Hoping to send our I-129F the first week of Nov. ahhh,,,,, FINALLY our Visa journey begins... ))

anyone have an advice on this??

My fiancé (who is the petitioner) is a performer and uses a stage name, that is different from his legal name. Both the I-129F and G-325A have sections for other names used. Should he include his stage name and/or attach a supplement explaining this. The stage name is not used in any legal documents just theatrical credits and programs and emails etc...

It says on the I-129F to write other names that are used. Do they mean names that are legally used or names that are used for example, in our case, a stage name?

We are concerned about this because when we hand in our proof of relationship, his name( emails etc) is under his stage name. It makes me wonder that the USCIS will not understand why he is using other names. If I can have some detailed info this, that would help us a lot!! Thank you!

Congrats! All the best!!!!

Q1:

Yes, like Hypnos said, you only get one ssn in your life, and it can't be changed, I think.

Q2:

No, just because you have SSN, that doesn't mean you also have A#.

When I received my ssn a couple of years before I met my husband, I didn't have A#, so I left it blank when we filed K1. And I still don't have one:)

Ai

That's great to know neko!!!! Thanks so much for the info!!!!!!

Hi everyone,

I hope I can get some help from you all.

I'm currently filing a K-1 visa with my American fiancé. I am Japanese.

When I was a kid, my family moved to the United States for 5 years due to my fathers job.

I have a SSN number when I was living in the States and since I was 5 years old when I got the SSN, it says on the card "not valid for employment".

Also I am not sure if I have a Alien registration number and my parents also does not remember anything about getting one.

My question to you is....

Q. Would I need to write my SSN that I got over 25 years ago on theG-325A forms?

Q. If you have/ had a SSN, do you also receive a Alien registration number?

Thanks so much!!!