mattmatt

May I also suggest that she looks into filing in the Netherlands for 2015 as well. Not having lived there for the whole year, could make for a decent chunk of changes coming her way (at least for dutch standards).

You will generally pay more taxes as Married Filing Separately than Married Filing Jointly. You could file MFS now and then amend it to MFJ later when she gets an SSN -- that will avoid the hassle of getting an ITIN. Note that if you guys files MFJ then she will need to be treated as resident for the whole year and you will need to report her worldwide income and then use the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion.

She does not need to file because she has no US income to report.
Form 2555ez is not that hard. Ask for help.
You would go to a local IRS center that certifies her passport and sends the tax return and ITIN documents on to be processed. If that's too far to drive, and not worth paying less taxes or bigger refund, then you don't have to.
Overthinking in my opinion. It will say MARRIED and will list your wife's name, right? Not like you are filing as single with no mention of a wife.

You can file MFS. Then ammend the 2015 taxes after she gets her ssn if it's beneficial to you.

Hello mattmatt,
No it will not matter if you fill Married Filing Separate or Married Filing jointly. if she doesn't have a SSN you can go to a tax agency and they will apply for an ITIN for her. The only difference is that filling separately your income is not combine, so if she owns it will not affect you compare to filling jointly

If only it was that easy. LOL! She will get another Dutch passport. She will be eligible for a US passport only when she is a US citizen. I suggest you to read the Guides and get familiar with the whole immigration process.
There are 4 steps:
1. K1 visa
2. AOS (Adjustment of Status)
3. ROC (Removal of Conditions)
4. Citizenship
Good luck!

Hi there!
Two things I read that I've experienced differently (just to throw in my two cents):
- I got my SSN with my maiden name when I arrived in NJ, but they wouldn't let me change it to my married name until I came back with EAD. They said otherwise they'd have to give me a new card too many times.
- The NJ DMV also wouldn't let me apply for a state ID or driver's license without the EAD. But that could just be my jerk office
If you ever need advice or anything, I'm home all day and bored I'm in NJ too, from NL and just changed my last name as well.

Most importantly get to know what's coming next. Find out the costs and be prepared. A lot of folks are shocked by the Adjustment of Status (AOS) cost which comes up after the wedding.
The best part is that once she's here and you've married , the rest of the stuff is done together.

Thank you wbeem, amartins, canadian_wife, and Darnell for the informative replies. Especially thank you amartins for doing all the research and actually linking to the appropriate page of my township's website.

Matt,
First step for her is to get the K-1 visa, enter the U.S. (on her current Dutch passport), and get married
(to you.) Then, she can/will change her last name. In The Netherlands, this is usually done using a
hyphenated form: Mary Steenburgen will then be named Mary Hubbiename - Steenburgen. In the
U.S., this can either be JUST your last name, or with her maiden name tagged on.
Once married, she can get registered with SSA under her new name - they want to see her original
passport, AND the document that proves the name change, in this case the marriage certificate. Once
you have the SSN and the card, you can usually apply for a drivers license / state ID. That will also
be in her new name if you mention that to them - they will, again, need both her passport AND the
document that proves the name change.
Then, you file for AoS/AP/EAD, and you can include both her names in that paperwork. Her "full
name" would then be her married name, and for "other names" you add her maiden name.
After AOS etc is completed (meaning, she gets her 2-year green card), she has that in her new
name.
Two years after that, she files for RoC, which results in her permanent green card.
Sometime after that, she COULD file for naturalization. Since she is married to a U.S. Citizen, she
can keep her Dutch nationality as well (Holland allows dual citizenship in certain cases; being
married to a foreign national is one of those.) Naturalization results in a U.S. passport being issued
to her, of course.
She can request a new Dutch passport at any time after her marriage, but I'd wait until after AOS at least,
because of the original K-1 visa stuff in her current one.
If you (or she) has questions, feel free to PM me.

You want this section of the forum:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/7-adjustment-of-status-green-card-from-family-based-visas/

ok - fair enough.
The roadmap is in your timeline,
over at
http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/profile.php?id=204261
and is in chronological order.
See stuff without actual dates? Thats stuff still to do.
Now, we also have guides in the Guide Section for what to do, how to do, so click through the links (from a PC) when you see them in the prior posts.

After the K-1 issued she will travel to the US and marry YOU.
When that is done, she will adjust status to a permanent resident and obtain her green card http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1k3aos
AFTER a few years (and other processes) she can apply for citizenship
good luck

Okay, you need to step back a bit. There's two issues here.
The first is that your fiancée will want to take your surname upon marriage. As I understand it, in New Jersey, this is done simply by her beginning to use your name (presuming that you're a man—same sex marriages have different rules), but this would best be verified just by contacting your municipal clerk.
The other issue is whether an American marriage changes your wife's surname in the Netherlands. My preliminary research indicates that she may choose to go by your surname, but it does not actually legally change her name anywhere. This is just pulled from Wikipedia:
The second issue regarding an American passport: she is not an American citizen. She's not getting a US passport just for marrying you. Honestly, she gets nothing for marrying you, but instead becomes eligible for you to begin the lengthy and expensive process of adjusting her status. (Since I see that you've already got your K-1 visa, you're already familiar with lengthy and expensive USCIS processes.) Just look at wbeem's link.
If the Netherlands will actually issue her another passport making note of her married surname is a question best answered either by the Municipal Basis Administration (Gemeentelijke Basis Administratie) back in the Netherlands, or, if she's already here, by contacting the Dutch Consulate.