A-and-B

As per the attorney who prepped my N-400 filing, for a regular name change, you normally have to be a resident of the state and sometimes even of the county where the name change occurs. However, for the N-400, apparently, this is a Federal court order not registered with any state, so I should have been able to do the N-400 name change. I guess that's what I get for not taking an attorney with me... although that would have cost most than paying the county court for a name change! lol

It didn't dissuade me; I was not given a choice. They just said "Since you don't live in Oregon, you can't change your name via the N-400, so we're going to change this line to "no" on your N-400. I wasn't about to pick an argument with the IO.

This is why I was asking. Apparently, the lead time for the court hearing is about 2-4 weeks, so I will wait until I know the oath date, and then file the name change request with the court to time it shortly after the oath.

That's what I was thinking too. I couldn't find anyone else reporting this specific reason for being told they couldn't do a requested N-400 name change, but it does seem they are discouraging people from doing N-400 name changes and/or court house oath ceremonies, even though I see they are still doing them in PDX (Hatfield court house lists dates every month through the end of this year for oath ceremonies). No matter the reason, right or wrong, it's too late to do anything about it now, so I don't have a choice to do a separate legal name change at the county court house ASAP, as the other issue is that my mother is in poor health and my canadian passport is expired, so I want/need to get a new EDL and passport ASAP after the oath ceremony, with the corrected name. Yes, I am aware I could request those with my old name and then later request new ones with the corrected name, but that's just more money and time wasted at all these gov offices (SSA, DMV, passport, etc).

My country/province has christened first names on the birth record that are dropped from state ID's and bank records. For example, say my christened name is "Joseph Andrew Smith", but my Canadian driver's license and passport only say "Andrew Smith". When moving to the US, the US did not drop my christened name. US Banks use my full christened name. I can't wire myself money between banks in Canada and the US because the full legal name doesn't match. Banks in the US obviously won't change the name on the account without a legal name change, and bank in Canada will not adjust my bank account to put my christened first name on the account unless I not only go to Canada, but to the very specific "home branch" where my account was opened. Besides that, I've also never used my christened name, so it makes things very confusing when going to hospitals, etc and 9/10 times they will ignore the "preferred name" on file, and just call out a name I am not expecting.

I live in a border town, closest USCIS office is 15 minutes away in the next state over, vs 3 hour drive in my state. It's also where USCIS decided I should interview. I did not pick that location.

I selected the option to change my name in my N-400 form, however, during the interview, the IO said I couldn't do a name change because I live in a different state than the Federal court house where the oath ceremony would be held. My issue is that I need to change my name ASAP due to name mismatch issues (christened name is commonly dropped from official ID, banks, etc in my home country, whereas my GC/DL/etc in the US have my full christened name). My IO recommended me for approval, and case status shows as ceremony awaiting to be scheduled. To avoid delays after the ceremony, I would like to get my name changed immediately at the local district court. Has anyone done this? Reasons to not do this? I would immediately report the name change via USCIS as expected of GC holders.

Called USCIS and a friendly representative was able to see and confirm my status and said I did not receive an online activation code due to the way my attorney filled out the form. She said she would file a ticket to have them issue an online activation code and it should be mailed out within 7 days.... That was on Friday, and now this Monday morning, I got a template email from USCIS asking me to contact them and provide them with all the details again (name, alien #, email address, mailing address, notice number, etc...) 😥

N-400, with an IOE notice.

I'm the beneficiary. Attorney submitted the filing. I have a MyUSCIS account, and I still see the history of my previous filings for AoS and RoC.

I double checked my filing and my address, phone, and email are correct. It's been 90+ days since my filing has been received, yet I have not received any NOA's or Online Access Code, even though my attorney has received several. I requested one on the USCIS site, and provided all the requested details (which form I filed, my full name (same as on filing), A-number, phone number, Zip code and notice/case #. A few minutes after submitting, I get an automatic response stating my request was declined because they were unable to validate my identity. I tried requesting a second time, but using my attorney's zip code, and a few minutes later, I got an email response asking me to contact the USCIS Contact Center Technical Help, which took me to the USCIS Emma chat, I picked the option to speak with a live agent, explained my situation as above, confirmed my contact info and said someone would contact me within 7 days...... 2 minutes later, I get another notification telling me to contact the USCIS Contact Center Technical Help to confirm my full name, A-number, receipt number, form number, and date of birth (all of which they have already been provided...) Has anyone else gone through this?