odey

My wife applied for a social security card yesterday. The SS employee told us that she couldn't apply under (or even change to) her married name until she received her AOS/green card or EAD card because "her new name wasn't yet in the system". (Note: we applied for her AOS/EAD under her new name.) He went on to say that this rule only applies to foreign-born applicants. I found this incredibly bureaucratic and hard-to-believe because one's legal name isn't determined by immigration status but by your marriage license, of course. It was frustrating because I had read so many cases on this site where foreigners were changing the names on their SS card immediately after marriage but before AOS/EAD.

Does anybody have any experience with SSA in which they denied changing your name until immigration had first made the name change?

We rescheduled our Peru embassy interview back in March. We had a lot of problems in that we were told one date, and the system later had another date. No idea what happened. I was shocked when I called a week later and was told of another date. I had already bought my plane ticket but decided not to risk changing the date again and just accepted the system date. Morale of the story is call often to to confirm the date.

Also, the new packet won't go out until exactly a month before your interview date. Best for you to call and request that a copy be left at the Embassy for your fiancee to pick up. You'll likely be in Lima anyway doing all the police and check-ups. All you really need from the new packet is the new invitation letter. You can use the rest of the original packet 3 while you're waiting.

I have not come accross anyone on here that has re-scheduled their interview. But, from what I see the Embassy has improved quite a bit and there should not be any problems.

My fiancee and I just had our visa interview in Lima, Peru and everything went great!

The only concern we have is that we foolishly left the original certificated birth certificate with the Embassy instead of leaving a copy. Apparently, I think they just wanted to *see* the original but would have been fine with being left with a copy.

Does anybody know how likely it is that we can ask for it back at POE? The American consular who interviewed us said it would be in the secure brown envelope that we give to the POE/HS officer but was vague about the likelihood of it being returned then.

Obviously, we would like to know so we can request another original birth certificate (requires a lawyer) before my fiancee leaves her country.

Many thanks for any help or advice!

My fiancee received package 3 from Lima Post. In it, there was a OF-179 form (biographic) that they asked her to send back immediately.

It looks like a shortened version of the DS-230 (without Part II). Does anybody know if they'll accept the DS-230 instead? Why did they send this OF-179 instead? It appears to be rarely used (it's not even posted on the NVC or State Dept websites). I plan on calling the Embassy, but if anybody knows, I'd appreciate it. Many thanks.