realCG

3 hours ago, EatBulaga said:

 

She can travel to PH with maiden name passport, and return to US with her green card and marriage certificate to link the name on the passport to the green card.

 

The flight ticket name needs to match the passport. 

 

If you want a PH ROM, then have another marriage in the PH with the proper paperwork. The marriage date will be different on the PH ROM from the Pennsylvania marriage certificate. 

Thank you very much! We were just scared that she might not be able to use it since she got different names. I appreciate your response!

13 hours ago, top_secret said:

I am not familiar with a "self-uniting marriage" but if, as it implies, it does not involve some kind of officiant who is legally authorized to perform marriages then I could see how it would run afoul of Philippine laws. "Presence of the solemnizing officer" is an absolute core requirement for any marriage to be considered valid by the Philippines. That was originally a sticking point on legality of Utah online marriages in the Philippines before they finally decided that an online virtual "presence" did satisfy the requirement.  I assume it must be recognized by the US since it seems your wife is here????

 

https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1987/07/06/executive-order-no-209-s-1987/

 

If that is the issue with the consulate(??), I am not sure how you go about fixing that????  In terms of the name issue.  It is not really a problem for traveling. People do it all the time. She should probably just use the name in her passport when purchasing airline tickets and then if she needs to show the green card as proof of the right to enter the US at either check-in immigration, show it and the passport with maiden name along with the marriage certificate to explain the difference.

As long as we can still use her passport with her maiden name on it to travel then that's enough for us. Thank you!

1 hour ago, EatBulaga said:

First, please fill out your Timeline. No one has any idea of where you are in the USCIS processing? CR1/IR1? EAD? Conditional green card? Etc.?

 

Second, did your foreign spouse gain marriage based status by "self-uniting marriage"? Which US state?

One of the closest to "self-uniting marriage" recognized by some states is common law marriage like Texas. Even Texas common law marriage can have a county clerk registry called declaration of informal marriage, which is a document/record that can be used for USCIS applications or maybe PH Report Of Marriage?

 

Third, foreigners can travel out of the country with passports in maiden name. What returning US Entry document does your foreign spouse have? If the US Entry document name is different from passport name, what document of registered marriage or name change document can link the two document names?

My apologies.

My wife got here last year thru K1 visa. She got her 2 year green card last year as well. 

We got our marriage certificate in Pennsylvania. We have no problem using our self-uniting marriage certificate elsewhere, it's only in the Philippines I think that they don't really recognize it as a marriage cert which I was unaware.

I'm guessing a marriage certificate would be sufficient proof to link my spouse's name when travelling outside the country?

2 hours ago, Edward and Jaycel said:

 

Do you mean self-solemnized? Do you have a marriage certificate filed with a public authority (County Clerk/Recorder, Probate Court, etc.)?

I'm guessing that's the same thing. 

We only have a marriage certificate stamped and sealed by a county clerk when we went to get it.

My wife and I got married through a self-uniting marriage. 

When I sent our Report of Marriage to the consulate to pre-assess the documents, they unfortunately said that the consulate does not acknowledge self-uniting marriage. I didn't know that, but I understand.

My wife wanted to update her PH passport to have her married name on it, so that it matches all her IDs, but one requirement to update her passport is the Report of Marriage which we unfortunely cannot do. 

My question now is, would she still be able to travel outside the US and back using her PH passport with her maiden name on it?

Also since there's no way to update/renew her ph passport, is the only thing to do now to get her married name on her passport is to get naturalized as a US citizen and get a US passport with her married name on it? 

Thank you.

I appreciate it guys. Thank you!

We're on K1 visa. My wife got her SSN a week after her arrival in the US with her maiden name of course. We got married recently and now plans to go to SSA to update her name to use my last name. I've been trying to search for answers but finds different answers. Some say we could just go ahead as long as we have our certified copy of marriage cert, others says to apply for the AOS first with her updated name(married name) so that USCIS got a record of the name and that it's easier for the SSA to find it, and then there are others that says we need the green card to update her name. 

Anyone here successfully updated their names on their ssn right after marriage with just the marriage license? 

Also can my wife apply for a state ID with her married name before we get the actual updated SS card?

My fiance just got here in the US and I want her to get her own bank account so that she doesn't need to keep asking me or keeps carrying cash. She got her SSN already but we're not married yet. 

Do not overthink things, you'll go crazy lol. 

If your most recent tax return didn't meet the required income, then you can use bank statements to prove that money is getting deposited into your bank account,

paystub, etc. and maybe a letter from your employer to prove that you are a permanent worker that is earning X amount of dollars.

At the end of the day, they will only want to know if you can financially support your fiancé and not rely on the government.

2 minutes ago, S I A N said:

Yes. They won’t need to “request for evidence” from you until they actually review your application. If you receive an RFE, the processing of your petition is on HOLD until they have reviewed the evidence you’ve sent, which can take anywhere between two weeks to three months from what I’ve seen.

I appreciate it!

2 minutes ago, Letspaintcookies said:

That's about right.

Thank you!

Just a quick question, been trying to find an answer for this but couldn't find any.

So let's say they want more proof from you, or you missed something on the application. My question is do they send the RFE notice by mail when they are finally about to process your application which is 10-13months or so? Or I'm misundertanding this?

Thank you.

4 minutes ago, SteveInBostonI130 said:

You just need to provide a description of your latest in-person meeting which will need to include the date.  Add evidence such as airplane boarding passes, passport stamps and/or hotel/travel receipts.

 

 

If your fiance is from a difficult country, like Morocco and other MENA countries, then you can and should front load with more relationship evidence.  This is for the embassy to look at later.

 

USCIS will not care about your relationship, or about how many times you met and how long and what you two did.  They have a checkbox that needs to marked: did you meet in person in the last 2 years?  If yes, then they keep processing your petition for the other qualifiers.  If no, then they will refuse the petition.

I appreciate your reply! 

I do have travel/hotel booking receipts, but my problem with that is I only have my name on it. 

Does providing photos during the travel/stay for that receipt a good supporting proof that those receipt were in fact ours?

3 minutes ago, Mike E said:

You’ve  provided more than enough. 
 

I just entered the date and place of every in-person meeting we had in the previous two years.  And then on separate sheets of sort I provided documentation of each meeting:

 

* air ticket receipts

* hotel receipts 

* at least one photo of the two of us together from that meeting 

Yess! Something like that! 

I'm kinda hesitating to write a full paper of our love story because I feel like they only really want to see proofs that we were together and the relationship is real. 

Did they approve it?

So I filled the box on item 54 about our meeting which was 2 months ago. The initial textbox is very small that I think fits two to three sentences only.

All I said in there is that my fiancée picked me up in the airport and I stayed at their house during my entire stay. (and of course proofs would be provided)

But I'm sure this might not be enough and I might get RFEd because maybe it's too short and not enough details.

So I'm planning to make a separate attached document, and I'm just wondering if it's okay to make it like a timeline kind of format

something like:

2012:

-I met her online and we started talking...

-...

-....

2015:

-went to visit her

-we spent lot of time ....

-....

2016:

-I proposed ....

-...

and so on.

Did anyone have tried it before? And if so, what was the outcome.

I appreciate it!