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Name Change Woes
Hello everyone,
My wife and I are having some issues regarding her I-485 adjustment of
status based on our marriage. She's a Serbian citizen by birth and we
got married while she was here on a J-1 visa. She's still in the US,
living with me, pending a decision on her I-485. As it seems, our
problem is not of the typical variety. We've tried contacting the CIS
infopass "Customer Service" number and were treated poorly and not
given any real answers. Additionally, we've tried speaking to her
consulate with similar results. We're running out of options, so I
thought I'd give this forum a shot since the site was invaluable while
I was filling out our initial submission.
Shortly after we got married, my wife decided that she wanted to take
on my last name. When I inquired about this at the Vital Records
department downtown, they said that all we had to do was go to Social
Security and the Secretary of State's office with our marriage
certificate and tell them that she wanted to change her name.
We went to the Social Security Administration service center
first. They essentially told my wife that since her visa was nearing
expiration (1 month away at that time), that they wouldn't change her
social security card. I hear this is not unusual, though it makes
absoloutely no sense, since a Social Security Card has neither an
expiration nor an issue date. We were a little disappointed, but we
marched on and went to the Secretary of State office to see about
changing her State issued ID.
The Secretary of state office was much more helpful. They allowed her
to change her name. At this time, since she has a name which people
often mistakenly pronounce incorrectly, she asked if she could take on
a shortened version of her name. I'd rather not post specific details,
so, as an example, if her name were Elizabeth she asked that her name
on her ID be Beth. The secretary of state office had no problem with
this, and issued her a new ID with the shortened first name and our
now mutual surname.
Since then, we opened a joint checking account, and I added her to my
insurance at work, added her as an Authorized User to both my credit
cards and had my landlord re-draft the lease. All of which were done
in my name and her "new" name. When we filed our I-485 paperwork, we
used this "new" name as well.. noting on the cover sheet as well as on
her G325A that her former name was different.
Our paperwork was promptly accepted, we received 797's for all the
petitions we filed in about 3 or 4 days, and a couple weeks later we
received a Biometric Appointment notice. We went to the Biometric
Appointment as instructed and she was fingerprinted. About two months
after our initial filing, we received an appointment for our
immigration interview which was scheduled about a month from the date
of the letter. A couple weeks later, we received her Work
Authorization Card. Everything seemed to be going well (pretty quick
even, considering how long I've heard this typically takes).
We went to our appointment as instructed. Bank statements, insurance
bills, lease, credit cards and wedding/vacation photos in hand.
Initially the interview seemed to be going well, but at some point,
the Officer stumbled across the changed name and indicated that this
was a big problem. She continued the interview, we turned in all the
evidence we had brought, showed the officer our wedding photos and
near the end of the interview, the officer started talking about how
by changing her name, my wife had put her self in big trouble. She
alluded to her ID being illegal, she even went so far as to suggest
that this was a case of identity theft with my wife as the
perpetrator. I did my best to stay calm, and I asked what we were
supposed to do. The officer's response was something to the effect of
"I don't know, we'll have to refer the case to someone else and
then we'll contact you" I asked again, what could we do to fix the
situation, and were again greeted with an "I don't know" and were told
again that the case would be handed off and they'd contact us. I
double checked, "So there's nothing we need to do to fix this" and
again, I was told the same thing.
We left, feeling deflated and sad. Not only weren't we making any progress on
getting my wife permanent residency, but all the progress we had made
may have been in vain. All of our evidence has her new name and now,
with the CIS saying that her name wasn't valid, she couldn't work on
her new Employment Authorization Card either. Not only that, but they
wouldn't even take the time to give us a direction in which we could
go to fix the situation.
Two days later, we received a Request for Evidence asking for proof of
a legal name change from our (not-so) friendly CIS Officer.
Now, there are a bundle of things that irritate me about this
situation. To start with, USCIS accepted our petitions, which if this
was such a large issue, they shouldn't have. They went on later to
issue an illegal (according to their own representative) piece of
photo identification. Then, one of their officers told my wife that
she was in big trouble and used veiled threats regarding the legality
of what she had done. And in the end, they send us a request for
evidence which essentially blames the entire error on us. How were we
to know that there would be problems? Apparently there weren't any
problems when they wanted to cash our checks. This _was_ partially a
mistake on our part, but it's also a mistake on their part for letting
it get to this point. We'd be more than happy to follow whatever procedure
is necessary to get things back on track, but they refuse to offer us
suggestions or guidance. Our questions are answered with either incredibly
hostile responses (National Customer Service Center) or with "I don't know".
Does anyone have any suggestions? My wife has already started the
process for a legal name change here in the states, but we're not sure
whether that's going to be good enough or not. We're also not entirely
sure whether a name change done after the filing date will even be
accepted. Nor are we sure whether we'll also need to go through a
process over in Serbia to make sure the authorities there approve of
the name change. Assuming we do, we don't know what that process is
for doing a name change in Serbia, and because she can't leave the
country, she wouldn't be able to file any papers in person. We asked her
Consulate and they were apparently not willing to help. So, we're
lost. We've scheduled another appointment through Infopass, in which
we'll try and get some answers, but so far my experience has been that
they really don't have any desire to help anyone there. So my outlook
on that appointment is rather grim.
Anyone have any suggestions?
My wife and I are having some issues regarding her I-485 adjustment of
status based on our marriage. She's a Serbian citizen by birth and we
got married while she was here on a J-1 visa. She's still in the US,
living with me, pending a decision on her I-485. As it seems, our
problem is not of the typical variety. We've tried contacting the CIS
infopass "Customer Service" number and were treated poorly and not
given any real answers. Additionally, we've tried speaking to her
consulate with similar results. We're running out of options, so I
thought I'd give this forum a shot since the site was invaluable while
I was filling out our initial submission.
Shortly after we got married, my wife decided that she wanted to take
on my last name. When I inquired about this at the Vital Records
department downtown, they said that all we had to do was go to Social
Security and the Secretary of State's office with our marriage
certificate and tell them that she wanted to change her name.
We went to the Social Security Administration service center
first. They essentially told my wife that since her visa was nearing
expiration (1 month away at that time), that they wouldn't change her
social security card. I hear this is not unusual, though it makes
absoloutely no sense, since a Social Security Card has neither an
expiration nor an issue date. We were a little disappointed, but we
marched on and went to the Secretary of State office to see about
changing her State issued ID.
The Secretary of state office was much more helpful. They allowed her
to change her name. At this time, since she has a name which people
often mistakenly pronounce incorrectly, she asked if she could take on
a shortened version of her name. I'd rather not post specific details,
so, as an example, if her name were Elizabeth she asked that her name
on her ID be Beth. The secretary of state office had no problem with
this, and issued her a new ID with the shortened first name and our
now mutual surname.
Since then, we opened a joint checking account, and I added her to my
insurance at work, added her as an Authorized User to both my credit
cards and had my landlord re-draft the lease. All of which were done
in my name and her "new" name. When we filed our I-485 paperwork, we
used this "new" name as well.. noting on the cover sheet as well as on
her G325A that her former name was different.
Our paperwork was promptly accepted, we received 797's for all the
petitions we filed in about 3 or 4 days, and a couple weeks later we
received a Biometric Appointment notice. We went to the Biometric
Appointment as instructed and she was fingerprinted. About two months
after our initial filing, we received an appointment for our
immigration interview which was scheduled about a month from the date
of the letter. A couple weeks later, we received her Work
Authorization Card. Everything seemed to be going well (pretty quick
even, considering how long I've heard this typically takes).
We went to our appointment as instructed. Bank statements, insurance
bills, lease, credit cards and wedding/vacation photos in hand.
Initially the interview seemed to be going well, but at some point,
the Officer stumbled across the changed name and indicated that this
was a big problem. She continued the interview, we turned in all the
evidence we had brought, showed the officer our wedding photos and
near the end of the interview, the officer started talking about how
by changing her name, my wife had put her self in big trouble. She
alluded to her ID being illegal, she even went so far as to suggest
that this was a case of identity theft with my wife as the
perpetrator. I did my best to stay calm, and I asked what we were
supposed to do. The officer's response was something to the effect of
"I don't know, we'll have to refer the case to someone else and
then we'll contact you" I asked again, what could we do to fix the
situation, and were again greeted with an "I don't know" and were told
again that the case would be handed off and they'd contact us. I
double checked, "So there's nothing we need to do to fix this" and
again, I was told the same thing.
We left, feeling deflated and sad. Not only weren't we making any progress on
getting my wife permanent residency, but all the progress we had made
may have been in vain. All of our evidence has her new name and now,
with the CIS saying that her name wasn't valid, she couldn't work on
her new Employment Authorization Card either. Not only that, but they
wouldn't even take the time to give us a direction in which we could
go to fix the situation.
Two days later, we received a Request for Evidence asking for proof of
a legal name change from our (not-so) friendly CIS Officer.
Now, there are a bundle of things that irritate me about this
situation. To start with, USCIS accepted our petitions, which if this
was such a large issue, they shouldn't have. They went on later to
issue an illegal (according to their own representative) piece of
photo identification. Then, one of their officers told my wife that
she was in big trouble and used veiled threats regarding the legality
of what she had done. And in the end, they send us a request for
evidence which essentially blames the entire error on us. How were we
to know that there would be problems? Apparently there weren't any
problems when they wanted to cash our checks. This _was_ partially a
mistake on our part, but it's also a mistake on their part for letting
it get to this point. We'd be more than happy to follow whatever procedure
is necessary to get things back on track, but they refuse to offer us
suggestions or guidance. Our questions are answered with either incredibly
hostile responses (National Customer Service Center) or with "I don't know".
Does anyone have any suggestions? My wife has already started the
process for a legal name change here in the states, but we're not sure
whether that's going to be good enough or not. We're also not entirely
sure whether a name change done after the filing date will even be
accepted. Nor are we sure whether we'll also need to go through a
process over in Serbia to make sure the authorities there approve of
the name change. Assuming we do, we don't know what that process is
for doing a name change in Serbia, and because she can't leave the
country, she wouldn't be able to file any papers in person. We asked her
Consulate and they were apparently not willing to help. So, we're
lost. We've scheduled another appointment through Infopass, in which
we'll try and get some answers, but so far my experience has been that
they really don't have any desire to help anyone there. So my outlook
on that appointment is rather grim.
Anyone have any suggestions?
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