IllinoisDave

So? The environmentalists are wrong? Again?? Amazing how you can cherry-pick four words (less polluted than expected) and conclude that the evil environmentalists are wrong again. Geez. Every other word in the article re-inforces the notion that the Yangtze is a dangerously polluted river. Is your hatred for anything environmental so great that you ignore 95% of the facts and use 5% of them to "prove" that environmentalists are the problem?

It boils down to pure unadulterated greed. Greed that rides on the backs of millions of poor workers around the world,especially China. Companies like WalMart continually pressure their suppliers to provide cheaper and cheaper products so people in this country can go to their local WallyWorld and save a few cents on toys or tupperware. And how do those products get to be cheaper and cheaper? Lower costs for the raw materials? No. Lower costs for shipping? No. Plant owners taking less profit? No. US company CEOs taking a paycut from their $20 million salaries? No. Investors taking less profit? No. The Walton heirs taking a hit on their $15 billion plus each net worth? Not bloody likely. Those lower prices are achieved one way. By paying already underpaid and overworked factory employees in places like China and India even less! And by making them work even more hours for the same pittance. Meanwhile we in this country pretend we don't really know what's going on in those Chinese and Indian factories because we need that Tickle Me Elmo for our kids damnit! Or we say "Hey, no one's forcing them to keep those jobs." Or "If we force those companies to pay higher wages,they'll just moves the jobs somewhere else." Or "If these factories weren't here, there would be no jobs." Or "The market decides what is a suitable wage." Or "800rmb a month is pretty darned good for someone with zero skills and even less education." Bulls@#t! Bulls@#t! Bulls@#t! and Bulls@#t! If we really cared about all those workers toiling away in all those factories we could do something about it. But we won't because we're all too damn greedy to pay an extra penny for anything, from the end user in the check-out line at Walmart to those Walton kids sitting on their piles of money in Bentonville. Now everyone can blast away with the expected defenses of good old American capitalism and "what the market will bear" and all that stuff. Go ahead, I've heard it all before. IMHO it's all just different ways of saying "Greed is good."

Take it Clayton. Now that you've asked about it, if you don't take it, it's all you'll think about. Good luck.

Congrats to you both Lance. I hope we get one of those in a few months.

Congrats Dennis and Leiqin! Very nice.

And it's this kind of thinking that will ensure that this vicious cycle continues in perpetuity, which is just what big business is counting on.

Pay? People drive 5 miles to their nearest Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Discount City to save three cents on a loaf of bread. Incredibly naive to think people will pay more for a shirt that has a sticker saying "No slave labor used in producing this shirt." Incredibly naive. Couldn't hurt to try for a change.

Yes good luck to all. And if there's any justice in this world tsap, you'll join the ranks of us who are together with our sweeties very soon. Hang in there.

Things are going great here. Thanks for asking pha. Very busy getting the SSN taken care of and starting the AOS process. Add to that getting ready for our wedding reception in a couple of weeks and our time is pretty well spoken for. Don't worry, you'll be in our situation very soon. Good luck.

A big DITTO on the practical thing. The phrase I hear from Christine more often than any other is "Up to the situation." Whether it's about something we need to buy or do she always thinks about it in a practical sense. Very little sentimentality involved. And that's the way I like it.

That's great! Congrats. Have a great trip and good luck the rest of the way.

Good luck to both of you Spacebar. Sounds like you've both done all you can to prepare for this. You just have to trust that preparation now. We'll be sending positive thoughts from down here a little south of you.

Hope that second InfoPass appt. gets you the results you need. Good luck.

As the range of answers you've gotten indicates, there's really no correct one. It boils down to doing what's comfortable for YOU and your SO. Some notarize,some don't,whether they're going to have the real thing in GUZ or not. For me, I decided that since I was going to be there, the only thing I would actually notarize was the I-134. I was comfortable with it. Good luck.

In your example, what we've done for my wife is to use "Qi McDaddy" throughout. Qi McDaddy for all bank accounts, credit cards, GC and SSA and soon for the driver's license. As for when to change over to Christine McGillicuddy, that's a tough one. Jim Julian was able to do that at the time of his daughter's AOS interview. I originally wanted to do that for my wife at our AOS interview as well. However, on 002 my wife read about situations where it was problematic to return into the US with a GC with one Western set of name and a Chinese passport with a set of Chinese name. For example, if Christine had a GC which showed Christine McGillicuddy and her Chinese passport showed WANG, Qi she may encounter difficulties when returning to the US. So we decided not to do the name change until the Naturalization process. When you do the naturalization process, she'll be able to choose to use her then current name or change it to something completely new. After naturalization, she'll be able to obtain a US passport in her new name. I see now. That all makes perfect sense. I guess in all the past discussions here about name change, I just never caught on to the fact that everyone was talking about surnames only. Duh! Thanks again.

Aha! Thanks Lance and Carl. Sorry, I should have been clearer. I just assumed everyone was talking about changing both. I had no idea that wasn't possible. So, we can go back to SSA and get the surname changed now and wait til after GC/AOS to do the full change? How then should we fill out the AOS/EAD/AP etc? Qi McGillicuddy or Christine McGillicuddy? Also,what about the bank accounts, state ID, later driver's license and any other things that require a name? Should we just stick with Qi McGillicuddy for everything for now and change it all later after the AOS/EAD and legal name change? Qi McGillicuddy or Christine McGillicuddy?

Ah. Therein lies the rub. I do want to change her name to Christine McGillicuddy,at some point at least. When can I do that? Why would I want to change only the surname? Isn't it the goal to change both ultimately? Surely I'm not the only one who wants to do this right?

Are you saying there's something wrong with McGillicuddy?

Yes, that seems to be what the consensus is. It seems like it's not possible to just go to the SSA and request an original card with the "married" name unless there's been some kind of legal name change with documentation to back it up. Remember, our certified marriage license has my name and her maiden name on it,not her married name,which is the way we were told to fill it out. But some seem to be saying that we should be able to take the card that we just applied for,that has the maiden name on it, and the marriage certificate and get it changed to the married name. The only difference is we've gone to the trouble of getting a card with the maiden name on it first? If I'm reading what some have done or say we can do, we should be able to go back to the SS office after we get the card with her maiden name on it, show our certified marriage license, the same one we showed the first time, and request a new card in her married name,like we wanted to do in the first place. Am I missing something here? Let's say we get the same clerk. Isn't she going to demand the same sort of evidence of a name change she wanted in the first place?

I don't know. She looked pretty hungry. I'll try that.

Thanks Carl but it's probably too late since we went ahead and applied when we were there yesterday. Christine was anxious to get the ball rolling and didn't even want me to argue too much with the lady as it was. I wanted to try another office but she wanted to just do it there. I haven't been married long, but long enough to know when to argue and when not to. I wish we had more lenient SSA clerks here in Il like you had. Ours insisted that the name on the card had to match the name that INS has in the system. I don't see how the gov't can insist on this for one document and then let you put whatever name you want on the rest. But then I don't see why the gov't does a lot of things the way they do.

Thanks to all. I have the same reservations as David and Randy but it sounds like using the married name for AOS etc seems to work wherever you live as opposed to using married name to apply for SS card, which seems to work only if you can find the right clerk in the right state. So it seems I should just fill out AOS/EAD/AP docs using married name, wait for the green card and then change the name. I wonder if anyone has experience with doing this and then had problems with the name difference? And what about waiting for SSN before filling out those forms? Should we bother waiting?

Thanks Randy. So when we file for AOS/EAD/AP, should we/can we, file using her married name even though it hasn't been legally changed? Will they reject the forms on the same grounds the clerk wouldn't allow the SSN? Also, all the AOS/EAD/AP docs ask for a SSN if any. Should we wait until we get the SS number in the mail before filing all these or does it matter? I thought I had this all figured out after researching and reading dozens of old threads here. But not allowing the married name on the SS card has really thrown me for a loop.

We went to the SSA office yesterday to apply for a card. I was hoping to use Christine's married name as others here said they have been able to do, but no go. The clerk said that since her Chinese name was the one INS had in the system and it was on the marriage certificate that way, that's the one we had to use. She said we would have to get her name legally changed first. I pointed out that we weren't offered that option on the marriage license and that I knew of others who have just been able to request the married name be put on the card. She said "Well they're not supposed to." So I gave her all the names of the members here who say they have done this so the gov't could verify it was true. I hope that was ok. Just kidding. Anyway she kept saying that we'd have to file an I-766 or 688B to be able to do it. I"m not sure who was more confused about that, me or her. I've tried looking up these docs and so far all I've found is that they have something to do with EAD extensions or something. I haven't been able to find the actual forms nor have I figured out what they have to do with changing her name. Bottom line is she wouldn't let us use her married name without some proof that it had legally been changed. So what does this mean as far as added hassles for us besides having to change the name on the card later? And does it mean we'll have to go through that with everything she gets using this card like state ID,credit cards,bank accounts,driver's license etc? That's the pain-in-the-ass stuff I was trying to avoid in the first place. I know everyone says to make sure we request the married name at the AOS interview but should we try and get it legally changed now to avoid these other hassles or just wait?

My wife doesn't like them either. PETE...DAVE...WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE BURNING...12 beautiful young women and your wives don't like them 'eh... DO I HAVE TO DRAW YOU A PICTURE??? Would this picture be in color? B)