How to change the chinese name into married name ?

[Boringwaiting]

I got married in China , so I had to use my chinese name to get visa , SSN ... Now if I want to change my chinese name into married name , what and how will I do ?? If you have any experiences about it please share it , thanks.

[A Mafan]

There are moments at which you can change your name as part of the process of changing your legal status.

For instance, you can change your name when you marry or divorce, or when you become a citizen. At those moments, you are given an official name-change document, free of charge.

You can also contact a lawyer for advice/help in changing your name at any point. It probably just costs a few hundred dollars (depending on the lawyer and filing fees of the area), and includes the local law enforcement doing a legal check to make sure you aren't trying to change your name to avoid any outstanding warrants or to defraud anyone.

Finally, you can change your name through the process of just beginning to use the new name.

If you introduce yourself as "Bob", everyone calls you "Bob", and you have honored contracts with the name "Bob" and aren't using any other name, at some point your name legally becomes "Bob". The problem with this method is that you don't have any documents to point to for proof of identity, and in this modern society of record-keeping, it's probably a pretty inefficient and insufficient way to change your name.

[Zingaro]

I got married in China , so I had to use my chinese name to get visa , SSN ... Now if I want to change my  chinese name into married name , what and how will I do ?? If you have any experiences about it please share it , thanks.

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If you have your marriage certificate, translated into English, you can go to the SSA (Social Security Administration) and request a replacement card that shows your married name. Also, go to your state's department of motor vehicles, and do the same to change your name on your driver's license. If you don't have a driver's license, most (if not all) states issue a photo ID. It's the same process.

 

Once you have those pieces of ID, you're pretty much good to go. Simply use your married name.

 

Since you married in China, I assume your marriage documents are written in Chinese. You MUST have them translated into English with a certification by the translator. That's your only way to prove the marriage in the US.

Edited May 26, 2006 by Zingaro (see edit history)

[LeeFisher3]

Something that is not really clear from the OP is did they arrive on a K-3 and file for AOS or is this a CR1 case.

 

The comment about SSN seems to put it in the light of a CR1, but if it's a case of the EAD/AOS route you may need to wait for the AOS interview to get the name change registered if it wasn't done on the I-485. The SSA is relatively difficult to deal with when the names don't match with USCIS on a name change even though there are instructions for them on how to do this with the SAVE systems.

[yuehan123]

A few posters have stated, and it was true in our case, that at the end of our 2 year AOS interview the officer asked my wife "What name do you want to use?" She told him. Now the green card has that name on it. Some day we'll change the SS, driver's license and, I suppose, maybe, her passport.