Cygnus

Hi,

I have just received my US visa from the London embassy. It states both my maiden name (which is the name that I currently use on everything including passport) and my married name (which I don't use on anything). I didn't bother changing my name when I married as I am a lawyer here in the UK and it was too much hassle to get my practising certificate changed.

I am now thinking about changing my name before I enter the US - do you think this would be permitted? I would of course have to get my UK passport changed - would that just confuse everyone when I land in the US?

If anyone has any experience of this, I'd be really grateful.

Thanks !

WretchedMidget

This is really similar to my situation. I'm currently attending university, in Canada, and figured it would be too much of a hassle to change my name on all the records there in the middle of the school year.

I was debating whether it would be easier to do it before the interview and everything, or just wait until I had the K3 visa, and I'm still not 100% sure.

I did make a plan anyway, though. I'm going to wait until the start of May (as I'll be finished all my exams and everything by then) and then go and get the name change. Then, I can work on getting the passport changed as well as all my other documents (drivers license, etc). I think this would be *much* easier than changing my last name after the visa is in the passport, as they'd have to redo that too.

Since you already have the visa, I think it would depend on how long it would take to get your passport changed, because that will affect how long you have to wait to enter the US. That's why I'm doing mine a couple months before I expect the consulate to even receive my file. As long as you have whatever they give you as official proof of the name change when you land in the US, along with the passport and everything else, it won't cause any issues or confuse them

Cygnus

Thanks for that...yes you're probably right, I should be able to change my name. After all the US Embassy even put both names on the visa - I certainly didn't ask them to do that!

We won't be landing in the US until at least September, so I have plenty of time to get my passport changed. I'll obviously make sure my marriage certificate is handy and will take my old passport with me when in land, just in case!

Thanks again!

p.s. if you don't mind, can I just ask why you are leaving Canada to go to the US? DH and I thought about going to Canada, but the points system and length of time it would have taken put us off! We therefore felt it would be so much easier to go the the US (we are currently in the UK) and then we might move to Canada in a few years.

WretchedMidget

Don (my husband) already has a job and everything else in the US, whereas I still need to finish a couple years of university before I look for anything more than working in retail part-time.

We figured it would be easier for me to move down there and go to school there than it would be for him to find a similar job up here. I'd rather be in Canada, and we might move back in a few years, but this seemed like the easier way to go for now.

Also, it's only going to be an 8 hour drive to go and visit most of my family, so that's nice