Hari Vuppala

Hi,

I am on H1B and my wife came here on H4. Now, she got her H1B
approved with her maiden name. As I didn't know the issues about last
name change, we went to Indian embassy in DC and changed from her
maiden name to my last name.

But, when we went to apply for her SSN, they did not accepted the
application since the last names on H1B petition and Passport are not
matching. I tried to convince her by showing the old passport and
marriage certificate. But still not succeeded.

Please advise me on what to do ?

Should I apply for revocation of last name change ?

( OR )

Should her employer apply for H1B amendment form ?

mdyoung

I assume you are talking about the names on her I-94 and passport, not the petition approval and passport, since the the petition approval is not an acceptable indentity document.

If the marriage certificate has her age or date of birth and she has an I-94 showing H-1B status she should be able to change the name on her SSN and be issued an SSN card in that name.

When issuing immigration documents, the Department of State and Department of Homeland Security issue them in the person’s legal name. The legal name is also generally the name in which the foreign passport was issued.

mdyoung

New SSA Name Change Procedure (Effective 10/2006)

Only the marriage document (foreign or domestic) is needed if it meets the following criteria:

-- The new name can be derived from the marriage document, i.e. bride
takes the groom's last name, groom takes bride's last name, compound
name (with or without hyphen) of each spouse's original name for
either or both parties.
-- The marriage occurred within the past two years
-- The marriage document shows sufficient identifying information
(e.g., biographical data such as age, date of birth or parent's
names), and
-- The identifying information matches the information on his/her current
Social Security number (Numident) record.

The applicant will need to submit an identity document in the old name along with the marriage document if:

-- The marriage occurred within the last two years and has biographical
Information, e.g., age, date of birth or parent's names which does
not match our records, e.g., the SSN record.
-- The marriage occurred within the last two years, but does not show
biographical information, or
-- The marriage occurred over two years ago (with or without
biographical information.

The identity document used to establish the old name must match the name on the current SSN record. The identity document is acceptable even if over two years old or expired.
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Note: You are still going to need valid proof of work authorization to be issued a card in the married name. The marriage and/or identity document still may need to be translated if not in English.