Spousal Name Change
Dec 5th 2008, 7:42 am
#1
Ginger Monkey
Thread Starter
Joined: Jun 2007
Location: Cheeseland, WI
Posts: 2,772
Spousal Name Change
Because I like Meauxna and she's a very helpful lady, I have followed her suggestion (see here: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=574139) and am typing up in one handy place a guide to having your cake and eating it too.
Or rather, marrying a man and adopting your own name as the family name instead of his.
So, apologies if this turns into a long, rambling thread, but the journey behind it is kind of long and rambling too.
A bit of background to get started: I met Mr Blue in 2002 when I was an exchange student in Minnesota on a gap year. We kept in touch and had a long-distance relationship until 2004, when we decided to get married. We wanted to wait until we'd both finished university though, so held off on our plans until 2006. We then got married in December 2006 in the UK.
Mr Blue and I had initially planned on living in the UK after marriage, but in 2005 (before we had made any wedding arrangements), I changed my mind and woke him up in the middle of the night to announce we could live in the USA if he really wanted to. Around the same time we discussed our future together and decided as neither of us wanted to be the Blue family (his real name is simply frightful) we'd quite like to adopt the Gingerert name instead.
Fast forward to 2007, shortly after the wedding ceremony. Mr and Mrs Gingerert have announced to all and sundry that this is Mr Blue's name now, but we don't do anything official as we wanted to file the I-130 paperwork and get me out to the USA as soon as we could. This happened to be spectacularly bad timing as things got a little complicated with Embassy regulations in early Jan 07, but after a long and tiresome journey and adventures with the Royal Mail, I was able to immigrate as Mrs Gingerert (still married to Mr Blue) in Feb 08.
We had A LOT of fun with the SSA and USCIS messing up my green card application, which meant my SSN never arrived in the time it was supposed to. Because I was without a number for so long (it arrived in May, a whopping four months after it was supposed to), Mr Blue was unable to add me as a dependent to his tax return for 2007 and had to delay sending it in. He was therefore unable to apply to have his name changed in court as 2007 affairs had to be wrapped up before he did so.
SO...! My SSN came through after a battle with nine thousand government agencies and lots of help from my congressional office, so Mr Blue filed his tax return in June 08. He then decided to become a lazy arse for a couple of months and finally looked into his name change application in August, which was great because I became pregnant shortly afterwards and we didn't want no bastard child born to parents with different names.
First step: Went to local SSA office. Was told if he'd been a woman, or applied straight after the marriage, he could have made the changes there and then. As it was (him being a man and all), he had to pay about $14 for a load of paperwork, all in quadruplicate.
Second step: Mr Blue took his completed paperwork to the local county court house, along with about $120. They took everything in, made him sign some more stuff and told him they'd call him when the judge had had a look.
Third step: Court house called and told him to collect the papers. He did and they told him to take the judge's signed copies to the local paper for publication.
Fourth step: We went to the local paper (oh... so VERY local) and an idiotic, simple-minded jobsworth made us wait 20 minutes while she found the right form and told us about how she hated the people she worked with. Eventually we paid $28 to have the name-change announcement printed for the requisite three weeks and for the paper to send us an notarized copy.
Fifth step: Papers were printed, notarized copy sent to us.
Sixth step: Mr Blue attended a court date with notarized copies of everything and was seen in front of a judge with about twenty other people. There were no issues and after a few stamps and signatures, Mr Gingerert left the court house.
Seventh step: Much celebration!
We have yet to negotiate the tricky DMV regulations or changing Mr Gingerert's name on anything other than strictly essential documents. This fun is due to be sorted out soon and I will post updates once we've done it.
Hurrah! Not only did we manage to immigrate without a lawyer, we also changed Mr Gingerert's name AND I completed this post! All in all, a very successful year so far.
Or rather, marrying a man and adopting your own name as the family name instead of his.
So, apologies if this turns into a long, rambling thread, but the journey behind it is kind of long and rambling too.
A bit of background to get started: I met Mr Blue in 2002 when I was an exchange student in Minnesota on a gap year. We kept in touch and had a long-distance relationship until 2004, when we decided to get married. We wanted to wait until we'd both finished university though, so held off on our plans until 2006. We then got married in December 2006 in the UK.
Mr Blue and I had initially planned on living in the UK after marriage, but in 2005 (before we had made any wedding arrangements), I changed my mind and woke him up in the middle of the night to announce we could live in the USA if he really wanted to. Around the same time we discussed our future together and decided as neither of us wanted to be the Blue family (his real name is simply frightful) we'd quite like to adopt the Gingerert name instead.
Fast forward to 2007, shortly after the wedding ceremony. Mr and Mrs Gingerert have announced to all and sundry that this is Mr Blue's name now, but we don't do anything official as we wanted to file the I-130 paperwork and get me out to the USA as soon as we could. This happened to be spectacularly bad timing as things got a little complicated with Embassy regulations in early Jan 07, but after a long and tiresome journey and adventures with the Royal Mail, I was able to immigrate as Mrs Gingerert (still married to Mr Blue) in Feb 08.
We had A LOT of fun with the SSA and USCIS messing up my green card application, which meant my SSN never arrived in the time it was supposed to. Because I was without a number for so long (it arrived in May, a whopping four months after it was supposed to), Mr Blue was unable to add me as a dependent to his tax return for 2007 and had to delay sending it in. He was therefore unable to apply to have his name changed in court as 2007 affairs had to be wrapped up before he did so.
SO...! My SSN came through after a battle with nine thousand government agencies and lots of help from my congressional office, so Mr Blue filed his tax return in June 08. He then decided to become a lazy arse for a couple of months and finally looked into his name change application in August, which was great because I became pregnant shortly afterwards and we didn't want no bastard child born to parents with different names.
First step: Went to local SSA office. Was told if he'd been a woman, or applied straight after the marriage, he could have made the changes there and then. As it was (him being a man and all), he had to pay about $14 for a load of paperwork, all in quadruplicate.
Second step: Mr Blue took his completed paperwork to the local county court house, along with about $120. They took everything in, made him sign some more stuff and told him they'd call him when the judge had had a look.
Third step: Court house called and told him to collect the papers. He did and they told him to take the judge's signed copies to the local paper for publication.
Fourth step: We went to the local paper (oh... so VERY local) and an idiotic, simple-minded jobsworth made us wait 20 minutes while she found the right form and told us about how she hated the people she worked with. Eventually we paid $28 to have the name-change announcement printed for the requisite three weeks and for the paper to send us an notarized copy.
Fifth step: Papers were printed, notarized copy sent to us.
Sixth step: Mr Blue attended a court date with notarized copies of everything and was seen in front of a judge with about twenty other people. There were no issues and after a few stamps and signatures, Mr Gingerert left the court house.
Seventh step: Much celebration!
We have yet to negotiate the tricky DMV regulations or changing Mr Gingerert's name on anything other than strictly essential documents. This fun is due to be sorted out soon and I will post updates once we've done it.
Hurrah! Not only did we manage to immigrate without a lawyer, we also changed Mr Gingerert's name AND I completed this post! All in all, a very successful year so far.
Dec 6th 2008, 4:13 am
#2
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 35,082
Re: Spousal Name Change
Thank you so much, Gingererts, for sharing your story! 
