Traveling & Name Changes

[wicheese]

OK, this should be a pretty easy question to answer, but I thought I would ask just to be sure.  Anyways, my wife and I have been married now for three months and we are talking about going to Russia once the AOS process is over, but the question is, does my wife need to get her name changed in her Russian passport (in this case the stamp that says she's known as both her married and maiden names) before traveling? 


My initial thoughts is that it does not matter as she can have her ticket issued in her maiden name as she only needs to show her Russian passport when leaving the USA and on entering she only needs to show her Green Card and State drivers license, but then I have been wrong in the past so I would be curious what others have  done?

[Chicagoguy]

We always brought along original marriage certificates and they were a big help. It seemed to be a problem with everyone when Green Card and Russian passports might have different names than ticket. We also add my wife's maiden name on tickets. First - middle and last.

[BC]

Changing names, including bypassing RU transliteration was very tricky and complicated.

Details what we went through here: http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?topic=1903.msg37861#msg37861

I don't even know if it could be done today.

Does she need to get her name changed? Probably not as the only difficulty she might experience is on the way back if her passport name differs from her green card name.. but customs folks are probably quite aware of these little issues.  Marriage certificate is probably a good  idea as Chicagoguy stated, just in case.

[Faux Pas]

That's a confusing question and it lends itself to a confusing answer 


All I can tell you is what we did and we didn't really have any problems. As Chiguy mentioned, your marriage certificate is extremely helpful. Although, we kept the original and a copy on our person showing only the copy until the original was requested which, it never was.

When you applied for AOS, did you also apply for Advanced Parole? If not you should have as there is no extra cost and they'll send her 2 APs. On anything to do with USCIS always use her maiden/married name. Get her a state issued ID card with her maiden/married name as well.

You do not need to change her Russian passport. Be sure that you buy her airline tickets only in the name on the passport, NOT her married name. We found "some" customs and passport control wanted to see additional documentation and some did not.

We recently went on a trip involving several countries and several visas. It was difficult to convince the various consulates that this was in fact just one woman because of the difference in her passport and greedcard/id card but, thats a different issue.

[wicheese]

Thanks for the responses. 


Since there does seem to be a lot of grey area, I think we'll just make a trip down to Houston prior to heading overseas and get her Russian passport stamped to show that she is known as both her married and maiden name, just to be safe.


Now onto the next headache, doing our 2011 taxes.  Something inside me wants to think since none of her income was earn while she was a resident alien, then why bother, but the IRS will have other thoughts so the 1040NR form is next on my list of things to do.   

[Muzh]

As FP asked, DID you get your Advance Parole? If you don't have one she's is not coming back.

[roykirk]

We've done this a few times, and we've tried both ways.  None really made much of a difference.  The key is the marriage certificate.  We've traveled with her airline tickets in her married name (most recently to Central America).  Makes it easy coming back in because the name on her ticket matches her green card, but then you've got to show the marriage certificate at all points of entry in the other countries along with her passport.  Put her maiden name on the ticket and then you make it easy on the other end, but you have to show the marriage certificate to the customs people coming back in.  Either way, the marriage certificate is the key, and neither method is really any easier in our experience. 

You CAN get a note in her Russian passport that her married name is now "X".  This costs about $40 and you have to go personally to the nearest consulate to get it done.  We did this with her old passport, and it worked well.  Never had to show the marriage certificate, although we brought it along just in case.  But then her passport expired, and the new of course came without the notation.  We've just been too lazy to make the 3 hour drive back to the consulate. 

[mendeleyev]

The biggest issue we faced in Russia immediately after marriage was traveling in hotels. More than once a hotel clerk demanded that we rent separate rooms since we were not married in her passport.

We got that fixed, however the problem continued since the translation of my name (which is Dutch) to Russian and back to English meant that our name in her Russian passport is spelled slightly differently than my USA passport so for a few more years we had to explain and took Marriage Certificate copies wherever we traveled in the FSU. It has not been an issue in recent years.

[ML]

The biggest issue we faced in Russia immediately after marriage was traveling in hotels. More than once a hotel clerk demanded that we rent separate rooms since we were not married in her passport.

What does it matter if you were married or not . . . given the no sex in Russia idea?