When my Japanese wife and I got married, she kept her original last lame. We are going through the initial stages of applying for a USA CR-1 visa (green card path) and then the question of last name came up again. We were married at the end of November ’22 so we still have \~2 months to change her name at the local ward office if it’s necessary.
We feel that in Japan it would likely just be easier for her to keep her original last name to make life here easier. That said, she would like to have my last name in the U.S. We’re trying to find out if this is even possible. Random google searching seems to find results from some random people who have been able to do this, but then the US Embassy website (details below) seems to say differently. Before reading the US Embassy site, we thought it would be nice to put my last name in ( ) and then the US visa would just have my name.
Does anybody have any direct experience with this situation?
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“**I am married to a U.S. citizen. I would like to use his/her last name for the immigrant visa and for my green card. How can I do that?**
If you would like to use your spouse’s last name for immigrant visa and green card, you may choose to obtain a new passport in that name. Please note that we cannot issue visas using names listed in parentheses in the passport.”
[https://jp.usembassy.gov/visas/faq-list/spouses/](https://jp.usembassy.gov/visas/faq-list/spouses/)
3 comments
Governments have been really trying to enforce strong legal names lately, both the US and JP. There are exceptions through legal aliases where someone can use a chosen name for non-legal stuff, but otherwise government really enforce going from official documents issued from foreign bodies–passports, birth certs, ect..
For both the US and JP, either of you can change your names at any point later if you choose so. For JP, the 6 month period after marrying (establishing a household name) is more of an easier formality rather than a strict limit–to change later would require more legal/court stuff rather than a form right now.
https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-1-part-e-chapter-5
Your marriage document counts as a legal name change. Despite us only having a koseki tohon to show marriage and her keeping her name in Japan, we submitted all I-130 forms with my last name. No issues or questions about it and we certainly didn’t change her passport name. This was in 2019.
Married for almost 20 years. Wife kept her name. She’s had 2 green cards. Zero issues during the application with her name.