I am not sure what name to put on our I-130 and I-485 immigration papers. Does my wife have to put my last name on the forms or does she have to put her original last name? We have not done anything to legally change her name to mine or does it automatically switch to mine when we got married?

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Originally Posted by boyko86

I am not sure what name to put on our I-130 and I-485 immigration papers. Does my wife have to put my last name on the forms or does she have to put her original last name? We have not done anything to legally change her name to mine or does it automatically switch to mine when we got married?

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In US, women have the right to choose and in this case she can choose one from the following:
@ maintain her own maiden name OR
@ use her maiden name as middle name OR
@ use your family name

I always suggest my clients to maintain their maiden names because name change for immigrants is very expensive... it's $300 just for a name change in immigration paper.