Can You Keep Your Last Name When You Get Married?

Tanya Freedman, CEO Connetics USA Nurses Recruitment Agency: I am married but using but still using my single name in all my documents like my passport and licenses, is there a problem in processing the Green Card specifically, I am planning to bring my family with me, Chris.

Atty. Chris Musillo: No, you can have any name you want. Indeed, one of the sort of rules of thumb, it's not an official rule. But a rule I like to use is whatever name you're beginning the immigration process with, you should probably try and try and stay all the way to the end of the process. With the same name changing the name, it's a little bit like Mike was saying about half an hour ago about changing your city where you're going to process your interview. It's not that it's impossible, it's just that it causes confusion and delay.

And so it doesn't matter that your spouse has a different surname than you or for that matter your children. In fact, for a lot of times, and this isn't a major point, but it is nice when the nursing license masters of the passport matches some of the other immigration documentation so that the names are all consistent. So, you know, on balance, we like to keep the name the same throughout the length of the visa process.

Okay, but I mean, they would pick that up in the marriage certificate. Right? So yeah, that's right. So that's where the officer would be able to see that.