Who in the US has to be notified about name changes?

Hi everyone,

I'm getting married in about a month and a half. I'm still sort of on the fence about what I'm going to do about my name (I know it's a bit late to be so ambivalent!) but right now I'm leaning towards hyphenating myname-hisname.

We'll be applying for the spouse visa shortly after that and I'm wondering who absolutely has to know about my name change in the US? With whom will I be in trouble if I don't tell them? I'm definitely not going to update my passport until it expires because that sounds like more trouble than it's worth based on other posts on this thread. Did you make it a point to notify Social Security and your bank(s)? I don't want to break any laws or give the impression I'm trying to dodge taxes or creditors, but I also want to minimize the bureaucracy as much as possible considering I'm not really going to be living here anymore, for a while at least.

Thanks!

At minimum, you should notify Social Security.  I don't know how true this is but I was told by someone that without it being on my SS card, my new name wasn't "legal."  Take that for what it's worth.. lol

You don't have to notify anyone, especially if you're ambivalent about it. You can always do it later if you decide to go ahead with the change. You're not planning to defraud anyone--I don't think--so there shouldn't be an issue, especially since you're planning to keep the major form of US ID in your original (I hate the word "maiden name" to no end) name.

You don't have to notify anyone, especially if you're ambivalent about it. You can always do it later if you decide to go ahead with the change. You're not planning to defraud anyone--I don't think--so there shouldn't be an issue, especially since you're planning to keep the major form of US ID in your original (I hate the word "maiden name" to no end) name.

But if I put it on the marriage license, isn't it a done deal?