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Contact Your Immigration Lawyer BEFORE Changing Names

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing name changes in the context of Immigration. I am making this video, this really pertains at least in my experience,

really acutely to Thai Nationals immigrating to United States. Thai Nationals can change their name relatively simply. It is not a particularly cumbersome process as it is in the US and so we see Thais that have multiple name changes. Sometimes it comes up that they will change their name in the middle of processing an Immigration matter to the United States. It is probably a good idea to contact your lawyer before you do that because depending on what point you are in the US Immigration process, that can have a tremendous impact on the overall time scales associated with getting the Visa because if you change your name and you are mid-processing through the Embassy or you are changing your name in the middle of dealing with National Visa Center you may have to add a bunch of documentation. More importantly than that you have got to sort of explain things to the adjudicating officers; that can add a lot of time. It doesn't negate the case or anything necessarily but it can add a lot of time. It can delay overall processing rather substantially. 

Those who are thinking about changing their name, and I am looking at this definitely from a Thailand context, it is definitely a good idea contact your lawyer before making a final decision and registering a name change as they will probably advise you, as I have in many circumstances, just wait until we get your visa. You can change your name and then it will be relatively straightforward to make those changes. Again, it depends on circumstances, it depends on the facts of a given case, but it is definitely a good idea to seek legal advice before making that decision.