I got the BEST Easter present tonight (sorry, long)

CaptainSerious · April 2012

At least immediately second after the one Jesus gave me. ;-)

Peruvian law requires a child's last name to be the father's last name followed by the mother's maiden name, so when we adopted J, his last name on all the Peruvian documents, including his passport became "Serious Mymaiden." Since his US visa had to match the passport on which he was traveling, it was also issued in "Serious Mymaiden."

This didn't concern us, because when we entered the US with M, we were given the chance to alter this at customs in the airport, and M's citizenship papers were issued in our family name, Serious. Easy peasy.

Except, with J, they didn't give us this opportunity because he was too young to take the oath or fill out the paperwork. The problem is that both M and J entered the US on a visa that made them immediate citizens after passing through customs. If the name wasn't changed at that time, his legal last name would remain "Serious Mymaiden" until we'd get it changed in the courts here at home. We really, really wanted to avoid this because we have doctors appointments, etc., and it would just create a bureaucratic paperwork nightmare, especially for the insurance companies. Not to mention, who wants to have to file in court and pay extra fees for what could be handled administratively at the border?

I begged the customs people to process the paperwork, but they wouldn't do it because of J's age. In the last two weeks, I called CIS, who referred me to the Department of State, who gave me a standard FAQ that by-stepped my question, who then later insisted I should talk to CIS, who then told me that my best bet would be to talk to the people at our local field office in person, who then told met hat the paperwork was being handled by the same CIS office I kept calling (the National Benefits Center) and that I would hear a response to my information request within a week. When I called the people at the National Benefits Center again, they told me that they were not the ones to help me, but they did finally tell me which office would be printing the citizen certificate. Unfortunately, they also informed me (as everyone had up until this call) that at this point in the process, it was inappropriate and too late to change anything. They gave me a generic e-mail for the Department of Homeland Security, and on Monday I gave it a try.

The very next day, I received a call from someone who told me that his office is the one that would be printing J's certificate, and that in 99% of cases they are able to defer to the parent's wishes about these kinds of last name issues. He also told me, though, that J's file hadn't been received yet, and that he'd make a note in a paper file about our preference, but we should contact him frequently to remind him about our case until he found our file. He said that I should e-mail him a reminder on Thursday because he was scheduled to be out on Friday. I did, but did not get a response, and decided that I would reach out again on Tuesday.

Except, I came home today, and checked the mail after being out of town for a few days...and what did I find, but J's certificate of citizenship in just our "Serious" family name!

You have no idea how releived I am by this! Two weeks of non-stop worry, tons of calls, e-mails, pleadings, and office visits, not to mention interupped sleep, and it's all over and rectified! J shares our family name, and it's legal and done! I am so, so, so very hapy and releived!!!

jillianmb · April 2012

Wow I am impressed that you were so persistent! Glad it paid off!

Lemmen · April 2012

What a great surprise to find in your mailbox after so much stress!

MayDayGirl · April 2012

jillianmb:
Wow I am impressed that you were so persistent! Glad it paid off!

Ditto!!! Happy Easter!!

CaptainSerious · April 2012

Aw, last night I emailed the man who helped us to thank him, and he said he was shocked to receive J's file on the 4th (he thought it would take longer to get to him), so he rushed it through as an Easter surprise for us!