Ok so we are starting to fill out PR and Sponsor forms. I'm not sure which last name I should use. Background-My maiden name was "c", i married and it became "B". I divorced didn't change my last name so it was still "B". I married my current hubby and am using "c-c" (hyphenated). My name is not changed on everything,all my bills are changed to my new name,medical is in process. Gov Of Canada is changed,banking is not,passport is not. So i'm just not sure what to use..any suggestions?
Also hubby is trying to get full list of employers since he was 18 but dates,names are not all clear. He called Social Security office and was told he had to come in person,unfortuntely thats not possible right now. Any other way of doing this. TIA your all awesome!
Are you the sponsor or the applicant? I am guessing you are the sponsor, if so use your current 'Legal Name' the one when you signed your marriage documents and just explain all the rest in a cover letter
I'm the sponsor. Thanks Chris! Anyone know about the Social Security thing?
We anticipated the name problem. Canada's distinction between a person's "legal name" and an assumed name was difficult for us to understand at first, and, frankly, I still wonder about its nuances especially in the situation you describe . . . someone who used a spouse's last name for many, many years and who wants to go on using that name even after they are no longer married. (Especially if they are required to produce their marriage license to have this or that document re-issued in a name different than that shown on the birth certificate.)
We avoided potential issues by applying for a legal name change for my wife before getting married, legally changing her name to the same name she had used for three decades, the last name of her deceased prior husband. That left no questions. On top of that, neither of us changed our name after getting married. Causes a little confusion when we hire tradespersons to do work on the house, but other than that no problems, and all her documents and accounts and so on have the same name now as the name she used for three decades, even her birth certificate now bears this name, not her name as a child.
You are probably past the stage of even considering that. I forget which documents you must produce for CIC, but that's where you need to unravel any confusions if you can before sending in the application. I think they understand "assumed" names in Canada, in contrast to legal names, but I am not sure how much discrepancy between different documents they will allow. If you have the documentation to show how and why each bears the name it does, that might suffice.
You might want to phone CIC and ask about this. Hard to get through, I know . . . use a headset or speaker phone and go on about your business while you are waiting to get a live person on the line.
As for obtaining work history from the U.S. Social Security Administration, I don't know. I had to reconstruct nearly four decades of such history and it was a pain, but, well, it was something I worked on over time, going over old records, trying to match places I lived with what I was doing, and gradually the pieces of the puzzle came together. Tedious, yes. Required, yes.