Two last names

[gapern]

(I cannot find a better forum to put this in. Feel free to move it if there is a more appropriate forum for this issue)

Shortly after I was born my mom married someone who is not my father. She got me a social security card after marrying him and wrote his last name (and her new legal last name) on it, thinking he would adopt me. He didn't adopt me and they split up. My mom never fixed my social security card. I'm now 20 years old and this has to be fixed. It is ruining my life. My birth certificate has my legal last name on it, my social security card has the last name that I have used my entire life. I didn't even know what my legal last name was until I was 12. I have always gone by the name on my ss card.

I used to live in washington and WAS able to get an id out there with the mismatched names. The id never arrived in the mail. Shortly after I moved to the state i'm in now, colorado. Washington cannot mail me the id I got out there. Colorado cannot give me id because the laws are different and they need both my ss card and birth certificate to have the same last names on them. I have NO other documents that have my legal last name on them.

I have tried absolutely everything. I've gone to social security, i've gone to the dmv, i've even tried to get my last name changed. Nobody can do anything because of the mismatched names. What I need is to go to court to fix this I think. But I cannot afford an attorney to help me. I don't have a job to pay for one. Can't get a job with the mismatched documents. This is a ridiculous problem and I really need help. What can I do?

 

[LdiJ]

(I cannot find a better forum to put this in. Feel free to move it if there is a more appropriate forum for this issue)

Shortly after I was born my mom married someone who is not my father. She got me a social security card after marrying him and wrote his last name (and her new legal last name) on it, thinking he would adopt me. He didn't adopt me and they split up. My mom never fixed my social security card. I'm now 20 years old and this has to be fixed. It is ruining my life. My birth certificate has my legal last name on it, my social security card has the last name that I have used my entire life. I didn't even know what my legal last name was until I was 12. I have always gone by the name on my ss card.

I used to live in washington and WAS able to get an id out there with the mismatched names. The id never arrived in the mail. Shortly after I moved to the state i'm in now, colorado. Washington cannot mail me the id I got out there. Colorado cannot give me id because the laws are different and they need both my ss card and birth certificate to have the same last names on them. I have NO other documents that have my legal last name on them.

I have tried absolutely everything. I've gone to social security, i've gone to the dmv, i've even tried to get my last name changed. Nobody can do anything because of the mismatched names. What I need is to go to court to fix this I think. But I cannot afford an attorney to help me. I don't have a job to pay for one. Can't get a job with the mismatched documents. This is a ridiculous problem and I really need help. What can I do?

Go down to your local courthouse and ask for the forms to petition to change your last name. Fill them out, pay the filing fee, and file them. Go to court on the hearing date, explain the problem to the judge, and get a court order changing your name back to your birth name.

Then take that court order to the SSA, and they will change it there.

 

[TinkerBelleLuvr]

Have you gone to the Social Security office in person with all your documents? Include your birth certificate, SS number and your parent's marriage license? Is your mom alive - thinking she may need to file an affidavit on the name issue.

 

[gapern]

Have you gone to the Social Security office in person with all your documents? Include your birth certificate, SS number and your parent's marriage license? Is your mom alive - thinking she may need to file an affidavit on the name issue.

Yes to both questions. Social security will not help at all even with those three documents. It's ridiculous.

About that petition, is that separate from the legal name change process? The judge would hear my problem and then decide if he believed me or not? And they would definitely change the name on my ss card just with that court order?