Don't need to have been here very long, a friend's only been here officially (i.e. having a perm mailing address) for about a month and a half and she's starting the paperwork now.

Welcome, and wishing you an easy time changing your name :)

Start with changing your name at the social security office

Then you'll be able to change/get a new license

....I thought you have to go to the court first

You do. It's a pretty simple petition to your county's probate and family court. You have to fill it out, get it notarized and pay a filing fee. The court will issue a citation that you have to publish and allow it after a certain time assuming no one objects.

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Check out Mass.gov name change as an adult

And Namesake

Just finished this process for my kid. It is simple, in that all you are doing is filling out paper work. However, you must remain patient and be prepared to jump through a bunch of bureaucratic hoops. First, we sent the wrong form of payment- I think we used a personal check which they don't accept. Took several weeks to find this out, get the paperwork back, then refile. This happened a few times with various minor mistakes that made the process restart and racked up lots of delays. It took a little more than a year.

Mass is pretty easy! You will need to establish residency, but otherwise, no time in state that I'm aware of.