Signature on Certificate of Naturalization

I was naturalized yesterday but I haven't signed my certificate yet. I didn't get any instruction on how to sign the certificate. I know you're not suppose to sign it how you sign your credit card, bills, etc. Some folks say use the same signature you used to sign the picture during the interview. Some say your signature must match what's printed on the certificate. Let's just say my name is John Doe Roberts. I signed the picture using my normal signature which is "John Roberts", middle name not included. Now, I'm lost; I don't know if I should use "John Doe Roberts" or just "John Doe"? Remember, on the certificate, "John Doe Roberts" is printed on it, but on my picture, I signed it as "John Roberts".

Note: My first name contains 10 letters, middle name 6 letters, and my last name 5 letters. It wouldn't fit, that's why I only used my first and last name.
 
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ORF757 said:
My first name contains 10 letters, middle name 6 letters, and my last name 5 letters. It wouldn't fit, that's why I only used my first and last name.
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The IO on your interview should have directed you to sign your full name (first middle last) on your photos. Now you have a dilemma.

Here is what I would suggest you to do. If you put your first name on the left side of the photo and your last name - on the right side, then you still have the top section of the photos available for your middle name. Call the USCIS or schedule an appointment, and ask the officer there (preferably the supervisor) if you can add your middle name to the top of the photos (horizontally). If they allow you, then you do that and sign the certificate with your full name. If they don't allow you, ask them if it would be ok to sign the certificate with only first and last name (like photos). Anyway, ask the USCIS before you do anything.
 
König said:
The IO on your interview should have directed you to sign your full name (first middle last) on your photos.
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That's not true. For over a year now, the requirement has been to sign the photos with your everyday signature. There is a link to the USCIS memo on this somewhere around here.
 
dms1 said:
That's not true. For over a year now, the requirement has been to sign the photos with your everyday signature. There is a link to the USCIS memo on this somewhere around here.
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On my interview which took place just 3 months ago, the officer told me to sign photos with my full new name. BTW, a lot of people (including me) have a completely unrecognisable cursive as their everyday signature. I doubt it would be accepted on the certificate photos and subsequently on the certificate itself.
 
Hmm... Our immigration officer who seemed to be very experienced did not follow the guidelines provided in this paragraph :) Old habits die hard?
 
König said:
Hmm... Our immigration officer who seemed to be very experienced did not follow the guidelines provided in this paragraph :) Old habits die hard?
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It doesn't surprise me at all - I think there is very little consistency within the USCIS.

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense to use your everyday signature on both the photo and the certificate since that is a unique identifier to you that is not easily copied - certainly not as easily copied as a written name. The interviewer confirms your identity at the interview and checks that the photo is indeed you. You then put your unique mark on the photo as a reference. Once the certificate is handed to you, you again sign it with that unique mark confirming that the person who was given the signature is indeed the person who was interviewed.
 
You are right about the signature serving as a unique identifier. However, there is still a persistent belief (at least within the internet immigrants community) that the certificate should be signed legibly in full. Even the flyers that were handed out at the oath ceremony directed to sign the certificate using full name. But then if ORF757 can still obtain the passport with certificate signed shortly, that is the only thing that matters.
 
König said:
You are right about the signature serving as a unique identifier. However, there is still a persistent belief (at least within the internet immigrants community) that the certificate should be signed legibly in full. Even the flyers that were handed out at the oath ceremony directed to sign the certificate using full name. But then if ORF757 can still obtain the passport with certificate signed shortly, that is the only thing that matters.
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I've never understood the rationale behind a full, legible, cursive signature anywhere. The idea of a signature is that its holder will be able to write it without thinking since they do so very regularly, whereas a forger would need to take considerably more time and effort over it. Any forensic handwriting analyst should be able to spot the difference by looking at things like changes in ink density where the pen has been held momentarily. However, by making someone sign something in a non-familiar way totally negates this. Indeed, it could be that two non-familiar signatures done by the same person actually appear to have been done by different people. I think the reason may be that at some point in the past a full cursive signature was the norm in the US and people are slow to change.

As for ORF757, I don't think he has any worries. My naturalization certificate and photos have my totally illegible scrawl and it worked fine.
 
I vote for "John Doe Smith" ;) If you didn't sign the photos, but just printed your name, but want to sign the certificate I would sign it with full name, same names that are laser printed on the certificate. I don't think there is a 100% right answer. I'm pretty sure that if you schedule a few Infopasses you would hear different opinions.
 
Huracan said:
For the fun of it you can take a look at this certificate, for me it looks like the photo and certificate were signed by two different people, but it could be just different way of writing cursive and block. I don't know, what do you think?

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Jj7KGVDSlQ1DZ8awO7kpXQ
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It reminds me of the way I signed my certificate. At the interview, the IO instructed me to print my name on the photos using block letters. However, at the oath, everyone was instructed to sign the certificate in cursive, using their full name.

On a side note, why in the world would someone post an unredacted photo of their natz certificate on the web?
 
Signature Dilemmna

We'd our interview and oath today at Baltimore. The IO asked us to write our name in block letters, at the oath the instructions were:

1) Sign the cert with full name in cursive but each letter should be clear.
2) If we normal signature does not include the full name and/or has style and curves, we were told to just write the name in block letters and they insisted that the most important thing is that the 'signature' should be easily legible to be your full name as on the cert.

We were told, if the Dept. of State rejects the passport application, then reissuing the cert is a 1 year wait and pretty expensive proposition.

Thus, I'm leaning towards 'signing' in block letters my name... hoping this works as all the posts seem to be suggesting contrasting advise! Didn't anticipate that a signature format will be a confounding issue after all said-and-done!!!
 
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I signed my photos at the interview in half-block half-cursive style because the IO told me to sign it clearly but not necessarily in block letters. I signed my certificate exactly the same way as I signed my photos. I signed my passport application with my usual illegible signature, and I still received the passport on time.
 
Hi König,

I'm concurring with your comments as it seems that the signature on the cert is more for symbolic purposes -- especially if it differs from your Bank Signature...

The conclusion is that irrespective of how you 'sign' on your cert, your true signatures for Banking and Credit Cards transactions will not be affected.

Any inputs by others before we lay this confounding issue to rest?



König said:
I signed my photos at the interview in half-block half-cursive style because the IO told me to sign it clearly but not necessarily in block letters. I signed my certificate exactly the same way as I signed my photos. I signed my passport application with my usual illegible signature, and I still received the passport on time.
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During my N-400 interview, the IO asked me to sign the photographs with no special instructions and I signed like the way I normally sign(not full name). But on the naturalization certificate, I signed my full name.

From what I understand, it should not matter. I have applied for my passport on July 30(regular service) and still waiting. Hoping it will not cause any issues. If it does, it would be a bummer
 
I applied for passport today, the lady @ the Post Office confirmed that we need to sign by writing the full name in cursive -- there's no relationship to your normal signature. She seemed very sure of this so went with that....
 
This forum has site has really help me through my citizens process... It really doesn't matter how you sign your certificate because, I used my regular signature(unreadable) on the picture during mine N-400, but when I applied for passport, I signed on my certificate in cursive and I received my passport today without any issues. May God help everyone to finish all immigration process.

Chicago DO
Applied N-400
interview on 7/14/09--passed
Sworned in 7/21/09
"Became us citizen"
Applied for passport on 8/1/09
Received passport on 8/27/09
 
Agreed.. I had signed my usual signature(no last name) on the photos during N-400 interview but had signed full name on the naturalization certificate. I was worried a bit when I applied for passport wondering if that would be a problem. But its not. I got my US passport in the mail today
 
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