Missed 'Other names used" on n400

H

hopin

Registered Users (C)
Hi Everyone,

Need some help here.
We just realized that we did not enter my wife's maiden name in the n400 application, nor did we do it at the fingerprint appointment.
Her name before marriage was <firstname>. She did not have any middle or last name before marriage in any of her documents-school, college etc.
She added my last name as her lastname, keeping the same first name. Used the married name ever since. we came to the US after marriage with her new name.

Can we correct this during interview? Will it result in delays as some people say they need to run a new namecheck?

I'm thinking it wont be a big deal since her old name only had firstname , the same first name she has now.
example :

Old name : Jenny
(only used in another country before marriage)


Current name : Jenny Bates
(right after marriage until today, also appears like this in the passport, visas, GC etc)

anyone?
 
Disclose this fact at the interview, so she's not accused of hiding anything. Running a new name check should not be necessary, because her first name was already included in the full name she gave, but the interviewer might decide to order a new one anyway just to cover their own a**.
 
Jackolantern said:
Disclose this fact at the interview, so she's not accused of hiding anything. Running a new name check should not be necessary, because her first name was already included in the full name she gave, but the interviewer might decide to order a new one anyway just to cover their own a**.
Click to expand...

Thank you Jackolantern!
 
Jackolantern said:
Disclose this fact at the interview, so she's not accused of hiding anything. Running a new name check should not be necessary, because her first name was already included in the full name she gave, but the interviewer might decide to order a new one anyway just to cover their own a**.
Click to expand...


It just keeps getting better :)
I was digging thru all the old certificates and degrees etc for my wife and found she has used her maiden name at some places.
So now we have a more complex situation

Current name:
Jenny Bates

Other names used:(That we forgot to mention in the application)
Jenny
Jenny Craig


Can we schedule an infopass appointment to get it corrected or still do it during the interview?

If we do it during the interview, then we risk some delays due to the additional name check that they may order
Not sure if something like this can be corrected with an infopass appointment.

Any advice?

Thanks
 
Deal with this at the interview.

If you try to take care of this before the interview, that might delay the interview for a long time. But if handled at the interview, the delay will be more manageable because 1447(b) mandates them to make a decision within 120 days* after the interview. The interview date doesn't have such a restriction, so they can delay the interview itself for more than 6 months if they want. That's why it's better to have a delay after the interview than before the interview.

She should bring her birth certificate and marriage certificate to the interview. When there is a name discrepancy it is common for them to ask for those certificates, because those are documents where names are given or changed.


*if they exceed 120 days and your wife files 1447(b) with the court, USCIS might argue that they should have more than 120 days because your wife contributed to the delay because she didn't list all her other names on the N-400. The court might agree and grant them something like an extra 30 or 60 days, but definitely not an extra 6 months or a year.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jackolantern,

Thanks for your insight on this issue. One last question before we go for our interviews in 2 weeks.
Just a quick recap first:

Current name (Mentioned in the n400 application):
Jenny Bates

Other names used(Not mentioned in the n400 application):
Jenny (Appears in her Birth certificate, Marriage certificate, school certificates, degrees etc)
Jenny Craig (Only place it appears is our daughter's Birth certificate. I believe the hospital staff made us enter her maiden name)

We've decided to correct it during the interview.

The question we have is:
Assuming the IO orders a new name check, how much time will the process take?
1- Would it take the same amount of time as it would if the other names were mentioned in the n400 application to begin with?
2- Or ordering a subsequent name check will take longer than a first time request?

If it is 1, our wait time would more or less be the same(if it gets stuck now, it would have gotten stuck earlier as well).
If it is 2 - that's where longer delays will come into the picture.

If her name check with all the names takes 3 months now, it would've taken 3 months if we had submitted them with the application. So all we lose is about a month that passed between her first name check and interview date.

Is this assumption correct?

thanks again for your opinion!
 
Name check delays are random. Most are completed in less than a week, but some stretch out for months. It's a big unknown what makes some take longer than the others. There is no reason why the second check should take longer than the first; it may be faster or it may be slower. The difference is that 1447(b) protects you against long post-interview delays.
 
Jackolantern said:
Name check delays are random. Most are completed in less than a week, but some stretch out for months. It's a big unknown what makes some take longer than the others. There is no reason why the second check should take longer than the first; it may be faster or it may be slower. The difference is that 1447(b) protects you against long post-interview delays.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your response.

what I meant was :
If they initiate a new name check on her maiden name after the interview and it takes say xx days to complete.
It would have taken the same number of days(xx) to complete if we had submitted it with the n400 application.

Is that assumption true? The fact that a name check is requested AFTER an interview should not make it take any longer (in terms of number of days from the date it's requested)than if it was requested BEFORE the interview.
If that is true, the max(additional) delay we'll face is the number of days between the first name check request and the interview date, about a month in our case.
 
Jack,

We had our interviews and we both passed.

My wife told the IO about the whole situation - That her name before marriage was only the first name and also that in some of the documents(like my daughter's birth certificate, she had her maiden last name) He asked if she had any other last name in her own birth certificate and made sure that she's been using her current name in ALL the official documents since our marriage (Passports, H4 visa, Green card etc) and told her it was okay and approved her. We have our oath in a few hours (Same day)

Thank you for your input on this matter. we were prepared with all documentary evidence. Always good to be even if its not required.

Thanks again
 
hopin said:
Is that assumption true? The fact that a name check is requested AFTER an interview should not make it take any longer (in terms of number of days from the date it's requested)than if it was requested BEFORE the interview.
If that is true, the max(additional) delay we'll face is the number of days between the first name check request and the interview date, about a month in our case.
Click to expand...

It's good to know that she got through without any problems. However I'll clarify the name check aspect, as you seem to be missing my point.

Extended name check delays are due to a mix of incompetence and laziness by USCIS and/or the FBI. It's not that somebody is constantly checking your name for months or years; the delay is because the name check searching was incomplete or never started, and it's been idle for a long time. When a court tells them to finish the name check quickly, they get it done.

Now suppose your name check is taking a long time, and is still incomplete after 6 months. If the 6 month delay is before the interview, you can't do much about it, because 6 months is too soon for WOM (Writ of Mandamus). But if the 6 month delay is after your interview, you can file 1447(b) with the court to force USCIS to decide the case in the near future, including completing the name check.

So the difference between pre- and post-interview delays is not with how long the name check will take, it's with your ability to take action to put an end to the delay. You have more power to deal with delays after the interview because of 1447(b).
 
Jackolantern said:
It's good to know that she got through without any problems. However I'll clarify the name check aspect, as you seem to be missing my point.

Extended name check delays are due to a mix of incompetence and laziness by USCIS and/or the FBI. It's not that somebody is constantly checking your name for months or years; the delay is because the name check searching was incomplete or never started, and it's been idle for a long time. When a court tells them to finish the name check quickly, they get it done.

Now suppose your name check is taking a long time, and is still incomplete after 6 months. If the 6 month delay is before the interview, you can't do much about it, because 6 months is too soon for WOM (Writ of Mandamus). But if the 6 month delay is after your interview, you can file 1447(b) with the court to force USCIS to decide the case in the near future, including completing the name check.

So the difference between pre- and post-interview delays is not with how long the name check will take, it's with your ability to take action to put an end to the delay. You have more power to deal with delays after the interview because of 1447(b).
Click to expand...


Totally understood Jack and Thank you for taking time to explain this.

I guess you were absolutely right in advising name correction at the time of interview and not trying to do anything about it before the interview. I had actually scheduled an Infopass appointment but later canceled it after thinking about what you said about 1447(b).

Thank you again!
 
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