Correction of how name is spelled, is this a name change?

[blkhawk]

Hi all,

I am thinking of "fixing" the spelling of my name when I file my N-400. basically I want to go from Toni to Tony.

My green card says Toni (based on what I have on my birth country passport) but I keep getting mistaken for a female (not by the look ) only the name). Believe it or not, I keep getting sent those Macy's lingerie catalogues, which is not a bad idea if you think about it ...

So apparently Toni in the US is a female name. The authority that issued my passport spelled my first name as Toni. That's how it started and made it all the way to my green card.

It's really minor, does this have to be done via a court or is it something that the IO can do during the inerview?

Thanks in advance.

 

[CrossHairs]

I think name change is name change, whether one character or 10 characters have to be changed.

 

[N400Atl]

Hi all,

I am thinking of "fixing" the spelling of my name when I file my N-400. basically I want to go from Toni to Tony.

My green card says Toni (based on what I have on my birth country passport) but I keep getting mistaken for a female (not by the look ) only the name). Believe it or not, I keep getting sent those Macy's lingerie catalogues, which is not a bad idea if you think about it ...

So apparently Toni in the US is a female name. The authority that issued my passport spelled my first name as Toni. That's how it started and made it all the way to my green card.

It's really minor, does this have to be done via a court or is it something that the IO can do during the inerview?

Thanks in advance.

Even though it is a minor change, this is still a legal name change. You can talk to your IO and get name changed via judicial oath. Or you can go to local courts after oath and get it changed there. If you decide to go via judicial oath option, find out your DO's schedule for oaths and if that would delay your oath. Some DOs are very fast with judicial oath and some are very slow. For a DO where there is no same day oath, it may not matter.

 

[aabbcc11]

If you don't mind strangers mistaking your name, I would suggest don't go for that name change. It can be a pain to update this change with every entity you deal with later. Plus some DOs have delayed oaths for name change applicants.

 

[blkhawk]

Thanks guys!! I think I will wait until after naturalization and get a name change thru court. I don't want anything to delay my oath.

 

[Jackolantern]

What is the name on your birth certificate? That is what the naturalization interviewer will regard as your official legal name, if there is no official document specifying that your name was changed from X to Y (merely having a passport with a different name is not seen as an official name change).

If it says "Tony" on your birth certificate, then put your existing name as "Tony" on the N-400 and it wouldn't be a name change.

 

[Jackolantern]

Thanks guys!! I think I will wait until after naturalization and get a name change thru court. I don't want anything to delay my oath.

But it could cost you time and hassle in other ways if your naturalization certificate has a different name than what you eventually change it to. It will be easier to get your passport, DL, and other documents updated to match the spelling you want, if the natz. cert has the spelling that you want.

 

[blkhawk]

What is the name on your birth certificate? That is what the naturalization interviewer will regard as your official legal name, if there is no official document specifying that your name was changed from X to Y (merely having a passport with a different name is not seen as an official name change).

If it says "Tony" on your birth certificate, then put your existing name as "Tony" on the N-400 and it wouldn't be a name change.

I just took a look at the N-400 application form. there are two places for entering your name: Part 1 (A) asks for the Legal Name and Part 1 (B) asks for the name as it appears on the green card.

That being said, do you guys see a problem if my legal name didn't match my name on my green card?


Background info:
I never changed my name. when i first moved to the USA as a college student, the first thing I did was getting a Social Security Number. When I filled the application form, I asked the lady there if I can write my name as Tony instead of "Toni". She said, put down whatever your passport says. my passport says "Toni". Note that my passport is from a non-English country and where French is a second language. So my name would be spelled in French as "Toni".

as you can see, it started with the social security card and everything followed.

When I started applying for credit cards, opening bank accounts, ..etc, I used "Tony", however, government official documents all say "Toni" (tax return, driver's license, immigration forms I submitted in the past, ..etc)

It's getting too confusing to live with two different spellings and in certain cases it's creating problems for me. Therefore, I decided to fix it once for all when naturalizing.

Note that my birth certificate was issued in a foreign language other than English. So basically, I provided a translation to USCIS. Every translator does it differently, some translate my name as "Toni" and others do it as "Tony" .. They are both common in my country of birth.

Do you guys think it will be difficult to explain this to the IO? if you think about it, it's really minor.

 

[kcpant]

find out your DO's schedule for oaths and if that would delay your oath. Some DOs are very fast with judicial oath and some are very slow. For a DO where there is no same day oath, it may not matter.

How can one obtain this information? (Judicial Oath Schedule)

 

[Jackolantern]

It's getting too confusing to live with two different spellings and in certain cases it's creating problems for me. Therefore, I decided to fix it once for all when naturalizing.

All the more reason to fix it once and for all with the naturalization. If you naturalize as "Toni" and plan to change it later, "Toni" is what will get further spread into USCIS databases and other government databases with which they share data, and you'll probably find yourself still fighting the Toni/Tony dichotomy for a long time afterwards.

The delays for the name-change oath are typically a few weeks or less, not 6 months or a year. Find out what the timelines are in your district. Isn't it worth a 5 or 6 week wait to straighten this out?

Do you guys think it will be difficult to explain this to the IO? if you think about it, it's really minor.

They encounter foreign names with variations of spelling all the time. As long as you put all spellings on the N-400, you should be fine.

 

[blkhawk]

All the more reason to fix it once and for all with the naturalization. If you naturalize as "Toni" and plan to change it later, "Toni" is what will get further spread into USCIS databases and other government databases with which they share data, and you'll probably find yourself still fighting the Toni/Tony dichotomy for a long time afterwards.

The delays for the name-change oath are typically a few weeks or less, not 6 months or a year. Find out what the timelines are in your district. Isn't it worth a 5 or 6 week wait to straighten this out?
They encounter foreign names with variations of spelling all the time. As long as you put all spellings on the N-400, you should be fine.

Should that go under Part 1 (C) "other names you have used.." .. and which spelling will eventually go on my Natz certificate? Legal name, green card name or other name?

 

[N400Atl]

How can one obtain this information? (Judicial Oath Schedule)

It depends on DO. There are some threads in ths forum where people have listed web sites for various courts that hold oath ceremony for that DO. If your DO is one of them, you may get it from there. Seach it using the "Search" menu on the top.

For Atlanta, I called the court where oath gets scheduled, asked the clark and she gave it to me. I didn't realize it was that easy.

 

[N400Atl]

Should that go under Part 1 (C) "other names you have used.." .. and which spelling will eventually go on my Natz certificate? Legal name, green card name or other name?

About which spelling would go, I know it sounds weird but it depends on DO. My IO would go only based on Birth cert she had in her file (Which was submitted for GC) For my friend, his IO used what was in GC and did not even look at BC. For another friend, IO asked what name she wants on Nat cert and gave it to her. Usually name spelled in BC is the name they should use.

If I were you, I would try to find out if your DO has same day oath and if not, how often are oath ceremonies are held. If those are held every couple of months, you could go ahead with name change via judicial oath. If they are held only 4-5 times a year, it is up to decide what to do. Our personal experience is 10 months wait for Atlanta DO. YMMV !!!
Good luck !!