Help!! Wrong name in Naturalizaton Cert.

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dhebi111

Registered Users (C)
Hello,

My friend got his interview done today. But he has a unique predicament now.

His naturaliztion certificate has the same name as his birth certificate which has a typo.

For example: His last name is Smith, but the birth Certificate has it as Simth. All his documents (passporrt, green card, drivers license, ss card) say Smith, only his birth certificate says Simth. Now the immigration officer said that he can only issue a nat. cert. based on his birth certificate which has the wrong name (Simth).

My question to the members of this forum is what recourse does my friend have?

Does he need to get a court order and then apply for a passport basesd on the court order?

He needs to apply for a passport and quick. What is the besst recourse
 
Your friend needs to apply at his local county court for a name change.
This will take few months and when he gets his official decree, he can take that and apply for a new nat. cert. Also, he can use that to get a new passport.
All of this will take few months....in the meantime, he can use the nat. cert he has and get a passport in the wrong name and enjoy it!
 
u can never change ur name on the citizenship certificate , u can onl change it in a court and then in ur passport , however when u have a citizenship certificate thats it no more changes will be done
 
worried2007 said:
u can never change ur name on the citizenship certificate , u can onl change it in a court and then in ur passport , however when u have a citizenship certificate thats it no more changes will be done
Click to expand...

Who told you that? I think you could do it at the time of your naturalization. There is an area for name change on N-400
 
dadababu2000 said:
Who told you that? I think you could do it at the time of your naturalization. There is an area for name change on N-400
Click to expand...

Form N-565 (Application for Replacement Naturalization/Citizenship Document) Instructions states:
Who May File This N-565?
You may apply for a replacement:
1. If you have been issued a Naturalization Certificate, Certificate of Citizenship, Declaration of Intention or Repatriation Certificate which has been lost, mutilated,or destroyed, or;
2. If your name has been changed by marriage or by court order after the document was issued and you seek a document in the new name.
3. If you are a naturalized citizen desiring to obtain recognition as a citizen of the United States by a foreigncountry, you may apply for a special certificate for thatpurpose.
Click to expand...

On a lighter note, your friend should not mind if the first Naturalization certificate (with the name "Simth") came back with a crease since he would be/he would be requesting a new Naturalization Certiicate with the N-565.
 
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I don't have any further advice beyond what has already been told, but my take would be your friend should have taken steps to correct the birth certificate long ago. Birth certificate, specially in this country is an originating document from which other documents can derive. I think USCIS did the right thing and used the spelling of the birth certificate.
By the way, I don't know how easy or hard is to correct a birth certificate record.
 
Thank you everybody for the replies ..

I believe the USCIS did the right thing too .. The birth certificate should've been corrected long back. However since the H1, GC and SS card had the correct name, my friend thought (wrongly) that the birth certificate shouldnt matter.

I told him the same thing to enjoy the wrong name certificate . :) ....
 
Birth Certificate

If USCIS is giving the naturalization certificate based on birth certificate, then what do they do if somebody does not have a birth certificate.

At the time of getting Green card those folks submit 'No record found' from court and a effidevit from parents.

How will they get 'Naturalization certificate' ?
 
Let's not complicate things, if the birth certificate is available, there is a good chance that USCIS will follow birth certificate's spelling. If birth certificate is not available I don't know, perhaps they follow affidavit or other legal documents. I think they are more strict in naturalization, or more recently. It is true that people got away with other spellings in the past.
 
Huracan said:
Let's not complicate things, if the birth certificate is available, there is a good chance that USCIS will follow birth certificate's spelling. If birth certificate is not available I don't know, perhaps they follow affidavit or other legal documents. I think they are more strict in naturalization, or more recently. It is true that people got away with other spellings in the past.
Click to expand...

What happens if somebody request a name change (a different name from what he/she has on the BC)?
 
If it is a name change from maiden name to married name USCIS can handle that themselves. I think other kind of changes require to go through judicial naturalization. Some local offices can do this, some others don't. I guess it depends on the change being asked. The N-400 has a field to ask for a name change. Other than that, a misspelling or shortened version of name in birth certificate could also be mentioned during interview (I don't know if this can help or not). Other people choose to change name after naturalization. Again, I think it depends quite a bit on the type of change being sought. In my case I have used a shortened version of my name in my birth certificate. I'll see if they will honor that when they issue the certificate or whether they will use the long form. I am hoping they are going to honor the version I have used on the Green Card, which is the short version. I'll try to come back to this thread when I know the answer three weeks from now.
 
Don't mean to scare you but odds are they will go with what is in the BC. My BC did not have a column for my full name and it only listed my first name in child's name column. All my life I have used my FName-MName-LName combination and GC, Passport etc all have that. Still I got Nat cert with only FName-LName combination (Since I did not opt for name change)

I would suggest you decide what you want to do beforehand. I was suddenly put in this position to decide at the time of interview. Till then I was not aware that BC is the main document since my friends who have similar BC did not have any problem getting Nat cert with same name as GC. My IO was not very helpful in this manner.



Huracan said:
If it is a name change from maiden name to married name USCIS can handle that themselves. I think other kind of changes require to go through judicial naturalization. Some local offices can do this, some others don't. I guess it depends on the change being asked. The N-400 has a field to ask for a name change. Other than that, a misspelling or shortened version of name in birth certificate could also be mentioned during interview (I don't know if this can help or not). Other people choose to change name after naturalization. Again, I think it depends quite a bit on the type of change being sought. In my case I have used a shortened version of my name in my birth certificate. I'll see if they will honor that when they issue the certificate or whether they will use the long form. I am hoping they are going to honor the version I have used on the Green Card, which is the short version. I'll try to come back to this thread when I know the answer three weeks from now.
Click to expand...
 
Not 100% true. As said by others as well, you can get Nat cert reissued with new name if you have court order showing name change. It costs a bundle (New fees are like 400$) and can take more than a year (Not sure why !!!!) but it can be done.
If you get passport with correct name, then not sure if there is a need for new nat cert. Your passport IS the proof of citizenship. Not sure where do you will have to use Nat cert once you have the passport.


worried2007 said:
u can never change ur name on the citizenship certificate , u can onl change it in a court and then in ur passport , however when u have a citizenship certificate thats it no more changes will be done
Click to expand...
 
He can apply for passport with whatever name is on the Nat cert. Finish travel, then apply for name change in local courts, get name change order and then send that to passport office to get new passport issued with correct name. If you do this in first year of passport issued, there is no charge. After that, it is a new application for passport with all the fees.

Hope that helps.

dhebi111 said:
Hello,
Click to expand...
 
"How to Change Your Name in Your Passport"

N400Atl said:
He can apply for passport with whatever name is on the Nat cert. Finish travel, then apply for name change in local courts, get name change order and then send that to passport office to get new passport issued with correct name. If you do this in first year of passport issued, there is no charge. After that, it is a new application for passport with all the fees.

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Here is the link:

How to Change Your Name in Your Passport
IF:Your name has been legally changed due to marriage or a court order within one year from the date of issuance of passport,...
 
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N400Atl said:
Don't mean to scare you but odds are they will go with what is in the BC. My BC did not have a column for my full name and it only listed my first name in child's name column. All my life I have used my FName-MName-LName combination and GC, Passport etc all have that. Still I got Nat cert with only FName-LName combination (Since I did not opt for name change)

I would suggest you decide what you want to do beforehand. I was suddenly put in this position to decide at the time of interview. Till then I was not aware that BC is the main document since my friends who have similar BC did not have any problem getting Nat cert with same name as GC. My IO was not very helpful in this manner.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comments. Let's see what happens. The IO didn't mention anything during interview.
 
Thank you everyone for your replies....

My friend is now basking in the glory of his new found citizenship and doesn't want to do anything about the changed name. He has more pressing family immigration matters at hand wherein he cannot wait for the name change. Once these immigration matters (relating to his family) are resolved, he will go thru name change in court and reapply for new passport.
 
Don't mean to scare you but odds are they will go with what is in the BC. My BC did not have a column for my full name and it only listed my first name in child's name column. All my life I have used my FName-MName-LName combination and GC, Passport etc all have that. Still I got Nat cert with only FName-LName combination (Since I did not opt for name change)

I would suggest you decide what you want to do beforehand. I was suddenly put in this position to decide at the time of interview. Till then I was not aware that BC is the main document since my friends who have similar BC did not have any problem getting Nat cert with same name as GC. My IO was not very helpful in this manner.
Click to expand...

That explains a lot. Based on a system prevalent in parts of India I was using my father's first name as my middle name and that is the way it was in my passport, social security card and driver's license. However I opted to drop my middle name when I applied for my green card and so my green card showed only my first and last names (not even middle initial listed). When I filed my N-400 I completely omitted my middle name (not even mentioning it in the previous names used section) and it was only after I sent in the application that I realized it may create problems for me at the interview or during name check (remember the horror stories about people having to go through a second name check because they failed to mention a name they had previously used ?). However at the interview the IO did not create any fuss about it and I got my naturalization certificate in the first name, last name format. I was quite surprised by that but now that I think about it they may have gone with the name listed in my birth certificate which was simply my first name without a middle name.

-KM
 
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