Name as it appears on green card, does it end up on naturlization certificate or passport?

J

jefkorn

Registered Users (C)
Hi everyone,

N400 asks for name as exactly appears on green card.

Part 1. Your Name
Question B. Your name just as it appears on your Permanent Resident Card.


The middle name is abbreviated on the green card (issues in 2008). The middle name is spelled out in the machine readable part (the special >>><< characters etc). The reason for abbreviation may be simply cosmetic especially when you can see the complete middle name in the machine readable part.

I plan to enter the name as it exactly appears on green card.

USCIS generally considers the name on the permanent resident approval notice to be the official name for immigration purposes.

My question is, does this name (as it appears on green card and entered on N400) end up somewhere on the naturalization certificate or passport?
 
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Not necessarily. Just make sure that you enter the version that you want under part A for your legal name.

Even if you already sent the N400 and didn't do this, it's not too late.

At your interview make sure you tell the officer how exactly you want your name to appear on your naturalization certificate (and of course if it shows different than on your Green Card bring something to prove that that's your legal name, maybe your foreign country's passport, etc). You shouldn't need a special judicial oath or special name change request for this, the officer will simply make a correction and make you sign a paper (I don't remember what kind of paper it was).

The name exactly as it shows on your naturalization certificate WILL be the name on your passport and every official document going forward.
 
Thanks for chiming in!

I haven't sent my N-400 application yet. The name as it appears on the plastic card is same as my legal name except that middle is abbreviated but as you said my current legal name (with middle name expanded) is what I am entering on part A.

I'm taking the literal meaning of "as it appears on green card" even though the full name with expanded middle name does appear on the machine readable part but I'm thinking the form N400 implies the name as it appears to humans at first glance.

Also I read somewhere here in the forums, that newer green card (post 2010?) have the machine readable part (with he name and <<<<>>>>> characters) at the back of the card as opposed to front (for my GC , machine readable part is on front - issued in 2008)
 
USCIS will put what they consider to be your legal name on the naturalization certificate. By their definition, that means the name on your birth certificate, unless it has been changed by a legal action such as marriage or a court order.
 
Great! Thanks Jackolantern!

Good to know that legal name will be taken from birth certificate. And it may be a good idea to ask at the interview what name will be used for Naturalization cert and passport in case for some reason the name is different.
 
If you have a name discrepancy on your key identifying documents such as passport, green card, and driver's license (middle initial instead of full middle name is not the type of discrepancy I'm talking about), they may ask for your birth certificate to resolve it, so make sure to bring your birth certificate to the interview.
 
No there's no discrepancy in the names on all those key documents. The abbreviated middle name is just the green card quirk (abbreviated on the human readable part but full middle name on the machine readable part).
 
My middle name was also abbreviated at the top of the GC but was expanded on the MRZ. Because my full name also appeared on the GC, this is what I put under legal name field on N-400. By the way, the new GC follow the passport card format wherein both first and middle names are listed under Given Names field and the last name is listed under Surname field. So, no more abbreviation and no more "americanisation" of name terms. I wonder what a person with a name such as Francisco Marco Eduardo Flores da Silva would have on the older Green Card?
 
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