Name Change dilema.

R

rrrm

Registered Users (C)
Hi folks,

We had our interview for citizenship at a local field office in houston (Texas service center). My wife's interview went ok, but I had a minor hiccup.
The interviewer started with the my birth certificate and noted that I had a different name on there when compared to my passport, Green card and DL. She asked me if I had legally changed my name in court and I said Yes. However I did not have the court papers with me, and did not even remember if I had it or not (was not prepared for this type of question). I told her that I do not have it. As such she said that she will have to initiate name change procedure, and this will cause a delay. She did the petition for the name change, took a whole bunch of signatures etc. The interview questions were Ok and I cleared all of the required tests. However I am really confused and concerned about this name check/change procedure, was not expecting this at all. is this something to worry about? Any help or responses will be really appreciated.
 
rrrm said:
The interviewer started with the my birth certificate and noted that I had a different name on there when compared to my passport, Green card and DL. She asked me if I had legally changed my name in court and I said Yes. However I did not have the court papers with me, and did not even remember if I had it or not (was not prepared for this type of question). I told her that I do not have it. As such she said that she will have to initiate name change procedure, and this will cause a delay. She did the petition for the name change, took a whole bunch of signatures etc. The interview questions were Ok and I cleared all of the required tests. However I am really confused and concerned about this name check/change procedure, was not expecting this at all. is this something to worry about? Any help or responses will be really appreciated.
Click to expand...
I means that your oath will be judicial (i.e. administrated by a judge) and will effect a name change. Best guess is that the name change will be a US court-based decision to legally change your name from the name on your birth certificate to the name on your GC/Naturalization Certiicate.

The name change does not by itself change anything to your eligibility or US Citizenship however since the Oath mus be administered by a judge it may delay the oath.
 
takshila1 said:
Did she give you the N-652 form with the results filled out A) Congratulations...or B)Decision cannot be made?

N-652 form:
http://www.immihelp.com/citizenship/naturalization-interview-results.html
Click to expand...


Yes, she gave me N-652 with a check on B - decision cannot be made. Also there is check against - 'decision will be mailed to you'.

Also since I do have the legal document that I had used 10 years ago for the name change (I dug it out yesterday), is there a way to try to get it to them to bypass the new court process and avoid the delay? Or is it too late for that?
 
Do they ask for birth certificate at the interview ?

Did they ask for birth certificate ? Do you have same name in passport, green card and DL ? If yes, then why did they ask for bitrh certificate ?


rrrm said:
Hi folks,

We had our interview for citizenship at a local field office in houston (Texas service center). My wife's interview went ok, but I had a minor hiccup.
The interviewer started with the my birth certificate and noted that I had a different name on there when compared to my passport, Green card and DL. She asked me if I had legally changed my name in court and I said Yes. However I did not have the court papers with me, and did not even remember if I had it or not (was not prepared for this type of question). I told her that I do not have it. As such she said that she will have to initiate name change procedure, and this will cause a delay. She did the petition for the name change, took a whole bunch of signatures etc. The interview questions were Ok and I cleared all of the required tests. However I am really confused and concerned about this name check/change procedure, was not expecting this at all. is this something to worry about? Any help or responses will be really appreciated.
Click to expand...
 
DEB said:
Did they ask for birth certificate ? Do you have same name in passport, green card and DL ? If yes, then why did they ask for bitrh certificate ?
Click to expand...

Yes, my passport, DL and GC all contain my new and correct name. She did not ask for my BC, she pulled it out of a pile that she had. Like I said I was not even expecting all of this.
 
Did you send you BC along with N-400 form ?



rrrm said:
Yes, my passport, DL and GC all contain my new and correct name. She did not ask for my BC, she pulled it out of a pile that she had. Like I said I was not even expecting all of this.
Click to expand...
 
Sorry about that. I am also waiting for an interview from Houston, DO.
Did they ask about traffic ticket violations ?
 
I was in the same situation at the time of interview and the spelling of name was off by an alphabet :( . The person asked me whether i want to go for a name change because all my documents were with my legal name different from Birth certificate. Had to make a decision on the spot due to travel plans and i agreed to have my naturalization with the BC spelling. Now i have to go through the pain of changing name everywhere. Travel - never happened. Now i have the passport and naturalization with BC spelling and everything else in life with a single different alphabet (clerical error) - haven't come across a case like mine but your's is similar.
 
Rrrm,
I had the same exact situation as yours yesterday during my interview! I had to put a name change because the IO filed the application under my BC name. All of my ID, SS and GC are under my current (not BC) name.

15 minutes after receiving the 'Congrats, you passed' , I got the oath letter (addressed to my BC name) for Aug 24 ceremony. From what I gather (although I am not 100% certain) is that I will receive a NC with my BC name, along with a court paper saying my name has been changed to my current name.

Has anyone else had this experience before?




rrrm said:
Hi folks,

We had our interview for citizenship at a local field office in houston (Texas service center). My wife's interview went ok, but I had a minor hiccup.
The interviewer started with the my birth certificate and noted that I had a different name on there when compared to my passport, Green card and DL. She asked me if I had legally changed my name in court and I said Yes. However I did not have the court papers with me, and did not even remember if I had it or not (was not prepared for this type of question). I told her that I do not have it. As such she said that she will have to initiate name change procedure, and this will cause a delay. She did the petition for the name change, took a whole bunch of signatures etc. The interview questions were Ok and I cleared all of the required tests. However I am really confused and concerned about this name check/change procedure, was not expecting this at all. is this something to worry about? Any help or responses will be really appreciated.
Click to expand...
 
indian012: You don't have to change all your current documents to reflect BC name. You can do as I am doing. In my case, my BC did not have my full name anywhere it only had first name in child's name column. My IO said she will not put my middle name in Nat cert since she does recognize the common practice in India that father's name is child's middle name. All my GC, passport, Indian Nat cert and every document in my life has my full name with middle name in it but she would not budge. So I got my Nat Cert with only fname-lname. (I know I could have opted for judicial ceremony but after seeing her attitude, I wanted to get away from that dept as fast as possible)

I have applied for name change in local county courts. There I will change my name from fname-lname to fname-mname-lname. Then I will apply for passport with Nat cert and name change order from court. That will get me passport with full name. Since everything else in my life is already with full name, I should be fine. If I want to, I can pay 400$ and get new nat cert by sending old cert and name change order.

In your case, you can get court order of name change, then send that along with old passport to passport office to get passport changed with correct name. If you do this in first year of passport received, it is free. Then you will get passport with your current name

Hope that helps.
indian012 said:
I was in the same situation at the time of interview and the spelling of name was off by an alphabet :( . The person asked me whether i want to go for a name change because all my documents were with my legal name different from Birth certificate. Had to make a decision on the spot due to travel plans and i agreed to have my naturalization with the BC spelling. Now i have to go through the pain of changing name everywhere. Travel - never happened. Now i have the passport and naturalization with BC spelling and everything else in life with a single different alphabet (clerical error) - haven't come across a case like mine but your's is similar.
Click to expand...
 
theskyflyer:
Based on what I know, your Nat cert will be with the changed name (Not what you see on oath letter) You will also receive a court order showing your name changed from what it says on oath letter to what you wanted to change it to. So you will be able to take just Nat cert to passport office and get passport with correct name.

You are lucky that you got judicial oath date so soon. My wife is waiting from Apr for her oath date. Which DO are you in? We are in Atlanta DO



theskyflyer said:
Rrrm,
I had the same exact situation as yours yesterday during my interview! I had to put a name change because the IO filed the application under my BC name. All of my ID, SS and GC are under my current (not BC) name.

15 minutes after receiving the 'Congrats, you passed' , I got the oath letter (addressed to my BC name) for Aug 24 ceremony. From what I gather (although I am not 100% certain) is that I will receive a NC with my BC name, along with a court paper saying my name has been changed to my current name.

Has anyone else had this experience before?
Click to expand...
 
If what you are saying is correct, I am ecstatic! I really do hope that is the case.

I live in New York City. I am surprised and amazed how fast (thankfully) my naturalization process has gone. I sent in my N-400 on Feb 5 and had my interview yesterday, with oath ceremony 3 weeks later.

N400Atl said:
theskyflyer:
Based on what I know, your Nat cert will be with the changed name (Not what you see on oath letter) You will also receive a court order showing your name changed from what it says on oath letter to what you wanted to change it to. So you will be able to take just Nat cert to passport office and get passport with correct name.

You are lucky that you got judicial oath date so soon. My wife is waiting from Apr for her oath date. Which DO are you in? We are in Atlanta DO
Click to expand...
 
N400Atl, I got sworn in this morning and what you said below is 100% correct. Thank you.

N400Atl said:
theskyflyer:
Based on what I know, your Nat cert will be with the changed name (Not what you see on oath letter) You will also receive a court order showing your name changed from what it says on oath letter to what you wanted to change it to. So you will be able to take just Nat cert to passport office and get passport with correct name.

You are lucky that you got judicial oath date so soon. My wife is waiting from Apr for her oath date. Which DO are you in? We are in Atlanta DO
Click to expand...
 
Good for you..

I am still awaiting my oath letter. My wife has already recieved hers for Sept 12 in Houston. I believe there are two oath ceremonies in Houston DO in September, hoping to get in on the second one.

theskyflyer said:
N400Atl, I got sworn in this morning and what you said below is 100% correct. Thank you.
Click to expand...
 
Which name will they look at? PP or GC?

I don't have a BC and the passport has Fname Mname Lname. GC, SS don't have the Mname. I applied N-400 without Mname and would rather not have it on US passport (as my Mname is same as Lname). I wonder if they'll ask me to go through name-change process.

N400Atl said:
indian012: You don't have to change all your current documents to reflect BC name. You can do as I am doing. In my case, my BC did not have my full name anywhere it only had first name in child's name column. My IO said she will not put my middle name in Nat cert since she does recognize the common practice in India that father's name is child's middle name. All my GC, passport, Indian Nat cert and every document in my life has my full name with middle name in it but she would not budge. So I got my Nat Cert with only fname-lname. (I know I could have opted for judicial ceremony but after seeing her attitude, I wanted to get away from that dept as fast as possible)

I have applied for name change in local county courts. There I will change my name from fname-lname to fname-mname-lname. Then I will apply for passport with Nat cert and name change order from court. That will get me passport with full name. Since everything else in my life is already with full name, I should be fine. If I want to, I can pay 400$ and get new nat cert by sending old cert and name change order.

In your case, you can get court order of name change, then send that along with old passport to passport office to get passport changed with correct name. If you do this in first year of passport received, it is free. Then you will get passport with your current name

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
 
Venu Reddy said:
I don't have a BC and the passport has Fname Mname Lname. GC, SS don't have the Mname. I applied N-400 without Mname and would rather not have it on US passport (as my Mname is same as Lname). I wonder if they'll ask me to go through name-change process.
Click to expand...

Venu,
In the N-400, there is a place where "List other names used" - Did you atleast list the FULL name in Passport there?
You are supposed to. If not, correct it during the interview.

In general for "official" docs, you should use FULL name, however much you hate the full name. (You can do name change later).

BTW, what do you mean "no BC"...did you use affidavit from parents in lieu of BC for Green card?
 
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