Name change

[dante73]

I am in the process of preparing my N400 and I would like your opinion on a name change issue.
Some background: people from Latin-America usually get two last names the first from the father and the second from the mother. Since moving to the US I have only used my first last name. I never hyphenated them.
All my documents (Driver license, diplomas, cc, etc) have only my first last name. Only my greencard and passport from my home country have both last names.

I am planning to include a name change in my application which basically is to drop my second last name, so that my passport is consistent with my other documents.

Will this have any effect on my legal name in my home country? Do I have to make the change on my passport from my country birth?
I guess my question could be summarize as: does a name change affect your name for U.S. purposes only? or Do you have to make the corresponding change in the documents from your country of birth?

Any inside on this will be appreciated. Thank
you

 

[Jackolantern]

With your naturalization certificate, you will get a name change court order. Most other countries will respect that as proof of your name change, and you can show that to get a new passport or other documents from that country.

However, that's "most" countries. There is no guarantee that your particular country of origin will respect a name change performed in the US, so to be certain you'll need to check the laws and procedures of the specific country. But if you're going to keep using the passport of that country, you'll need to change the name in that passport, whether it means showing the US-based name-change court order or having to do another name-change court process in that country.

If your other passport is the only concern, contact the embassy of your country about their procedures for changing the name on your passport. Ask if they will recognize a name change that was done by a US court.