Name on Naturalization Certificate ( 2 middle names)

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dark_lord

Registered Users (C)
I had my oath ceremony the day before and received my Naturalization Certificate. I came from a country where first name is written last and last name appears first, and to make things more complicated is that I also have 2 middle names, so on my original birth certificate in native language is something like Smith (last name) A (first middle name) B (second middle name) Michael (first name).

I rarely ever used my middle names, so on driver license I only have Michael Smith. On the green card, it's Michael Smith only too. However, the USICS interviewer/officer did say that they might have mistaken with the green card , and that it should contain the full name too. Anyway, at the interview, the officer said they have to print out certificate with name on birth certificate since I don't request a name change, and the way they put is " Michael B A Smith". Is this the correct way the order of middle names translates into English , B then A, instead of A then B? I mean is there an inappropriate inconsistence between my original birth certificate and my naturalization certificate now? My Social Security card does show Michael A B Smith and the USCIS officer didn't want to go by that, seems like Birth Certificate is what they rely upon. Does that mean I might have to update "new" name on SS card to match with what's currently on the Naturalization Certificate?

Finally, I'm gonna start on I-130s for my parents pretty soon, I'm guessing I have to stick with the name on Naturalization Certificate now?
 
I suspect some of this depends on the individual official.

My daughter, a native of Canada, also has two middle names, like Anne Belinda Catherine Smith. We've always called her Belinda; Anne and Catherine are her two grandmothers' names, and they just seemed more harmonious in this order. (These aren't the real names of course). Her birth certificate has all these names. However, we only ever got Belinda on her Canadian passport, and her green card inherited from that, and in due course also her SSN card and driver's license. All just have Belinda Smith as the name.

Daughter, now a 16 year old, is a little irritated that her name got truncated like this. She wants to go back to having her full name on documentation. She still goes by Belinda, but she likes to write her initials as A. B. C. Smith. So I asked at the Post Office if we could have Anne Belinda Catherine Smith on the passport. No way, they said, it goes by the green card. I pointed out the birth certificate has all those names, but the post office clerk insisted that didn't count. She said we'd have to do a name change if we wanted to use all those names. Who ever heard of having to do a name change to the name on one's birth certificate?

Your situation is even more confused (because of the issues about order of the names) but oddly similar to my daughter's - but your IO insisted on the opposite to my post office clerk. As to what's right, who knows?
 
Is this the correct way the order of middle names translates into English , B then A, instead of A then B?
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I guess that depends on which country and language you're coming from.

Did you provide an English-translated birth certificate in the naturalization interview? Or did they look back on the English translation that you provided during your GC process?
 
I'm Vietnamese. And yeah the IO went by the translated version which i couldn't remember on which pcassion i gave them. So is it right? Since im gonna start on l130 soon, should i file my relatives middle name in that order too? What about the name ive been having on SS card and tax returns all years long now. Is changing that gonna be a problem too?
 
anxiouscdn2 said:
Daughter, now a 16 year old, is a little irritated that her name got truncated like this. She wants to go back to having her full name on documentation. She still goes by Belinda, but she likes to write her initials as A. B. C. Smith. So I asked at the Post Office if we could have Anne Belinda Catherine Smith on the passport. No way, they said, it goes by the green card. I pointed out the birth certificate has all those names, but the post office clerk insisted that didn't count. She said we'd have to do a name change if we wanted to use all those names. Who ever heard of having to do a name change to the name on one's birth certificate?
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Could be just another crazy clerk. Go to another Post office.

If you go to another post office and they say the same thing, maybe that's how it really works when relying on her GC + Child Citizenship Act to get a passport. In that case, what you could do is apply for the N-600 certificate, listing out her full name in the "current legal name" section (although her truncated name would still go in the "name as displayed on the green card" section). For that certificate they will use the name on the birth certificate. Then once you get that certificate with her entire name, use the certificate to apply for her passport.

Of course, the disadvantage is that the certificate will take 3-6 months to be issued. But I don't think there are any better alternatives; changing her name on the green card would take just as long.
 
dark_lord said:
So is it right? Since im gonna start on l130 soon, should i file my relatives middle name in that order too?
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Write their middle names as it appears on the certified English translations of their birth certificates.

What about the name ive been having on SS card and tax returns all years long now. Is changing that gonna be a problem too?
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If the only concern is the order of middle names on those documents, I wouldn't bother changing those at all unless somebody makes an issue of it.
 
the thing is the translated certificates for them I'm having right now basically are just re-writing their whole names again in the same order of Vietnamese, i.e. Last Middle Middle First. It is then up to the applicant figuring out how to fill the blanks in I-130 of first name, last name, middle name. It'd be very easy if it was just one single middle name....but it's two of them....and I worried that at some points in the long-forgotten past I filed their name with the opposite order of Middle Name like how it's A B vs. B A in my naturalization certificate's name....now if I file I 130 again with the totally reverse order of middle names, will USCIS see it as an inconsitence and perhaps in worst case, a basis for denial? Please let me know if I'm just overreacting....;(
 
Jackolantern said:
Could be just another crazy clerk. Go to another Post office.

If you go to another post office and they say the same thing, maybe that's how it really works when relying on her GC + Child Citizenship Act to get a passport. In that case, what you could do is apply for the N-600 certificate, listing out her full name in the "current legal name" section (although her truncated name would still go in the "name as displayed on the green card" section). For that certificate they will use the name on the birth certificate. Then once you get that certificate with her entire name, use the certificate to apply for her passport.

Of course, the disadvantage is that the certificate will take 3-6 months to be issued. But I don't think there are any better alternatives; changing her name on the green card would take just as long.
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Thanks for this thoughtful advice, Jackolantern. Actually we went ahead and sent in the passport applications as we need US passports promptly (in case of any family emergency requiring travel), and I'd had a hard enough time just tracking down a post office with a timely appointment, in our area.

However, I'd also formulated the idea of filing N-600 and getting the full name from her birth certificate onto her naturalization certificate, just as you suggest. I don't think it's really a big deal, even to her, if some of her everyday ID only has the name that she really uses. She just doesn't want her true original name, with the grandmothers' names in it, to be "lost".
 
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