Signature on Citizenship Certificate

M

Murad Abdulrehman

Registered Users (C)
My wife and I attended oath ceremony yesterday and received certificate of citizenship. Now the confusion is how to sign this certificate. During my interview I was asked to sign my photos just the way I sign my credit card/DL. My wife on the other hand was asked to print in block letters her first and last name across the photo.

We are both thinking of signing certificate exactly the way we signed our photos i.e. mine with signature and hers with printed name. But I do I need some advise:

1. Would it be an issue for passport application if my signature does not bear any resemblance to my name? I typically sign using few selected letters from my first, middle and last name. That's how I signed my photo during interview.

2. Would it be an issue if my wife prints her name instead of using cursive signature?

Has anyone had their passport application rejected due to incorrect signature on certificate?

Thanks.
 
Murad Abdulrehman said:
My wife and I attended oath ceremony yesterday and received certificate of citizenship. Now the confusion is how to sign this certificate. During my interview I was asked to sign my photos just the way I sign my credit card/DL. My wife on the other hand was asked to print in block letters her first and last name across the photo.

We are both thinking of signing certificate exactly the way we signed our photos i.e. mine with signature and hers with printed name. But I do I need some advise:

1. Would it be an issue for passport application if my signature does not bear any resemblance to my name? I typically sign using few selected letters from my first, middle and last name. That's how I signed my photo during interview.

2. Would it be an issue if my wife prints her name instead of using cursive signature?

Has anyone had their passport application rejected due to incorrect signature on certificate?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

You are supposed to sign it after you turn in your GC when requested to review teh certificate but before
taking oath. So strictly speaking, you did not do yoru oath properly.

The proper process is

(1) Turn in oath letter and GC to an IO
(2) review yoru certificate and SIGN IT but stilll leave teh certificate with IOs
(3) Go back to yoru seat and wait for all others to finish (1) and (2)
(4) Take oath
(5) Take certificate from IO.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
WBH said:
You are supposed to sign it after you turn in your GC when requested to review teh certificate but before
taking oath. So strictly speaking, you did not do yoru oath properly.

The proper process is

(1) Turn in oath letter and GC to an IO
(2) review yoru certificate and SIGN IT but stilll leave teh certificate with IOs
(3) Go back to yoru seat and wait for all others to finish (1) and (2)
(4) Take oath
(5) Take certificate from IO.
Click to expand...

I never heard of such process. It might be different from DO to DO. In San Jose, we were handed over the certificates (and asked to verify) as we were leaving the building after oath ... so technically we could not have signed them before oath.

I think the requirement is to use readable cursive ... but not something that can not be read. BLOCK letters ... not sure why the IO asked her to do that.

Passport application signature can be a scratch - it does not need to be like your NC.
 
sanjoseaug20 said:
In San Jose, we were handed over the certificates (and asked to verify) as we were leaving the building after oath ... so technically we could not have signed them before oath.
Click to expand...

So you do not verify the certificate before the oath? What if after oath, one find his certificate is totally wrong or even
not there at all?
 
In Detroit, I verified the info when I was informed that I passed the interview. It showed on a regular sheet, and after verification, I signed it. on Oath day, I turned in the invitation, GC, went in the court, took the oath, and then one by one we were called by the judge to be given the certificates. Then we could review, and sign before anything else. 2 IO's were outside the court accepting questions / concerns and those were taken care of on the spot. I am not sure what type of issues / questions but from I could hear it was about "what now..." type of questions, pertaining to SSA, passport, DMV, etc.
In terms of name on the picture, my IO told me I could choose between a signature (my regular) or name (script or capital letters). The NC asks for a signature, and I am not sure it matters if it looks the same like the picture or not. Lastly, for the passport, it's a signature. I think you should just sign it regularily, and you should be good to go.
 
We were given certificates after taking oath and were told to sign them afterwards. In fact the exact words were to sign it when you get home. So the process is different from DO to DO.

What is bothering me is inconsistency in the signature process. Some officers are asking us to sign others to print etc.

Thanks.
 
Murad Abdulrehman said:
We were given certificates after taking oath and were told to sign them afterwards. In fact the exact words were to sign it when you get home. So the process is different from DO to DO.

What is bothering me is inconsistency in the signature process. Some officers are asking us to sign others to print etc.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I don' tthink it is a big deal. I signed my photos during the interview and certoifcate before the oath
same way I sign anything else. I only make an exeption on N400 because instruction for N400says
signature has to be eligible (It would still be OK if I sign N400 the other way)
 
Our interviewing IO asked me and my wife to sign the photos in block letters, so we decided to sign certificates exactly in the same way although our real signatures are different and not very legible. Afterwards, I signed my passport application with my usual signature and did not have any problems because of this. I signed passport with my usual signature as well.

The latter is important because in Europe I was once asked for my passport and the signature in it was compared to the signature on my credit card. The USCIS is very inconsistent indeed.
 
WBH said:
So you do not verify the certificate before the oath? What if after oath, one find his certificate is totally wrong or even
not there at all?
Click to expand...

They have a desk set up after the Oath ceremony to fix any errors.
You become a citizen when you take the oath. The NC is just proof of citizenship.
I have heard of errors ont he NC, but never a missing NC at the Oath Ceremony (but anything is possible)
 
WBH said:
...
So strictly speaking, you did not do yoru oath properly.
...
The proper process is
...
Click to expand...

Huh? Who made you the authority on the US Citizenship Oath process?
I guess it works if there are 20 people being naturalized, but as in our case where there were over 1300, it would take hours to go through your 'proper' process.

At the end of the day, all that matters is that the oath was administered properly. The NC is a piece of paper. If you lose it, it doesn't mean that you lost your citizenship as well....
 
Last edited by a moderator:
WBH said:
So you do not verify the certificate before the oath? What if after oath, one find his certificate is totally wrong or even not there at all?
Click to expand...

Correct. No verification before oath, only after - when you are leaving. And if you find problems then, there is always the IOs to help you out ... but again, it is after oath in San Jose - Campbell.

The whole process seemed to be well managed, so I guess they got good quality control on this aspect. Yeah, mistakes can still happen.

How it works there is - there are about 400-500 people taking oath in Campbell Heritage Center. They are seated in 20 odd blocks (called rows, but actually a block of 4-5 rows). You are given a block when you enter. Within the block you sit first come first served, not randomly - and an IO collects your GC and the oath letter as you sit. Once you exit, the same IO is there with NCs organized in exactly the order you sat ... so the dispersal is fast and orderly - apart from people shifting a bit, you even exit the row in the reverse order of your sitting there. There is no expectation of signing before leaving the ceremony hall, even though they might have announced that we sign before we leave. You check and move on...

Also, my wife had oath at 10, I had oath at 1 PM. I requested to join at the same time ... they obliged and were able to pull out my NC from the 1 PM pile (I guess) and still sort it and collate it in the 1 hour we were in the ceremony.
 
I think GungaDin is right. I think that at the end of the day what matters is the fact that you took the oath in an official court, with a judge "officiating" the ceremony, and the process was approved, supported, and accompanied by immigration authorities. At that point (and only then) one becomes a citizen, regardless of when did one check the signature, wrote it one way or another, found / did not find mistakes that needed corrections, etc.
 
gvaknin said:
I think GungaDin is right. I think that at the end of the day what matters is the fact that you took the oath in an official court, with a judge "officiating" the ceremony, and the process was approved, supported, and accompanied by immigration authorities. At that point (and only then) one becomes a citizen, regardless of when did one check the signature, wrote it one way or another, found / did not find mistakes that needed corrections, etc.
Click to expand...

Not all DO are presided by a Judge. In Atlanta, USCIS director performs this. In my case it was the acting director.
 
WBH seems to constantly extrapolate his personal experience with everything on the entire country.
 
Murad Abdulrehman said:
Vorpal,

Did you sign your certificate with block letters to match signature on your photo?

Murad
Click to expand...

No, I signed the certificate in script, as directed by the IO in charge of the oath. About a week after the oath, I used the certificate to apply for a passport. I didn't enounter any problems. This is not an issue at all.
 
During my oath, I was asked to sign on the certificate exactly as I did on the photo. They should match. As for the kind of signature, the interviewing officer told me that I can put specimen signature, like on credit cards / DL etc.. But for my brother, he was asked to print his full name on photo and on the certificate. When he applied for passport, he put specimen signature and he did not have any problem. I applied for passport last week and I put specimen signature, like on the certificate. So, it's different and confusing. No matter what it is, the signature on the photo should match on the certificate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top