Hi,

Background: I'm about to petition for a K3 visa for my wife. I've never used my name as it is written on my US birth certificate. When I was young my parents got me my passport and my social security card in a different name (same surname and I use the first name on my bc as my middle name). The reason for the difference was cultural and makes perfect sense if you were in my home country (in my culture it's not really a change even). I'm a dual citizen and I left the states as a child and I grew up mainly in Africa.

Question: Should I just use my US passport as my proof of citizenship and not send my birth certificate? I intend to list the name on it as "other names used" but I'm torn between whether I should actually send the birth certificate or not. Part of me thinks it'll just complicate matters and the other part is afraid that they might still request for it eventually thus delaying my petition.

What do you guys think? Your urgent help will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

Yes, I would send a copy of all pages of your passport as proof of US Citizenship. I doubt you'll ever be asked for the birth certificate in the immigration process but if you are, give the explanation then. In the meantime, use your passport name on everything.

Thanks a lot!

I'd suggest that since you haven't filed the petition yet, why not try to find out why there is a difference in the names on your BC and your Passport. Usually, one has to submit their US BC as proof of their citizenship in the USA when attempting to obtain a passport. If the names are different, that would suggest either administrative error or something else going on, and it's worthy of investigation by you. Might slow up the K3 process or if you elect to just send the passport pages, maybe you can squeak by. Me, I'm a "completist." If something doesn't gel with the facts, I give all the facts (or documents) and explain any discrepancies in letter form. J has a middle name from birth that she used all through school (to include college), but she found not long before we started the K1 process that that middle name was never on her official BC in the Phils. Instead of hiding the name, we simply included all the required and relevant documents (her passport, BC without the middle name, G-325A form with her missing middle name as an AKA or other name, etc.) and explained the middle name issue with a letter signed by her. It didn't delay our petition's process through the red tape one bit. And at least if you send everything and just explain any differences logically and clearly, you won't get any RFE's (hopefully).

D