My wife came on CR-1 visa on October 27. She did not have any problem entering the United States but there is a problem that I noticed after seeing her visa. Her visa has her first name listed as FNU (which stands for First Name Unknown) and her whole name(First and Last) in the Surname field. I think that the reason they did this is because on her Indian passport her whole name is listed in the given name section and the surname field is left blank. We went to the social security office and they told us that my wife's first name is FNU in their record and they cannot issue a number for a different name. On telling them the situation, they told me that they will issue her a card on the correct name which will be valid for a year but I will have to get it corrected to get a card after a year.

I haven't been to the DMV but I guess the same thing will happen there. My wife hasn't received her green card yet but I am sure that it will also come with the first name as FNU. I was told to contact the USCIS by the social security office. I called them and they told me to contact U.S Customs and Border Inspection. I called them and they told me to contact the local I-94 office which I will contact tomorrow since it is only opened 3 days a week. My wife has no option other than to wait to fix this problem to go by the first name "FNU". I later found this information on American embassy in Delhi that they will issue visa with the name FNU if the first name and the last name are not listed separately. I contacted my lawyer and he said to wait until greencard arrives and they we can send an application to get this fixed.

http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/consmar062007.html

Any help on this issue would be appreciated.

Whew. This all started when the new passport was not inspected and corrected. You're on the right track but don't be surprised if you have to go all the way back to getting a new passport and corrected visa stamp before this is corrected for good.

CBP and I-94 people can do a lot of things. My wife and daughter needed new I-94s because the dumbass agent stamped them with an entry date of August 39, 2006. He also didn't keep the sealed brown envelope like he was supposed to.

Even so, they can't correct the name in a passport or on a visa.

Thanks for a quick reply, pushbrk. I am going to see if I can go to the Indian embassy and ask them to correct my wife's name on the passport. My wife has her birth certificate, school certificates, and marriage certificate and they all have the correct name. There is one other thing I would appreciate if you can help me with. Whenever I call USCIS or other government agency and they ask for my wife's I-94. My wife passport just has one stamp which says "admitted"
and the date. Is that is what is suppose to be I-94 or is it some other form. My wife does not have any form, other than the visa and this stamp.

That's an interesting question. I suppose the answer is specific to CR or IR visas. Perhaps they don't get I-94's stapled to their passports because they are immediately permanent residents. In which case, I don't see the I-94 office (didn't know there was such a thing) being any help. In our case, the CBP supervisor in the POE closest to our home is the one who corrected things for us because the errors were CBP created.

You are right, pushbrk. I did a search on google and found this link from the US Customs and Border Protection.

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/id_visa/...ing_out_i94.xml


It mentions that I-94 is only for non-immigrant visas. I am going to call the USCIS again and see what happens. Thanks pushbrk.

I called the local I-94 office today and they told me that there is nothing they can do. They told me to contact the USCIS so that they can make this correction on the greencard.

Here are the different responses I received from different agencies in order.

Called USCIS (Nov 9) - told me that I have to contact U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Called US. Customs and Border Protection:(Nov 9) Told me to contact local I-94 office.

Called local I-94 office:(Nov 13): Told me that there is nothing they can do. They told me to contact the USCIS so that they can make this correction on the greencard.

Called USCIS (Nov 14)- Told me to contact the State Department Visa Service since they can only issue greencard to the name as it is listed on visa.

Called State Department Visa Service (Nov 14): Told me that they also can't do anything since they put the name on the visa exactly as it shows on passport. I asked the lady whether I can get my wife's passport fixed with her correct name and she said that they still wouldn't be able to correct the name since the visa has already been issued.

This is really a nightmare. I wonder if my wife has no choice other than to go with the first name "FNU". I think that all of this effort is worthless and will waste a lot of time. Can anybody give some advice? Thanks in advance.

The responses quoted above confirm what I told you in the first paragraph of the first response to your initial post in this thread.

Whew. This all started when the new passport was not inspected and corrected. You're on the right track but don't be surprised if you have to go all the way back to getting a new passport and corrected visa stamp before this is corrected for good.

A new corrected passport presented with the old one, to the Consulate that issued the visa is what it will take to fix the problem. Visas are issued only by Consulates and only in the name shown in a passport. To correct this mistake, you'll have to back track all the way to the source. The first mistake was in the issue of the passport but the critical mistake was not inspecting the passport before presenting it to have a visa issued.

This would all probably need to be accomplished by both of you, in person, in the country of origin but I would check with the Consulate in advance to confirm their willingess to do their part.