Question about missing middle names

[EmilyW 1,226]

I was pulling together our documentation and had an 'oh sh*t' moment.

My husband has always gone by the name 'John James Smith' (made up for this example) which is what I put down on the diversity lottery form.

Going through our documents tonight, I realised his full legal name, as on his birth certificate and passport is 'John James Brown Smith' (Brown being his mother's maiden name).

Would this be a problem, do you think? He argues that they ask for a middle name, so he assumed that meant only one and he took the first one, but I'm concerned nonetheless. It's an honest mistake on his part, but I'm having conniptions over it.

Any advice you can offer would be very much appreciated.

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

I was pulling together our documentation and had an 'oh sh*t' moment.

My husband has always gone by the name 'John James Smith' (made up for this example) which is what I put down on the diversity lottery form.

Going through our documents tonight, I realised his full legal name, as on his birth certificate and passport is 'John James Brown Smith' (Brown being his mother's maiden name).

Would this be a problem, do you think? He argues that they ask for a middle name, so he assumed that meant only one and he took the first one, but I'm concerned nonetheless. It's an honest mistake on his part, but I'm having conniptions over it.

Any advice you can offer would be very much appreciated.

Technically it's a problem, in practice there are instances I am aware of where consulates have been lenient on a missing second middle name. And it is partly because the forms do seem to assume only one middle name - I don't think there is actually space for a second middle name. (?I may be wrong on that one, but I do know people have still got their visas under these circumstances; I can't say for certain if everyone does though.)

[EmilyW 1,226]

Thanks Susie, I appreciate your response.

I'm the 'winner' so it was his details as my spouse where the second middle name is missing.

I've done some searching tonight online and I'm hopeful that, if we submit the DS260 correctly (this time, I will be checking each and every entry and matching it back to the passport and birth certificate), and perhaps even inform the KCC of the error, that it might not be a big issue.

[uhu 0]

I was pulling together our documentation and had an 'oh sh*t' moment.

My husband has always gone by the name 'John James Smith' (made up for this example) which is what I put down on the diversity lottery form.

Going through our documents tonight, I realised his full legal name, as on his birth certificate and passport is 'John James Brown Smith' (Brown being his mother's maiden name).

Would this be a problem, do you think? He argues that they ask for a middle name, so he assumed that meant only one and he took the first one, but I'm concerned nonetheless. It's an honest mistake on his part, but I'm having conniptions over it.

Any advice you can offer would be very much appreciated.

Hi EmilyW,

I've been in a similar situation, with a happy ending:

1. Forgot to write the middle name on the DV application (it was a honest mistake, with all other details accurate and obviously only one submission);
2. I won a place in the lottery and then, to my horror, I realized that I won on a ticket missing my middle name (the DV Application is extremely clear that you should fill in your name exactly as in the passport);
3. Tried to find precedents (online and quite a few lawyers) - no luck;
4. Decided to go ahead anyway and fill in correctly the DS-260 including the middle name, without any mention of aliases;
5. Got invited to the interview - the invitation was under the name on the original DV application (no middle name);
6. The name mismatch issue was never raised during the interview and the consul did issue the DV1 Immigrant Visa under the initial application name (no middle name);
7. The Immigrant Data Summary on the Immigrant Visa Package included both name variants: the main name (without the middle name), and, as an alias, the complete name (including middle name);
8. At the port of entry, the DV1 Visa was stamped without any trouble, turning it into permanent residence (Provisional I-551, until the actual Green Card arrives).
9. Eventually the permanent resident card arrived by mail.

• I would suggest you to contact an immigration lawyer - except I could find none knowledgeable AND interested in the subject.
• Your results might be different, my particular case was quite strong otherwise (already living in the US on a H1B Visa, good job, good income etc.).
• Point 7. above made me realize retrospectively that the name discrepancy was clearly noticed, but maybe missing the middle name on the DV Application does not disqualify you automatically; the Alias section offers an elegant way out by linking the two name variants.
• If you find yourself in the same situation, maybe you should proceed with your application. In the worst case, you will lose 700$.

[EmilyW 1,226]

Thank you.

We did consult with a lawyer in the end who advised it would not be a problem. We submitted the DS260 with all names and informed KCC of the error.

We also have a strong application (plenty of money, no criminal records) so I'm reasonably confident that we will be ok.

[uhu 0]

Thank you.

We did consult with a lawyer in the end who advised it would not be a problem. We submitted the DS260 with all names and informed KCC of the error.

We also have a strong application (plenty of money, no criminal records) so I'm reasonably confident that we will be ok.

Hi, I'm quite sure you'll be fine.

OC0009xx is pretty close, in just 2 months of the 2015 fiscal year OC000500 became current.

You might want to subscribe to the Visa Bulletin to check the progress towards your number: http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/law-and-policy/bulletin.html

It makes sense to collect all interview documents already.

Then you should regularly check your e-mail - including the SPAM folders. They only send one e-mail (with the cryptic message that you have updates available at http://...) and no regular mail. Log in frequently to check if the interview date is set.

Good luck!

[Ibrahim88 0]

Hi EmilyW,

Can you till us what happened in your interview, because i have the same problem i didnt enter my middle name and i'm applicant for dv 2018

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

Not sure if Emily is still around, but I can confirm they got their visas.

missing middle name and it’s effect seems to vary by country. If you come from a high fraud country it could be a problem.

make sure you list the middle name on the “other names used” section of the DS260.

[Ibrahim88 0]

13 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

Not sure if Emily is still around, but I can confirm they got their visas.

missing middle name and it’s effect seems to vary by country. If you come from a high fraud country it could be a problem.

make sure you list the middle name on the “other names used” section of the DS260.

Dear Susie, 

Thank you for your answer

In the fact i don't know if egypt is high fraud country or not

I didn't enter the middle name for my whole family..for me and my wife and my daughter as well

Also i made mistake with spelling of my wife's given name example ( hind ) in the original entry but in her passport is (hend ) with knowledge that she is the principal applicant 

All those mistakes corrected already in the ds-260 submission

Now i don't know if it could be a problem in my interview or not.

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

53 minutes ago, Ibrahim88 said:

Dear Susie, 

Thank you for your answer

In the fact i don't know if egypt is high fraud country or not

I didn't enter the middle name for my whole family..for me and my wife and my daughter as well

Also i made mistake with spelling of my wife's given name example ( hind ) in the original entry but in her passport is (hend ) with knowledge that she is the principal applicant 

All those mistakes corrected already in the ds-260 submission

Now i don't know if it could be a problem in my interview or not.

Egypt and middle names, oh boy. No don’t get worried I don’t think Egypt is a high fraud country, but Egypt has a lot of confusion around how to convert the Egyptian naming system to the Western first-middle-last name convention. I don’t think they will be overly strict on middle names partly because of this. 

The principal applicant name spelling mistake could be more of a problem but again, I think how strictly they do this depends on country. I think - I can’t say for certain, but I think - again they can be slightly more lenient because translating from one alphabet to another often gives you different spellings of the same name. So ..this is just my opinion, it could be a problem but I tend to think you’d be alright.

[Ibrahim88 0]

10 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

Egypt and middle names, oh boy. No don’t get worried I don’t think Egypt is a high fraud country, but Egypt has a lot of confusion around how to convert the Egyptian naming system to the Western first-middle-last name convention. I don’t think they will be overly strict on middle names partly because of this. 

The principal applicant name spelling mistake could be more of a problem but again, I think how strictly they do this depends on country. I think - I can’t say for certain, but I think - again they can be slightly more lenient because translating from one alphabet to another often gives you different spellings of the same name. So ..this is just my opinion, it could be a problem but I tend to think you’d be alright.

Dear Susie,

Thank you so much🙂