Name Change

[Natonstan 129]

I had my Interview on September 27th and I was approved and all went fine, however i was born in 1993 and my parents had a messy divorce and she changed my name to her maiden name, I have a letter signed by a lawyer in the UK and it’s worked completely fine all my life, I would always show my birth certificate along with the signed letter when applying for school, first passport, K1 through to permanent residency, but at the Naturalization interview he said he wasn’t happy it looked official enough so he said it’s no problem he’ll just file a name change with the judge and I don’t need to do anything, it’ll be done by my oath ceremony. I just got my Oath date for October 31st and the notice is under my birth name, should I be worried about this or is it simply going to go back to my actual name (the name he filed the change to) when I actually get my certificate?

[Dashinka 23,209]

13 minutes ago, Natonstan said:

I had my Interview on September 27th and I was approved and all went fine, however i was born in 1993 and my parents had a messy divorce and she changed my name to her maiden name, I have a letter signed by a lawyer in the UK and it’s worked completely fine all my life, I would always show my birth certificate along with the signed letter when applying for school, first passport, K1 through to permanent residency, but at the Naturalization interview he said he wasn’t happy it looked official enough so he said it’s no problem he’ll just file a name change with the judge and I don’t need to do anything, it’ll be done by my oath ceremony. I just got my Oath date for October 31st and the notice is under my birth name, should I be worried about this or is it simply going to go back to my actual name (the name he filed the change to) when I actually get my certificate?

It should be the name you put in Part 2 Item 4 hopefully.  Did you file the N400 in your birth name in Part 2 Item 1 as your current legal name (or modify it when the IO did not accept the legal note you had)?

 

Good Luck!

 

[Natonstan 129]

7 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

It should be the name you put in Part 2 Item 4 hopefully.  Did you file the N400 in your birth name in Part 2 Item 1 as your current legal name (or modify it when the IO did not accept the legal note you had)?

 

Good Luck!

 

Part 2 item 4 was left blank because I filed it under my name... the one I’ve used all my life and the one that It was legally changed to in the UK 25+ years ago, the only place I put the name that appears on my birth certificate is in the section that asks if I’ve used any other name, the officer basically told me he wanted me to have a more official document I could use that was signed by a US judge and that he was approving me under my birth name and that the name change would be done by the time of my oath ceremony. The one concern is that my oath ceremony letter has just arrived addressed to my birth name... surely I won’t be approved under my birth name when my entire time being here, and my passport name matches my UK legal name change 

[Natonstan 129]

Basically.... I never submitted a name change with my application, because my name has been changed since 1995, it’s never been an issue AT ALL in my entire life, if I’m approved under my birth name that’s not me, that would mean my marriage, school career, work documents, passport, basically every single document I’ve had in life wouldn’t match my naturalization cert

[Natonstan 129]

I should add, when I was walking out of the interview I asked him if there’d be any issues and he said not at all, he just wanted me to have a more official document signed by a judge, He said he’s approving my case under my BIRTH NAME and that the judge will have the change recorded by the time my order my oath, I’m probably just worrying about nothing but it’s just been weird getting a letter addressed to my birth name for the first time in my memory 

[Dashinka 23,209]

3 minutes ago, Natonstan said:

Part 2 item 4 was left blank because I filed it under my name... the one I’ve used all my life and the one that It was legally changed to in the UK 25+ years ago, the only place I put the name that appears on my birth certificate is in the section that asks if I’ve used any other name, the officer basically told me he wanted me to have a more official document I could use that was signed by a US judge and that he was approving me under my birth name and that the name change would be done by the time of my oath ceremony. The one concern is that my oath ceremony letter has just arrived addressed to my birth name... surely I won’t be approved under my birth name when my entire time being here, and my passport name matches my UK legal name change 

OK, so it sounds like the IO administratively changed your N400 application to your birth name, hopefully they also updated Part 2 Item 4.  I am not sure if you can get any appointments prior to the oath, but I would scrutinize your certificate very closely when you check in for the oath.

 

Good Luck!

1 minute ago, Natonstan said:

I should add, when I was walking out of the interview I asked him if there’d be any issues and he said not at all, he just wanted me to have a more official document signed by a judge, He said he’s approving my case under my BIRTH NAME and that the judge will have the change recorded by the time my order my oath, I’m probably just worrying about nothing but it’s just been weird getting a letter addressed to my birth name for the first time in my memory 

This is probably why the approval notice came in your birth name.

[Natonstan 129]

1 minute ago, Bill & Katya said:

OK, so it sounds like the IO administratively changed your N400 application to your birth name, hopefully they also updated Part 2 Item 4.  I am not sure if you can get any appointments prior to the oath, but I would scrutinize your certificate very closely when you check in for the oath.

 

Good Luck!

Thank you for the help, I’ll definitely pay close attention, I told him it’s never been an issue before and I’ve gone through the entire US immigration process using that same document and nobody has ever questioned it, he made me sign a document regarding the name change and he told me to double check it to make sure it matches the name I’ve been using, he also asked if I want to keep my middle name and I said yes, so I’m sure everything is processing correctly, the only issue I suppose would be if it didn’t go through before the oath, I’ll be sure to check at the ceremony 

[Dashinka 23,209]

6 minutes ago, Natonstan said:

Basically.... I never submitted a name change with my application, because my name has been changed since 1995, it’s never been an issue AT ALL in my entire life, if I’m approved under my birth name that’s not me, that would mean my marriage, school career, work documents, passport, basically every single document I’ve had in life wouldn’t match my naturalization cert

Back when my wife was going through her process, we considered that potential option as Russia will not accept a marriage certificate as an official name change document.  In the end, we did not use it, but after our last trip to Russia, I wish we had the legal name change document.  Russia passport control was giving her a hard time when she left since her Russian passport and US passport names do not match and the airline tickets were in her US passport (married) name.  It is not exactly the same situation, but similar.

 

Good Luck!

[Natonstan 129]

1 minute ago, Bill & Katya said:

Back when my wife was going through her process, we considered that potential option as Russia will not accept a marriage certificate as an official name change document.  In the end, we did not use it, but after our last trip to Russia, I wish we had the legal name change document.  Russia passport control was giving her a hard time when she left since her Russian passport and US passport names do not match and the airline tickets were in her US passport (married) name.  It is not exactly the same situation, but similar.

 

Good Luck!

See all of my documents (UK Passport, Green Card, Social security, marriage license, state ID) are all under my legal name, this is literally the only time someone has made me use my birth name.

[Natonstan 129]

Something else that’s just hit me, since this oath ceremony letter is under my birth name, it doesn’t match my green card or state ID, will they even let me in....? I of course will bring my birth certificate and the name change document 

[Stevo1979 71]

I have no idea why parents have to make their kids go through all these unnecessary changes.

Women can really be petty most times

[Dashinka 23,209]

11 minutes ago, Natonstan said:

See all of my documents (UK Passport, Green Card, Social security, marriage license, state ID) are all under my legal name, this is literally the only time someone has made me use my birth name.

Well, it looks like just the N400 application was put in your birth name, so hopefully your certificate and subsequent US passport will match your other IDs.

[Natonstan 129]

Just now, Bill & Katya said:

Well, it looks like just the N400 application was put in your birth name, so hopefully your certificate and subsequent US passport will match your other IDs.

Do you think there’ll be any issues with my oath ceremony notice being under my birth name, thus not matching my ID, Green card and passport, I suppose as long as I have my birth certificate and the document I’ve been using I’ll be able to explain the issue.

[Dashinka 23,209]

12 minutes ago, Natonstan said:

Do you think there’ll be any issues with my oath ceremony notice being under my birth name, thus not matching my ID, Green card and passport, I suppose as long as I have my birth certificate and the document I’ve been using I’ll be able to explain the issue.

Did the IO give you a copy of the document he had you sign?  If so, take that with you to the oath, but otherwise you should be fine as oath name changes are fairly common so GC names will not always match the certificate name.

[Natonstan 129]

6 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

Did the IO give you a copy of the document he had you sign?  If so, take that with you to the oath, but otherwise you should be fine as oath name changes are fairly common so GC names will not always match the certificate name.

He did not give me a copy, but that does make sense, plenty of people make name changes so they’ll have seen it all, I’m just hoping my certificate shows my real name and not my birth name