Name changed by mistake on turkish marriage license...what to do?

[bookmonger 0]

In the course of one week, and after beating some long odds, my love and I married in Ankara, Turkey. We are both very happy with each other and cannot wait to be reunited.

However, as I was beginning to get the papers together, I noticed that on our Turkish marriage certificate, her last name has been changed to my last name. And aside from the fact that our preference would be for her to keep her "maiden" name, given that it's customary in her country, I'm under the impression it would require a court action and justification to change her name on Iranian legal documents, specifically for her passport and maybe birth certificate (used for ID in Iran).

They filled in the name without asking us in Turkey. And of course we signed without noticing it. So, now we have this dilemma, I think:

Would it be easier to have the Turkish marriage certificate corrected (I'm in America and she is in Iran) or to have her change all of her Iranian documents (passport, birth certificate, etc.) through a court action with the justification that there was a mistake on the Turkish marriage certificate?

The problem, in short, is that America will see her as having my last name, but her Iranian documents will show her with her father's name. Therefore, the visa and passport won't match.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Bookmonger

Edited October 11, 2008 by bookmonger

[MaxOnline 0]

I think changing the Turkish marriage certificate is the best choice... though I can imagine how hard this could be!... Plus I think that she can not change her Iranian documents to the name in the marriage certificate!

but I have an idea... when you translate the Turkish Marriage certificate put her real name in the Translation - Translators allow people to add the name the way they want according to passports or other certificates... - and then attach the translation to your documents, USCIS wouldn't care about the original Turkish certificate!

[bookmonger 0]

Thanks for the idea. I will e-mail a translation service and ask them about that. And it's funny because I thought I had been prepared for all the "pitfalls".....goes to show ya....you can never be too prepared.

Ugh.

Seriously, we pulled off the wedding by the skin of our teeth. So, I was just so relieved to sign on the dotted line, I never really scrutinized the papers. I think our translator, whom we paid quite well, was enjoying the moment too much, also, to be much help on this at the time.

Thanks again.

[bookmonger 0]

No go. The translation service I spoke said that the document must be translated exactly word-for-word, and that doing such a correction through translation would constitute falsifying a document.

The marriage certificate does have her name before marriage as well as her passport number. So, I'm wondering if they'd accept a copy of her passport (translated of course) to prove that her name is just her family's name and not mine.