passport names

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Our son got a new passport in honor of his anticiapted visa and the Ukrainian government, sensing another opportunity to stamp out the Russian language in their midst, chose to transliterate the spelling of his Russian name, "Sergey" in the Ukrainian manner "Sergei". All other documents are prepared in the proper Russian transliterated spelling and already in Ukraine awaiting the interview. What to do? See the email from the consulate below. Please bear in mind this applies only to the Kiev (Kyiv) consulate, check with your own for similar questions but this is a common problem in Ukraine.

Dear Mr. :

Thank you for your inquiry of June 3, 2009.

Please be informed that as long as K2 child has a valid passport with either Sergey or Sergei or any other close spelling – we will take it for visa processing. We will process his visa application based on the spelling of the name in the passport.

We hope this information will be helpful.

Sincerely,

Public Liaison Unit

Consular Section

U.S. Embassy,

Kyiv, Ukraine

Tel.: +38/044/490-44-22

Fax: +38/044/484-45-70

Please visit our website at http://kyiv.usembassy.gov for more information about consular services

This e-mail is UNCLASSIFIED based on the definitions provided in E.O. 12958

[rinehardt 0]

Our son got a new passport in honor of his anticiapted visa and the Ukrainian government, sensing another opportunity to stamp out the Russian language in their midst, chose to transliterate the spelling of his Russian name, "Sergey" in the Ukrainian manner "Sergei". All other documents are prepared in the proper Russian transliterated spelling and already in Ukraine awaiting the interview. What to do? See the email from the consulate below. Please bear in mind this applies only to the Kiev (Kyiv) consulate, check with your own for similar questions but this is a common problem in Ukraine.

Dear Mr. :

Thank you for your inquiry of June 3, 2009.

Please be informed that as long as K2 child has a valid passport with either Sergey or Sergei or any other close spelling – we will take it for visa processing. We will process his visa application based on the spelling of the name in the passport.

We hope this information will be helpful.

Sincerely,

Public Liaison Unit

Consular Section

U.S. Embassy,

Kyiv, Ukraine

Tel.: +38/044/490-44-22

Fax: +38/044/484-45-70

Please visit our website at http://kyiv.usembassy.gov for more information about consular services

This e-mail is UNCLASSIFIED based on the definitions provided in E.O. 12958

have the same problem with my name ,thank you,very helpful information

[payxibka 10,045]

Since the official language in Ukraine is Ukrainian and all government business needs to occur in Ukrainian... this has been the situation for many years...

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Since the official language in Ukraine is Ukrainian and all government business needs to occur in Ukrainian... this has been the situation for many years...

It is a problem in east Ukraine where very few people speak Ukrainian and have Russian names which are arbitrarily being "re-spelled" at every opportunity by the government. It is a sore point with many ethnic Russians. Imagine a K-1 fiancee coming to the USA name "Juan", or "Sean" or "Roberto" and the US government puts his name as "John" or "Robert" without asking, and then it doesn't match any of his other documents? And now because of this his visa will be spelled wrong and his AOS may be spelled wrong all because of some ethnic one-upsmanship being played in Kiev. Official languages need not affect how someone spells a proper name. Imagine a man, born in the USA with the name "Roberto Mendoza" and he orders a copy of his 40 year old birth certificate only to find (big suprise)the government has gone back and changed his name to "Robert Mend" in order to erase any "non-English" names from the official record? And then he gets a copy of his divorce certificate from 11 years ago and his name on that one is "Bob Mendz" !!!!!!!!!!! You think Americans would be OK with that? It is preposterous.

This situation has only existed since the Orange Revolution in 2005 when the government makes these ridiculous insistent demands to erase anything Russian as if it did not exist and was graffiti or something. Just mees up some peoples names and 700 years of history is erased. Though the official language may have been Ukrainian before 2005, there was not this effort to change people's names against their will and other iterations which increase with each passing year. They have people translating OLD documents in Donetsk that have no idea how to translate Russian to Ukrainian and this results in barely being able to get ANY document from the region which is correctly spelled or worded, unless you have your old originals. Names are spelled multiple ways in one document...and none are correct! Fortunately the US consulate recognizes this non-sense for what it is and cuts us some slack. Note the reference to "any reasonable spelling"

At any rate, it is commonly an issue for people going through the Kiev consulate, so here is their official stance on the matter

[payxibka 10,045]

Since the official language in Ukraine is Ukrainian and all government business needs to occur in Ukrainian... this has been the situation for many years...

It is a problem in east Ukraine where very few people speak Ukrainian and have Russian names which are arbitrarily being "re-spelled" at every opportunity by the government. It is a sore point with many ethnic Russians. Imagine a K-1 fiancee coming to the USA name "Juan", or "Sean" or "Roberto" and the US government puts his name as "John" or "Robert" without asking, and then it doesn't match any of his other documents? And now because of this his visa will be spelled wrong and his AOS may be spelled wrong all because of some ethnic one-upsmanship being played in Kiev. Official languages need not affect how someone spells a proper name. Imagine a man, born in the USA with the name "Roberto Mendoza" and he orders a copy of his 40 year old birth certificate only to find (big suprise)the government has gone back and changed his name to "Robert Mend" in order to erase any "non-English" names from the official record? And then he gets a copy of his divorce certificate from 11 years ago and his name on that one is "Bob Mendz" !!!!!!!!!!! You think Americans would be OK with that? It is preposterous.

This situation has only existed since the Orange Revolution in 2005 when the government makes these ridiculous insistent demands to erase anything Russian as if it did not exist and was graffiti or something. Just mees up some peoples names and 700 years of history is erased. Though the official language may have been Ukrainian before 2005, there was not this effort to change people's names against their will and other iterations which increase with each passing year. They have people translating OLD documents in Donetsk that have no idea how to translate Russian to Ukrainian and this results in barely being able to get ANY document from the region which is correctly spelled or worded, unless you have your old originals. Names are spelled multiple ways in one document...and none are correct! Fortunately the US consulate recognizes this non-sense for what it is and cuts us some slack. Note the reference to "any reasonable spelling"

At any rate, it is commonly an issue for people going through the Kiev consulate, so here is their official stance on the matter

come on... it is mainly a transliteration issue from cryllic to the roman alphabet not a pronunciation issue... your analogy is not even close... translate your name into Ukrainian or Russian... guess what, it might be spelled different but it is still pronounced GARY

Edited June 4, 2009 by payxibka

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Since the official language in Ukraine is Ukrainian and all government business needs to occur in Ukrainian... this has been the situation for many years...

It is a problem in east Ukraine where very few people speak Ukrainian and have Russian names which are arbitrarily being "re-spelled" at every opportunity by the government. It is a sore point with many ethnic Russians. Imagine a K-1 fiancee coming to the USA name "Juan", or "Sean" or "Roberto" and the US government puts his name as "John" or "Robert" without asking, and then it doesn't match any of his other documents? And now because of this his visa will be spelled wrong and his AOS may be spelled wrong all because of some ethnic one-upsmanship being played in Kiev. Official languages need not affect how someone spells a proper name. Imagine a man, born in the USA with the name "Roberto Mendoza" and he orders a copy of his 40 year old birth certificate only to find (big suprise)the government has gone back and changed his name to "Robert Mend" in order to erase any "non-English" names from the official record? And then he gets a copy of his divorce certificate from 11 years ago and his name on that one is "Bob Mendz" !!!!!!!!!!! You think Americans would be OK with that? It is preposterous.

This situation has only existed since the Orange Revolution in 2005 when the government makes these ridiculous insistent demands to erase anything Russian as if it did not exist and was graffiti or something. Just mees up some peoples names and 700 years of history is erased. Though the official language may have been Ukrainian before 2005, there was not this effort to change people's names against their will and other iterations which increase with each passing year. They have people translating OLD documents in Donetsk that have no idea how to translate Russian to Ukrainian and this results in barely being able to get ANY document from the region which is correctly spelled or worded, unless you have your old originals. Names are spelled multiple ways in one document...and none are correct! Fortunately the US consulate recognizes this non-sense for what it is and cuts us some slack. Note the reference to "any reasonable spelling"

At any rate, it is commonly an issue for people going through the Kiev consulate, so here is their official stance on the matter

come on... it is mainly a transliteration issue from cryllic to the roman alphabet not a pronunciation issue... your analogy is not even close... translate your name into Ukrainian or Russian... guess what, it might be spelled different but it is still pronounced GARY

True. So if someone's name is spelled Garry, it is the same as someone spelled Gary? Stephen and Steven? Would an American accept this? "Oh get over it, it is pronounced the same" And that doesn't even address the ethnic and political underlying issues which are a big deal to some people. It is a little more than someone's guess at Cyrillic to Roman transliteration. (which can always be a problem) Russian doesn't use the "i" and "ii" of the Cyrillic alphabet and such things are viewed as very important in Ukraine where they can get real nit-picky about name spellings on documents (at least until you give them a bribe, which I do not rule out as the main cause for this) Fortunately, as I point out, the US consulate recognizes it and allows for it. I felt it may be a concern to VJ members, we get lots of questions on lesser issues ("Can I use a pen to fill in the forms?") and thought it may be of assistance to people who deal with this problem.

[payxibka 10,045]

True. So if someone's name is spelled Garry, it is the same as someone spelled Gary? Stephen and Steven? Would an American accept this? "Oh get over it, it is pronounced the same" And that doesn't even address the ethnic and political underlying issues which are a big deal to some people. It is a little more than someone's guess at Cyrillic to Roman transliteration. (which can always be a problem) Russian doesn't use the "i" and "ii" of the Cyrillic alphabet and such things are viewed as very important in Ukraine where they can get real nit-picky about name spellings on documents (at least until you give them a bribe, which I do not rule out as the main cause for this) Fortunately, as I point out, the US consulate recognizes it and allows for it. I felt it may be a concern to VJ members, we get lots of questions on lesser issues ("Can I use a pen to fill in the forms?") and thought it may be of assistance to people who deal with this problem.

How would Gary or Garry or Steven or Stephen even know how there name would be written using the cryllic alphabet? Arabic? Chinese? The only reason that this is an issue is that some Ukrainians have seen the Russian transliteration before... had they not, they would not know the difference...

Don't get me wrong... My wife was not happy with Svitlana... when we married we changed it to Svetlana

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

True. So if someone's name is spelled Garry, it is the same as someone spelled Gary? Stephen and Steven? Would an American accept this? "Oh get over it, it is pronounced the same" And that doesn't even address the ethnic and political underlying issues which are a big deal to some people. It is a little more than someone's guess at Cyrillic to Roman transliteration. (which can always be a problem) Russian doesn't use the "i" and "ii" of the Cyrillic alphabet and such things are viewed as very important in Ukraine where they can get real nit-picky about name spellings on documents (at least until you give them a bribe, which I do not rule out as the main cause for this) Fortunately, as I point out, the US consulate recognizes it and allows for it. I felt it may be a concern to VJ members, we get lots of questions on lesser issues ("Can I use a pen to fill in the forms?") and thought it may be of assistance to people who deal with this problem.

How would Gary or Garry or Steven or Stephen even know how there name would be written using the cryllic alphabet? Arabic? Chinese? The only reason that this is an issue is that some Ukrainians have seen the Russian transliteration before... had they not, they would not know the difference...

Don't get me wrong... My wife was not happy with Svitlana... when we married we changed it to Svetlana

Ignorance is bliss, isn't it?

Sure, and Sergey will change it to Sergey as he does not want his green card name spelled "Sergei". It was "sergey" in his mothers passport and now he needs his own, we have the same issue with Pavlo and Pavel (Pasha is his short name) but at least we knew it before all the other forms and translations were complete. It WAS an issue for Aerosvit airlines and I just changed the name on the reservation a few minutes ago.

My concern with posting this is to inform VJ members that for the consulate anyway, it is not an issue.

[Brad and Vika 129]

True. So if someone's name is spelled Garry, it is the same as someone spelled Gary? Stephen and Steven? Would an American accept this? "Oh get over it, it is pronounced the same" And that doesn't even address the ethnic and political underlying issues which are a big deal to some people. It is a little more than someone's guess at Cyrillic to Roman transliteration. (which can always be a problem) Russian doesn't use the "i" and "ii" of the Cyrillic alphabet and such things are viewed as very important in Ukraine where they can get real nit-picky about name spellings on documents (at least until you give them a bribe, which I do not rule out as the main cause for this) Fortunately, as I point out, the US consulate recognizes it and allows for it. I felt it may be a concern to VJ members, we get lots of questions on lesser issues ("Can I use a pen to fill in the forms?") and thought it may be of assistance to people who deal with this problem.

How would Gary or Garry or Steven or Stephen even know how there name would be written using the cryllic alphabet? Arabic? Chinese? The only reason that this is an issue is that some Ukrainians have seen the Russian transliteration before... had they not, they would not know the difference...

Don't get me wrong... My wife was not happy with Svitlana... when we married we changed it to Svetlana

Ignorance is bliss, isn't it?

Sure, and Sergey will change it to Sergey as he does not want his green card name spelled "Sergei". It was "sergey" in his mothers passport and now he needs his own, we have the same issue with Pavlo and Pavel (Pasha is his short name) but at least we knew it before all the other forms and translations were complete. It WAS an issue for Aerosvit airlines and I just changed the name on the reservation a few minutes ago.

My concern with posting this is to inform VJ members that for the consulate anyway, it is not an issue.

My wife has the same issue. She prefers Viktoria, but gets Viktoriya. She has decided to live with it for now, so as not to delay anything further. At least that was the story five minutes ago. More to follow.....