Umlaut in last name

[topaz75 1]

My American fiancee and I are just preparing our I-129 Package for the K1 visa. Thanks to this great website, there are only very few questions left unanswered. One of them is what to do with my last name.

I am German, and my last name contains an Umlaut, the funny little vowels with dots on top. Most documents tell me to fill out forms etc. spelling my name excatly as it is spelled in my passport, which would be WITH the Umlaut. However, in alphabets that dont have umlauts, there is a way to transliterate them by appending an "E" to the base vowel. Thats also what they do for the machine-readable part of my passport. That, however, looks stupid, is impossible to pronounce for an American and i would hate ending up with my name spelled like that, especially as my fiancee will take up my name after our wedding.

So the situation is like this:

My last name spelled correctly in German (=Spelling on most documents supplied, including biographical page in my passport)

BÄUMLER

Correct transliteration for alphabets without Umlauts (=spelling in machine-readable part of passport)

BAEUMLER

Preferred outcome:

BAUMLER

So how to I spell my name in those forms?

First priority, of course, is to write my name in the way required by the forms, but if there is ANY way at all to do it, i'd love to end up with the spelling BAUMLER; just omitting the dots.

So far, i am leaning towards spelling my name the german way (BÄUMLER). Obviously in all forms that I fill out, I have the required font/ typset available. As soon as an American has to enter that into a computer, he will just type an "A" for the "Ä", at least thats what happened on pretty much every occasion when i am on holidays there. Technically, it is a misspelling though.

Would you go that way? Or go for the BAEUMLER, and try to get the name changed once all the immigration red tape is done.

Any ideas, experiences from other Germans etc. ?

[krautlaus 7]

congrats on your engagement

I would keep the Umlaut in there. I personally don't have any experience with it but it does say to fill it according to the information in your passport. Also, as you already said, you might not want to end up with a totally different name. The USCIS has seen applications from all over the world - including names as Nuñez and Bjørn and they probably know how to put in special characters

check for similar topics right under these posts - e.g. this one

all the best!

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

My American fiancee and I are just preparing our I-129 Package for the K1 visa. Thanks to this great website, there are only very few questions left unanswered. One of them is what to do with my last name.

I am German, and my last name contains an Umlaut, the funny little vowels with dots on top. Most documents tell me to fill out forms etc. spelling my name excatly as it is spelled in my passport, which would be WITH the Umlaut. However, in alphabets that dont have umlauts, there is a way to transliterate them by appending an "E" to the base vowel. Thats also what they do for the machine-readable part of my passport. That, however, looks stupid, is impossible to pronounce for an American and i would hate ending up with my name spelled like that, especially as my fiancee will take up my name after our wedding.

So the situation is like this:

My last name spelled correctly in German (=Spelling on most documents supplied, including biographical page in my passport)

BÄUMLER

Correct transliteration for alphabets without Umlauts (=spelling in machine-readable part of passport)

BAEUMLER

Preferred outcome:

BAUMLER

So how to I spell my name in those forms?

First priority, of course, is to write my name in the way required by the forms, but if there is ANY way at all to do it, i'd love to end up with the spelling BAUMLER; just omitting the dots.

So far, i am leaning towards spelling my name the german way (BÄUMLER). Obviously in all forms that I fill out, I have the required font/ typset available. As soon as an American has to enter that into a computer, he will just type an "A" for the "Ä", at least thats what happened on pretty much every occasion when i am on holidays there. Technically, it is a misspelling though.

Would you go that way? Or go for the BAEUMLER, and try to get the name changed once all the immigration red tape is done.

Any ideas, experiences from other Germans etc. ?

Oh, please. Try transliterating names from Russian Cyrillic or Ukrainian Cyrillic and the names differ on differnet documents and even on the same document!

Guide...is your international passport in English and German? Spell the name as it is spelled in your passport. That is what the consulate will do. The consulate will accept any reasonable spelling of your name on documents.

Alla does translations for Russian and Ukrainian applicants and goes through this each time with multiple name spellings. We ask people to tell us how it is spelled on the passport and she transliterates all names to that. Of course, we have the cases where someone gets their international passport after the translations are done and the government decides to change how THEY transliterate it (particularly in Ukrainian passports who will change it if it looks "too Russian") Imagine transliterating one from Farsi or Chinese!

Bottom line....no big deal. Use the passport as a guide and try to be consistent

[Tygrys 143]

congrats on your engagement

I would keep the Umlaut in there. I personally don't have any experience with it but it does say to fill it according to the information in your passport. Also, as you already said, you might not want to end up with a totally different name. The USCIS has seen applications from all over the world - including names as Nuñez and Bjørn and they probably know how to put in special characters

check for similar topics right under these posts - e.g. this one

all the best!

Keep the umlaut in your application. They will either leave is as is, or more likely change it to an A and that's what you actually want, right?

[LaL 418]

Don't be so rude Gary. Damn. Many people have this conundrum, hell my husband wound up with a completely botched name AND an arbitrary selection of his last name on his documents.

Topaz - just be diligent and consistent. If your passport is translated in such a way that is not your preference, get it changed. It really all stems from there.

[SunDrop 59]

Don't know how it will end up on your passport, but don't add the 'e'. Most people don't notice the Umlaut and a lot fewer have the faintest idea what effect it has on a letter when it comes to pronunciation. They'll probably have a nervous breakdown if you introduce a letter that isn't on your ID documents, and you'll have to explain to each and every one what an Umlaut does to the pronunciation of a vowel in germanic languages.

It'll be prounced Bawmler or Bow-mler with a short o and not Boymler as it should. Add the 'e' they'll make it Bayumler or Baimler or Ba-eh-umler lol.

Works the other way too. My maiden name was constantly mispronounced in Germany. And then they'd tell me I was wrong or fix the way I'd spellt it!

Edited February 13, 2010 by SunDrop