Missing Last Name On I-130

[Dualie 185]

I have a question for you knowledgeable VJ Members. I am not even quite sure which forum to post this, so please feel free to move it if need be. I will try to condense this as much as I can and still give you the big picture, but the circumstances are very personal and long past, and I was a child at the time.

The DS260 apparently asks for every single address I have lived at since I turned 16. When I was 16 our family fell apart. Here are the facts :

My biological father left my mother and me when I was an infant. We lived in Canada with my grandparents until my mother met the man who raised me (the man I thought was my father my whole life until…). We moved to the US with him and lived as a family, and I have three half siblings.

My parents split around the time I was 16 and we kids stayed with my dad because mom couldn’t afford to support us. Around a year or so later (give or take) my dad sends me to live with my mom and we return to Canada.

During the time I lived with my dad I went under his last name (education and medical records, everything). After returning to Canada my mom and I took her maiden name back. I had no idea that I was Canadian until he arranged to send me to live with her.

Now for my question : I did not list my “father’s” last name in the I130 petition (didn’t even think to, it was so long ago I didn’t think it would be relevant). I listed my birth father’s, as that is the name I joined the military under, and is the name on my birth certificate. Now I have to list one address I lived at in the US when I was 16, the rest are in Canada. I know I can’t omit that time. How do you think I should report the name? How do you think it will affect the outcome of our petition. It is just so long ago, it confuses me just thinking about it. I am just afraid it is going to complicate things.

I never thought that the decisions my parents made way back then could bite me now when I am in my 50s. Please tell me what you think, and thank you in advance.

[pushbrk 13,172]

Your name is your name, and you appear to have entered it correctly. From age 7 to 16 I too used my step-father's family name and it was on my school records through 10th grade. I simply never mentioned it on any form, without any problem, even though I think my first driver license was in that name. I had a new one in a new state, in my "real" name before I was 17.

Nobody is going to go back and check to see if if the child Mary Jones or the child Mary Smith lived at any of your old addresses. I would consider the name issue, a non-issue.

[Dualie 185]

Thanks pushbrk, that puts it more into perspective. Funny how little things can grow so big in our minds when we have time to stew over them.