No Last Name/Surname/Family Name on fiance's passport/birth cert. But he has one. What do we do?

[Elizabeth+Fred 35]

I am getting all the forms together to start the process of immigration. I am filing out the I-129F and my fiance does not have a surname on his passport or birth certificate. He does have a family name, but it is not on any official documents and it will take too much time and money to change it in his country. For some reason the family name was not issued to his grandfather and some old records disappeared during WWII that make it very difficult to form a paper trail of proof. I can form the connection through his grandmother and great grandmother, who both have the family name, and it is was custom to marry cousins within the family to keep the family name.

What do we do?

Do we:

1) Fill out the application with his family name and explain everything in the documentation / cover letter?

-OR-

2) Fill out the application WITH OUT (LEAVE BLANK) his family name and explain everything in the documentation / cover letter?

- If I leave the surname blank will he be assigned a surname? At what point? What is the process? How is it determined?

I called USCIS and they told me that is was up to the officer who reviews the paper work, I did not clarify with them if this was during or after approval. She did not say if either way was better, just said that whatever we submit, it is up to the adjudicating officer

Does anyone have any experience of this?

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Only those with REAL knowledge need reply. If you answer with "might" or "maybe" you will be ignored as those answers are not helpful and only feed the confusion of the nightmare of this paperwork process. I can make (and have made) perfectly good assumptions on my own, now I want facts about the process.

This comment was not made to offend anyone that wishes to help. But I have read the forums about beneficiaries with no surnames and have seen posts like "If you leave it blank, they may think you forgot to fill it in, and RFE you.". Even though it is perfectly acceptable to leave it blank as per the current instructions. When you use terms like "may" or "maybe" or "might" your answer is not helpful, and therefore not acceptable.

If you have been denied or returned for more information, please let me know. If you left the surname blank for your beneficiary please tell me what happened, if they have a surname name now and how it was given (except in the form of the wife taking the husbands name after marriage since my husband will not be taking my last name .

Thank you, for understanding.

Welcome to VJ !

Since this is your first posting, I do take the liberty of expessing my 'welcoming' opinion to you

For an answer on the surname issue... even if it gets past the CO handling the interview, there will be several more issues coming up later- during AOS, during ROC, etc. The "system" in the U.S. simply has no (real) provisions for "lastname-less" people. A long time ago, my roommate (from Pakistan) had that problem, and he could not even get a drivers license because of it !

So, if *at all possible*, please *do* spend the time, money and energy in getting his paperwork 'fixed'. If not for this (K-1 interview) step, it surely will help you get through the next steps without bumps...

Then again, since you only wanted 'real' answers, and almost none of us here at VJ are lawyers, you may want to spend additional money on at least one meeting with an immigrations lawyer, and preferrably one with experience in cases from your fiance's home country.

Good luck on the journey!

[Elizabeth+Fred 35]

So are you saying to me that the officer who reviews the I129f is not the one that approves the name, it's the officer that will speak to my fiancé when the papers are sent Malaysia and he continues the process there before flying over?

Thank you again.

Yes. The officer who reviews and/or approves the petition itself mainly deals with the petitioner (that'd be you.) Once approved, it gets forwarded to (eventually) the embassy or consulate in the home country of the beneficiary, and the officer there is the one who 'deals' with the beneficiary. Since that officer is in the country, they are (usually) familar with local customs, and so they can deal better with such things than someone in a central office in the U.S. would.

Hence, Boiler's suggestion to have your question moved to the subforum for the fiance's home country. Dealing with 'local paperwork problems' (such as a last/family name not being available) is handled at the USEM/consulate, completely up to the officer(s) there.

[Zelena2 1]

I have emailed the consulate in Kuala Lumpur to see what they say.

I will post the response from the consulate and probably direct any further questions to the regional forums if I have them.

Thank you to Boiler, Girl from Celebes, Elizabeth+Fred and Soloenta for your help and valued insight into the matter.

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To everyone else: responses in no particular order:

1) He doesn't have just one name, thank you for your assumption, allow me to clarify. He has 3 names, the first being a title and he is called by the last of his 3 names...so it would be very confusing to just list the 3 given names in order of an Americanized first middle last name and have him addressed by his title, when really he should be addressed by his "last name". I didn't want to ask about reordering his name in this post as I figured it would add confusion and was not the question I wanted answered here. I have put great thought into his name because I know it will stick with him for the entirety of his stay in the US. It is best to have it sorted out in the beginning. Since he does have a family name I was trying to figure out how much proof they would really require, if it has to be on the official documents or if they would reject the application for not matching exactly his passport or something.

2) I do not think that "FNU" applies to my case, but I will definitely keep it in mind. Thank you.

3) I already consulted a lawyer, they are nothing more than over paid paper pushers in this matter. They did not have anymore insight than I already had.