Given name in birth certificate doesn't match passport

[AlenaS 4]

10 hours ago, Shiran said:

Situation is a bit different when documents are written in completely different alphabet, with transliteration rules open to interpretation. For Ukraine specifically, I filed 129F using "russian" transliteraton of my fiancee, which was apparently different from Ukrainian in her External passport. It was never brought up or mentioned. They issued visa to match the name on passport. Birth certificate is not written in English at all, so when making translation of it you can just translate it to match External passport. They never look at Internal passport at all. 

I had the same idea - I will need birth certificate translation for future so I will have in with name that will match international passport. You said that they never look at Internal passport... What about birth certificate? Will they look at it?

[AlenaS 4]

46 minutes ago, millefleur said:

I think it gets iffier when it's a non-Latin alphabet and when there are common multiple ways to spell the name. 

 

Regardless, I agree with the mantra what whatever the passport says is what matters. That's what your legal name (and spelling) will be in the US, so for all intents and purposes, that is the person's official name. If the BC has a slightly different transliteration of the same name (that has common spelling variations), I'm assuming it's not that big of a deal and that the Embassy is aware of it. Can't say with certainty but this is my gut feeling, especially when it comes to Russian vs. Ukrainian spellings. 

Embassy did not care about this discrepancy at all! And I would just forget about this after interview but I know that I may need birth certificate for marriage certificate and for AOS. So I'm scared that different names may cause problems. But now I start thinking that probably it will not because it's not written in English.

[Shiran 1,134]

9 minutes ago, AlenaS said:

Embassy did not care about this discrepancy at all! And I would just forget about this after interview but I know that I may need birth certificate for marriage certificate and for AOS. So I'm scared that different names may cause problems. But now I start thinking that probably it will not because it's not written in English.

I am about 90% positive you will not need birthday certificate for marriage license. We sure as heck didn't need it in CA. Granted, thinks might be different in the lovely state of Bourbon and Horses that is Kentucky, but I doubt it.  See example here: https://fayettecountyclerk.com/web/marriage/marriagerequirements.htm Your passport (International one!) will suffice. 

 

Now, for AoS you do indeed need to submit photocopy of  the original birth certificate, but you also required to submit translation along with it. As long as translation matches, I see no issue. With Ukrainian rules it gets weird Олег in Ukrainian version is Oleh, but in Russian same name would be translitereated Oleg.  I am sure they are used to that insanity by now.

[AlenaS 4]

5 minutes ago, Shiran said:

I am about 90% positive you will not need birthday certificate for marriage license. We sure as heck didn't need it in CA. Granted, thinks might be different in the lovely state of Bourbon and Horses that is Kentucky, but I doubt it.  See example here: https://fayettecountyclerk.com/web/marriage/marriagerequirements.htm Your passport (International one!) will suffice. 

 

Now, for AoS you do indeed need to submit photocopy of  the original birth certificate, but you also required to submit translation along with it. As long as translation matches, I see no issue. With Ukrainian rules it gets weird Олег in Ukrainian version is Oleh, but in Russian same name would be translitereated Oleg.  I am sure they are used to that insanity by now.

After first panic and a lot of researching now I started thinking that this discrepancy is not a super huge deal just like you said. I will just translate my birth certificate to the way it'll match my passport and forget about it (fixing birth certificate would be a real hell because of where I live).

Thank you soooo much for your replies! I started feeling a lot less worried 😄

[TastyCake 232]

On 5/18/2019 at 4:19 AM, Shiran said:

I am about 90% positive you will not need birthday certificate for marriage license. We sure as heck didn't need it in CA. Granted, thinks might be different in the lovely state of Bourbon and Horses that is Kentucky, but I doubt it.  See example here: https://fayettecountyclerk.com/web/marriage/marriagerequirements.htm Your passport (International one!) will suffice. 

 

Now, for AoS you do indeed need to submit photocopy of  the original birth certificate, but you also required to submit translation along with it. As long as translation matches, I see no issue. With Ukrainian rules it gets weird Олег in Ukrainian version is Oleh, but in Russian same name would be translitereated Oleg.  I am sure they are used to that insanity by now.

Thanks, Shiran.  As you may recall, we have the same situation as you.  You can't make this stuff up.

 

I think Alena is fine as is.  She just needs her English BC to match the passport and visa for the AOS.  I think my fiancee's BC translated (off of her Russian document) is her Russian name so I am writing to her now to go back and have it translated to match her passport.  So we have no issues with the AOS.  I wasn't aware of this.  Thanks for the 411.

[TastyCake 232]

On 5/18/2019 at 4:19 AM, Shiran said:

I am about 90% positive you will not need birthday certificate for marriage license. We sure as heck didn't need it in CA. Granted, thinks might be different in the lovely state of Bourbon and Horses that is Kentucky, but I doubt it.  See example here: https://fayettecountyclerk.com/web/marriage/marriagerequirements.htm Your passport (International one!) will suffice. 

 

Now, for AoS you do indeed need to submit photocopy of  the original birth certificate, but you also required to submit translation along with it. As long as translation matches, I see no issue. With Ukrainian rules it gets weird Олег in Ukrainian version is Oleh, but in Russian same name would be translitereated Oleg.  I am sure they are used to that insanity by now.

Shiran, wait a sec.  Maybe your fiancee was not married previously.  My fiancee is divorced.  Her BC has her maiden name on it, not the name she uses now.  So there wouldn't even be a match on the last name for the purposes of the AOS.

 

I have an immigration attorney I am using (I don't trust myself alone with this stuff... he's reasonable price-wise) and I will get his thoughts on this and write back on this thread.

[Shiran 1,134]

3 hours ago, TastyCake said:

Shiran, wait a sec.  Maybe your fiancee was not married previously.  My fiancee is divorced.  Her BC has her maiden name on it, not the name she uses now.  So there wouldn't even be a match on the last name for the purposes of the AOS.

 

I have an immigration attorney I am using (I don't trust myself alone with this stuff... he's reasonable price-wise) and I will get his thoughts on this and write back on this thread.

There is a place on I-485 to list "previously used names" I do not believe you have to supple divorce decree with I-485. It is assumed that part was already vetted before K-1 was issued. Unlike K-1 though they do want copy of the birth certificate AND translation of it into English (Embassy doesn't need translation) My advice stands: Just name sure that translated first names match.