Check your birth certificate.

[Undecided 78]

Specifically check the names on your birth certificate before going to a naturalization interview. Because I’m 64, have always gone by first name, middle name,  last name. My passport is like that. My green card is like that. My marriage certificate is like that and my drivers license and social security card is like that. But it turns out that since my middle name isn’t on my birth certificate if I want to keep that middle name, I would have to get a name change at the time of naturalization. I’m not going to because I want to get my oath as fast as possible. But it’s a bit of a shock to have to make the decision at the interview. So check in advance so you can make the decision before hand.

 

Funnily enough my US born husband is in exactly the same situation (no middle names on his BC), which is another reason why I decided to not get a name change - we’d already discussed how he was going to deal with it so it wasn’t an entirely new concept. But you should check. 

[leroyleviticus 80]

I saw you writing about this under the N-400 January Filers post. You moved to the US a long time ago, but do you remember by any chance why they needed a birth certificate in the first place? As far as I know I never had to present one, I’m just curious why they wanted/needed it 😄

[Undecided 78]

17 minutes ago, leroyleviticus said:

I saw you writing about this under the N-400 January Filers post. You moved to the US a long time ago, but do you remember by any chance why they needed a birth certificate in the first place? As far as I know I never had to present one, I’m just curious why they wanted/needed it 😄

As I said there I’m speculating but I must have had to give one at the time I got my green card. Because the  IO had a copy of it. What is weird is that that issue never came up during the green card interview or subsequently. 
 

My post here is simply to make people aware that they may have a name that they have always used, is in all of their documentation, but it might not be what they think it is. I certainly was surprised. I actually said to the IO - but that’s on my BC and she showed me the copy and I checked the original - she was right, it wasn’t. And it was a photocopy - not simply documentation.

Maybe it’s not something they ask for now when you get a green card. Shrug. I wouldn’t have thought twice about giving it if I was asked though.

 

So this is basically a public service announcement - make sure the name you use is the name on your BC. And Is the name you want to have on your naturalization certificate. And if it isn’t and you want to keep that middle name, you will need to change it on naturalization.

 

i just don’t want people to be surprised. I mean, how often do you look at your birth certificate really? Probably the last time I actually looked at it was when I applied for my first passport ummm 40 years ago, and I’m sure I didn’t examine the details - it was just “this is my birth certificate”.

Edited July 24, 2020 by Undecided