"What is your current legal name?" If your birth certificate doesn't match the name on your green card, which name should you use?

[thanhmakeysother 1]

2 minutes ago, trucphong said:

I dont think that someone put wrong order when they filed papers. It is Vietnamese passport name order issue.

 

US passport name order lists Surname and Given Name. Given name for US passport lists as First name and then Middle Name. US name on order passport is Last name First name and Middle name.

 

Vietnamese passport name order lists in weird way that is not standard as following: Last Name Middle Name and First Name.

 

When American people look at Vietnamese passport, they thought it would be the same order as US does. That is why they would think Middle name on Vietnamese passport is First name (same order in US passport) and First name is Middle Name. Hence when Consulate printed visa, it needs to match to passport order which greencard will follow the same order as visa.

 

Many Vietnamese people got this issue specially people come here with IR1 or CR1 visa including my wife. K1 visa people filed I-485 form in US which they put correct name on the form and USCIS prints it to match with the form so they dont have issue.

Thank you for posting this. I wonder if I can find a Vietnamese-to-USA community that might have experience with this exact issue and what they did to rectify it. Cause I know we aren't the only ones who are facing this issue.

 

Do we need to get her green card corrected before we do the N-400? I've heard conflicting information. Some say it MUST be corrected, and others say it won't be an issue.

 

Do you have any thoughts?

 

Have you filed for I-751 yet? Did you put her 'green card' name or her 'real name'?

[trucphong 24]

1 minute ago, thanhmakeysother said:

Thank you for posting this. I wonder if I can find a Vietnamese-to-USA community that might have experience with this exact issue and what they did to rectify it. Cause I know we aren't the only ones who are facing this issue.

 

Do we need to get her green card corrected before we do the N-400? I've heard conflicting information. Some say it MUST be corrected, and others say it won't be an issue.

 

Do you have any thoughts?

 

Have you filed for I-751 yet? Did you put her 'green card' name or her 'real name'?

There was many people got this issue in the  past. They suggested us to not doing anything and use name on greencard as official name as it would be hard to change it with I-90 as you cant say Vietnamese passport order is the problem. Vietnam passport order did not list First name is this or Middle name is that so it is not Consulate’s fault. What kind of documentation we need to show USCIS to correct it because their fault in I-90? How do we convince USCIS correct name is legit?

 

My wife has 10 years greencard hence she does not do I-751. She will file N-400 at the end of this year and we will use her greencard name to be her name on N-400. She does not plan to change her name back on N-400 either. If she passes, her US passport name order will be Last name Middle name (green card first name or her wrong first name in US) and First name which will match to Vietnamese passport.

 

It is not straightforward to us at all and we dont like to do this way. I agreed with other people said to correct it  but it is not straightforward and I am not sure it will bring up more issues with I-90 or not.

 

 

[thanhmakeysother 1]

15 hours ago, trucphong said:

There was many people got this issue in the  past. They suggested us to not doing anything and use name on greencard as official name as it would be hard to change it with I-90 as you cant say Vietnamese passport order is the problem. Vietnam passport order did not list First name is this or Middle name is that so it is not Consulate’s fault. What kind of documentation we need to show USCIS to correct it because their fault in I-90? How do we convince USCIS correct name is legit?

 

My wife has 10 years greencard hence she does not do I-751. She will file N-400 at the end of this year and we will use her greencard name to be her name on N-400. She does not plan to change her name back on N-400 either. If she passes, her US passport name order will be Last name Middle name (green card first name or her wrong first name in US) and First name which will match to Vietnamese passport.

 

It is not straightforward to us at all and we dont like to do this way. I agreed with other people said to correct it  but it is not straightforward and I am not sure it will bring up more issues with I-90 or not.

 

 

Thanks again for the reply. This really does help a ton.

 

In a way, the way our green card is now is 'correct', and when we do the N-400, we will just do a name change to take one of her 'middle names' as her first name since that's just her preference. I do not think this will cause any issues.

 

We are thinking we will hit up a lawyer that deals with the Vietnamese community, and get his take on it as well.

 

Do you know anyone who has gotten citizenship with their middle name as first? They didn't run into any issue?

[trucphong 24]

1 hour ago, thanhmakeysother said:

Thanks again for the reply. This really does help a ton.

 

In a way, the way our green card is now is 'correct', and when we do the N-400, we will just do a name change to take one of her 'middle names' as her first name since that's just her preference. I do not think this will cause any issues.

 

We are thinking we will hit up a lawyer that deals with the Vietnamese community, and get his take on it as well.

 

Do you know anyone who has gotten citizenship with their middle name as first? They didn't run into any issue?

My sister and my aunt got the same issue but we did two different approaches.

 

1. I renewed my sister green card I-90 form and I realized her name was wrong on her old card. I changed her name on I-90 and need to show birth certificate etc to get approval. It was going back and forth with USCIS. They finally changed her name on green card then she used correct name for N-400. She needed green card to travel and it was expired when she was 12 which she could not apply US citizenship at the time. That was reason I-90 was filed instead N-400.

 

2. My aunt case was different a little. Her driver license has correct name because DMV people must look on the form instead of geeen card and I believed her SSN was wrong so I assumed her Green Card was wrong. She then applied N-400 back then and it was wrong as resulted her name on US passport was wrong. She recently wanted to change her incorrect name to correct name which she has to pay money to do so to match name on all cards.

Edited February 14, 2023 by trucphong