Name spelling issue

[apond 37]

Not sure if this is the right forum but here goes. 
 

filed my wife’s i130 in August while living apart.
 

Her name is Jennifer on it is spelled as such On her passport and drivers lic ( Canada). We just got her long form BC from Nova Scotia for use in filing her Adjustment of Status ( hard left turn from original plan but here we are)… anyways, so on her birth certificate her first name is spelled Jenifer. One N. Given she hasn’t seen this since she was a teenager( so nearly 30 years ago) we had no idea there was a discrepancy between her BC and her passport and ID. 

 

so now we are filing out the papers for her aos and of course this discrepancy is the worry in our minds. When filing the new papers we are thinking we will of course spell it as written on her BC and hope the i130 difference isn’t a big deal… should we include a note on why there’s a discrepancy?

[Chancy 6,241]

33 minutes ago, apond said:

so now we are filing out the papers for her aos and of course this discrepancy is the worry in our minds. When filing the new papers we are thinking we will of course spell it as written on her BC and hope the i130 difference isn’t a big deal… should we include a note on why there’s a discrepancy?

 

It seems you did not submit the required legal name change document for your wife with the I-130 petition.  Might as well submit that now with the I-485 package.  The name that your wife puts on her I-485 will be the name on her EAD/AP and green card, and will be her legal name in the US.  So she should decide carefully which name she wants to keep.  Then she should list the other(s) under the section "Other Names You Have Used Since Birth".  Whether she uses the name on her passport or the one on her BC as her current legal name on the I-485, she should correct the name discrepancy on her government-issued documents anyway.  How long does she have left on her I-94?  Does she have time to get a corrected BC or passport before submitting the I-485?

 

[apond 37]

6 minutes ago, Chancy said:

 

It seems you did not submit the required legal name change document for your wife with the I-130 petition.  Might as well submit that now with the I-485 package.  The name that your wife puts on her I-485 will be the name on her EAD/AP and green card, and will be her legal name in the US.  So she should decide carefully which name she wants to keep.  Then she should list the other(s) under the section "Other Names You Have Used Since Birth".  Whether she uses the name on her passport or the one on her BC as her current legal name on the I-485, she should correct the name discrepancy on her government-issued documents anyway.  How long does she have left on her I-94?  Does she have time to get a corrected BC or passport before submitting the I-485?

 

She did not change her name with the marriage. I did. This is not that. This is her passport spells her name with two N  yet her birth cert it has one N. This is something we were unaware of until her BC arrived from canada last week. She doesn’t have an i94 when I look it up as she came across a land border. 
 

Edited February 1, 2023 by apond

[Chancy 6,241]

Just now, apond said:

She did not change her name with the marriage. I did. This is not that. This is her passport spells her name with two N  yet her birth cert it has one N. She doesn’t have an i94 when I look it up as she came across a land border.

 

A legal name change document is required if the name on the BC is different from the name on the passport or any other government-issued ID.  Which is the case with your wife's name, even if she did not change to a new married name.  Check page 8 of the I-130 instructions here -- https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-130instr.pdf

 

She will need an I-94.  It's a requirement for the I-485.

 

[apond 37]

3 minutes ago, Chancy said:

 

A legal name change document is required if the name on the BC is different from the name on the passport or any other government-issued ID.  Which is the case with your wife's name, even if she did not change to a new married name.  Check page 8 of the I-130 instructions here -- https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-130instr.pdf

 

She will need an I-94.  It's a requirement for the I-485.

 

How does one get a i94 when they were not issued it at a land border?

[Chancy 6,241]

7 minutes ago, apond said:

How does one get a i94 when they were not issued it at a land border?

 

Does she have a CBP entry stamp on her passport?  That could be enough to meet the requirement, in lieu of an i-94.

 

[apond 37]

1 minute ago, Chancy said:

 

Does she have a CBP entry stamp on her passport?  That could be enough to meet the requirement, in lieu of an i-94.

 

Nope they don’t typically do that at Canadian/US landborders. At least never the two we’ve used. I have no stamps she has no stamps except the one from last year when she flew in. 

Her last i94 was from her visit in August 2021. Her travel record shows her crossing the land boarder for this trip and I did print that too.  

[Chancy 6,241]

1 minute ago, apond said:

Her travel record shows her crossing the land boarder for this trip and I did print that too.

 

Travel record from here?  https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/recent-search

 

If it's a record from the I-94 site, that's fine.  She needs official documentation that she went through CBP inspection for her current entry.  Without that, she would not be eligible to adjust status.

 

[apond 37]

Just now, Chancy said:

 

Travel record from here?  https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/recent-search

 

If it's a record from the I-94 site, that's fine.  She needs official documentation that she went through CBP inspection for her current entry.  Without that, she would not be eligible to adjust status.

 

Yes from the official site. 

[throwitaway 190]

31 minutes ago, apond said:

She did not change her name with the marriage. I did. This is not that. This is her passport spells her name with two N  yet her birth cert it has one N. This is something we were unaware of until her BC arrived from canada last week. She doesn’t have an i94 when I look it up as she came across a land border. 
 

You should correct the BC.

 

From NS Vital Stats:  “Occasionally birth records need to be amended, when an error has been made or for another reason, such as adding the father’s name.  If you would like to correct an error or omission that was made in the original Registration of Birth, contact the Nova Scotia Vital Statistics Office by calling (902) 424-4381 or by sending an e-mail to vstat@gov.ns.ca.  In some cases, a change or correction to a person’s name does not require a legal change of name under the Change of Name Act.  An agent of Vital Statistics will evaluate your request to find out whether your name can be corrected through the amendment process of the Vital Statistics Act.”

[Chancy 6,241]

5 minutes ago, apond said:

Yes from the official site. 

 

That's good.  A record from the I-94 site with her passport number and date of entry is enough evidence that she was properly inspected and admitted.

 

Assuming she was given the default 6 months duration of stay, she might have enough time to request BC correction before she goes out of status.  From my quick google search, it seems most Canadian provinces have procedures for requesting BC correction from abroad.

 

[apond 37]

26 minutes ago, throwitaway said:

You should correct the BC.

 

From NS Vital Stats:  “Occasionally birth records need to be amended, when an error has been made or for another reason, such as adding the father’s name.  If you would like to correct an error or omission that was made in the original Registration of Birth, contact the Nova Scotia Vital Statistics Office by calling (902) 424-4381 or by sending an e-mail to vstat@gov.ns.ca.  In some cases, a change or correction to a person’s name does not require a legal change of name under the Change of Name Act.  An agent of Vital Statistics will evaluate your request to find out whether your name can be corrected through the amendment process of the Vital Statistics Act.”

 

8 minutes ago, Chancy said:

 

That's good.  A record from the I-94 site with her passport number and date of entry is enough evidence that she was properly inspected and admitted.

 

Assuming she was given the default 6 months duration of stay, she might have enough time to request BC correction before she goes out of status.  From my quick google search, it seems most Canadian provinces have procedures for requesting BC correction from abroad.

 

She will try but I feel this is less a BC issue than the fact they issued her a passport with her name spelled differently than her BC.  Which is just odd to me as here I had to submit my BC to get my US passport. We will work on figuring this out. 

Edited February 1, 2023 by apond

[Chancy 6,241]

4 minutes ago, apond said:

She will try but I feel this is less a BC issue than the fact they issued her a passport with her name spelled differently than her BC. 

 

As far as her US immigration is concerned, it would be easiest to correct her BC instead of her passport.  She must submit a copy of the bio page of her passport that ties in with her I-94 entry/exit record that you attached above.  If she submits her original (uncorrected) BC along with that, the name discrepancy will need to be explained with a legal name change document.

 

[Mike E 11,739]

5 minutes ago, apond said:

 

She will try but I feel this is less a BC issue than the fact they issued her a passport with her name spelled differently than her BC.  Which is just odd to me as here I had to submit my BC to get my US passport. We will work on figuring this out. 

When she got her first passport, did she use a short form credit card sized BC and does it say Jennifer or Jenifer?

 

For half her life, my mum (born in SK)  spelled her first name differently from her BC name and didn’t even realize it until her late 30s when I pointed it out to her from her short form BC. 
 

Not sure about her first Canadian passport but her last passport used her BC name.  

[apond 37]

9 minutes ago, Mike E said:

When she got her first passport, did she use a short form credit card sized BC and does it say Jennifer or Jenifer?

 

For half her life, my mum (born in SK)  spelled her first name differently from her BC name and didn’t even realize it until her late 30s when I pointed it out to her from her short form BC. 
 

Not sure about her first Canadian passport but her last passport used her BC name.  

She believes her small one. Which we just located and it too has one N. Interesting to have a passport differ from BC spelling.