Her name on her passport is the name she’s been going by her whole life. Her Canadian birth certificate has a comma in between the two last names that her parents wrote to indicate the order. In Portugal, where she grew up and is also a citizen, the government interpreted that comma correctly and registered her with the intended name order. After having returned to Canada recently, she found out that Canada does not recognize the comma in surnames and therefore her name is “flipped” in Canada.
Since the process to amend a name on a birth certificate is so complicated, we decided to change it via the marriage certificate (in NY you only need to show your passport) which constitutes as a legal name change.
So now, the marriage certificate matches the passport, but those two documents don’t match the BC.
Our goal is to use the time while form I-130 is pending, to amend the name on the BC in time for the interview.
I understand this is kind of hard to follow, we’ve been having a real hard time dealing with it. I appreciate anyone reading and giving their input.