English and Chinese Names

[cherieseah 0]

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are recently legally married and we've started filling out the forms for the IR-1/CR-1 Spousal Visa.

He's the US citizen and I'm Chinese Singaporean. I've got a question regarding filling out my name on the form under "Last Name, First Name, and Middle Name".

My full name is Seah Wan Hoon Cherie, with Seah being my last name (surname/family name), Wan Hoon my Chinese Pin yin name, and Cherie my first (English) name. In all official documents, I am known as Seah Wan Hoon Cherie, as is the format here in Singapore.

I'm not sure how to put this in the forms as I'm worried if I put my Wan Hoon under "Middle Name", they might document my name as Seah Cherie Wan Hoon in future documents, which is inaccurate.

Should I fill in as:

Last Name: Seah First Name: Wan Hoon Cherie

or

Last Name: Seah First Name: Cherie Middle Name: Wan Hoon

Any advice or help on this would be dearly appreciated!

Cheers!

[Ryan H 3,812]

I'm not sure how to put this in the forms as I'm worried if I put my Wan Hoon under "Middle Name", they might document my name as Seah Cherie Wan Hoon in future documents, which is inaccurate.

If you were to fill in the form like this; First name Cherie, middle name Wan Hoon, and last name Seah; it would be documented like this: Cherie Wan Hoon Seah. Some official documentation does display names using this format, last name, first name, middle name (driver licenses is some states {including WA} are an example of this); however, this would not change the true order of one's name. People who are familiar with how names are displayed on certain documentation will likely know the correct order of the name when they see it.

Should I fill in as:

Last Name: Seah First Name: Wan Hoon Cherie

or

Last Name: Seah First Name: Cherie Middle Name: Wan Hoon

What's the proper order? Does Cherie come first or does Wan Hoon come first?

[cherieseah 0]

If you were to fill in the form like this; First name Cherie, middle name Wan Hoon, and last name Seah; it would be documented like this: Cherie Wan Hoon Seah. Some official documentation does display names using this format, last name, first name, middle name (driver licenses is some states {including WA} are an example of this); however, this would not change the true order of one's name. People who are familiar with how names are displayed on certain documentation will likely know the correct order of the name when they see it.

What's the proper order? Does Cherie come first or does Wan Hoon come first?

Thanks for the reply!

In my passport and birth certificate, Wan Hoon comes first, although Cherie is my first name and Wan Hoon is the Chinese name.

It's exactly what I'm afraid of if I'm documented as Cherie Wan Hoon Seah, I've had issues in countries like Australia where they argue my documents are not accurate because the name format reflected is not the same.

In documents from Singapore, it doesn't state "first name" "last name" or "chinese name", it's just "Name", if you know what I'm saying so it's hard for people who don't understand the formatting to understand which of my names are first/last/chinese.

Is there any way to indicate that Wan Hoon is my Chinese name if I write it under "middle name"?

I know all this sounds weird and maybe unnecessarily complicated. Just don't wanna risk screwing anything up.

[Ryan H 3,812]

Is there any way to indicate that Wan Hoon is my Chinese name if I write it under "middle name"?

US documentation that you will ultimately receive will make no distinction or indication that Wan Hoon is your Chinese name. So if you were to indicate Wan Hoon as your Chinese name if you write it in the middle name field, it won't mean anything to personnel that will see the document.

I know all this sounds weird and maybe unnecessarily complicated. Just don't wanna risk screwing anything up.

Hopefully others who have been through this situation or are very familiar with this situation chime in with what is the appropriate way to fill the forms out. The only suggestion I have is to ask USCIS and/or the Embassy but they may not have a good answer for you.

[cherieseah 0]

Hey Ryan,

I certainly wonder if anyone with both Christian and Chinese names have faced the same problem, or whether it's not a problem at all.

I've decided, to ease my woes, to use my married name and put my maiden name under "other names", as some have suggested. That's the name I want on my green card anyway - turns out it costs USD450 just to make a name change which is completely ridiculous.

This just means adding a "Mrs XXX XXX" to my passport which will be included under my maiden name, so I get to keep both!

Hopefully this IS a solution and doesn't create future problems.