What is her name?

[ScottinCrimea]

Okay, here's something I have been wondering about and haven't seen anything on.  My last name is Smith.  When we were married, we placed on the documents tht we would be using the name Cmit, which is the Ukrainian form.  All of her documents including her passport will now list her as Cmit.  So when I bring her to the States to visit and she wants something like a driver's license, bank account, etc, does she write that her name is Smith or Cmit?  She has no documents that show her as a Smith.

[viking]

Seems to me that when she goes to the DMV and all her papers say CMit, then Cmit is.

[ScottinCrimea]

But her visa papers are all in with her name as Smith, so any official US documentation will have that name on it.  When I have sent her money from the US via Western Union I have used the name Smith and she has no problem getting it, so who knows?

[Turboguy]

Well when you are in the USA, just go to your local courthouse and change your last name to Cmit and the problem is solved.

[ConnerVT]

Until she receives her Resident Alien card (Green Card) or her Employment Authorization card (EAD), she will likely not be receiving much of anything official with her name on it.

Her legal name in the USA will be as it is spelled on her visa, which is how USCIS will spell it on all subsequent documents.

It can be changed, of course, but typically you try not to confuse government workers too much.   

[Son of Clyde]

If Cmit is an exact Ukrainian translation of Smith, will it even matter? If my first name is Lawrence in the US and Lorenzo in Italy is it not the same name?

[SANDRO43]

If Cmit is an exact Ukrainian translation of Smith, will it even matter?

Larry, actually that is an approximate transliteration, since the TH sound does not exist in Slavic languages. 

If my first name is Lawrence in the US and Lorenzo in Italy is it not the same name?

Try landing in Italy and writing Lorenzo rather than Lawrence on your disembarkation card, and see the reaction from our border police in these suspicious times .

[jb]

Scott,

Since I don't know the laws in Ukraine about married name changes I can't comment on her passport there, however we solved the name change problem here by hyphenating her last name.  The wife's Russian passport remains unchanged, and all the documents we filed with BCIS show her *last name*-hyphen-*my last name*.  The BCIS accepted all documents without a single question.

You might have to list her last name as "Cmit-Smith" to avoid confusion.

[ScottinCrimea]

Thanks, JB, that's certainly an option, though I have a distaste for hyphenated names.  I'm thinking that if we just explain that Cmit is the Ukrainian translation of Smith, they will have no problem with accepting this.  I know that when I have sent her money using the name Smith, they have accepted this and given her the money.  I imagine that in the States it will be the same  The Visa people don't seem to have any problem with this as I have listed her name as Smith on all of the application documents.

[Jumper]

scott- we ran into big problems over the transliterations.

my name is waggoner.
(we weere already married so i was filing petition for alien relative in warsaw)
in the translation on her documentrs and ukranian internatiional passport the ukranian translation was vaggoner.

however my filings were of course with a W.

The US embassey in warsaw,.. reciognized her as  Mrs waggoner for her intrervie wand she passed said interview, however they woukld not stamp the passport as it was for a  mrs vaggoner.

yes they knew it was a translation.
no they would have none of it, and she had to return to uktrain, get her international passport corrected to "w"
andthewnn retiurbn tro warsaw tp picvk up her already approved visa.

i wish you luvk, ive known people who had no troubles over this.

we were not so lucky, it wasnt a big deal..
but it did cause us some headaches.

[ScottinCrimea]

My wife told me today that her internal passport has her listed as Cmit, but when she gets her international passport, it will show her as Smith.  I wonder if it would have been possible for your wife to have been listed as Waggoner on her international passport but she didn't know to ask.  It sounds like this is the case, since they were willing to make a correction.  When we finish the process, I will post what the results were because I think this would be a good heads up for others.

[Jumper]

scott-
she had asked to have the international  issued with the correct spelling of W originally..
they  just made the mistake..

amusingly enough, when she went back to have it corrected they refused ,and insisted that they were correct !!
 the insisted tha tthe name is german (to them) and as such  SHOULD be a V,,..yoiur american husband just doesnt know any better There is no W in that surname! LOL

after endless debate and me supplying a ton of things including my passport(copy) and our wedding certificate with the W they relented and "corrected it"

 Happy Holidays!

[ScottinCrimea]

Hey AJ,
     Don't you just love trying to convince anyone in government hat they might have made a mistake?  The only solution is to overwhelm them with documentation until they run out of things to ask you for.  Glad it worked out for you.  My name, though very common in the US, is rather strange to them there, expecially since there is no "th" sound for them.  What has helped alot is movies by the actor Will Smith and the movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith".  My wife is extemely happy that my last name wasn't Scott, because that roughly translates in Russian to a mildly derogatory term for livestock.
     Merry Christmas and s novum godum to you and your wife!.

[Turboguy]

Perhaps we should put something on a noticable place that anyone with the last name of Scott should not even try this.

Many years ago I used to write to a Russian Gal named Olga Vagina.  Fortunately it never went anywhere but that one would have raised some eyebrows.