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Hi all,
I appreciate the answers I got to a previous question. Thank you very much for this.
Here is another one.
Both me and my wife have two middle names. Assume that (for privacy reasons) my name is:
First name = John
Middle names = Paul George
Last name = Smith
My Belgian passport states:
Given names = John Paul G.
My L1 visa in this passport states:
Given name = John Paul G.
My I-94 states:
First (Given) Name = John Paul G.
Notice that the passport is correct (although one of the middle names is abbreviated). The L1 visa mentioning "Given name" is ambiguous since it's singular while multiple names are mentioned. Finally, the I-94 is technically incorrect since it considers "John Paul G." to be my "First (Given) Name" while my first name is John and only John.
We had no problem entering the country with the visa. The trouble started at the SSA office requesting a SSN. At first The SSA employee "could not proceed" since the first name I entered in the SS-5 doc did not correspond with the I-94 information he retrieved in the system. However he said "This happens all the time, DHS mixing up first and middle names" and he found a way to proceed by assuming for my SSN application that my first name was "John Paul G.". He recommended though that I "should get it fixed" because I would run into problems later.
Some time later, the exact same thing happened with my wife when we applied for her SSN. This time it was another SSA employee, who initially also did not want to proceed before us having the issue fixed, but after I told him his colleague found a solution earlier, he proceeded nevertheless. So my wife will get an SSN shortly with technically a wrong first name.
I talked with two lawyers, both giving me different answers. One of them told me it's not an issue and I can forget about it, the other told me the Belgian passport trumps all other documentation and I should get my passport fixed. However my passport is correct (although ambiguous).
It's amazing how often I had to fill our names in so many forms, and the government still manages to screw this up.
Does anyone here have an idea how to proceed?
Thank you very much!!
I appreciate the answers I got to a previous question. Thank you very much for this.
Here is another one.
Both me and my wife have two middle names. Assume that (for privacy reasons) my name is:
First name = John
Middle names = Paul George
Last name = Smith
My Belgian passport states:
Given names = John Paul G.
My L1 visa in this passport states:
Given name = John Paul G.
My I-94 states:
First (Given) Name = John Paul G.
Notice that the passport is correct (although one of the middle names is abbreviated). The L1 visa mentioning "Given name" is ambiguous since it's singular while multiple names are mentioned. Finally, the I-94 is technically incorrect since it considers "John Paul G." to be my "First (Given) Name" while my first name is John and only John.
We had no problem entering the country with the visa. The trouble started at the SSA office requesting a SSN. At first The SSA employee "could not proceed" since the first name I entered in the SS-5 doc did not correspond with the I-94 information he retrieved in the system. However he said "This happens all the time, DHS mixing up first and middle names" and he found a way to proceed by assuming for my SSN application that my first name was "John Paul G.". He recommended though that I "should get it fixed" because I would run into problems later.
Some time later, the exact same thing happened with my wife when we applied for her SSN. This time it was another SSA employee, who initially also did not want to proceed before us having the issue fixed, but after I told him his colleague found a solution earlier, he proceeded nevertheless. So my wife will get an SSN shortly with technically a wrong first name.
I talked with two lawyers, both giving me different answers. One of them told me it's not an issue and I can forget about it, the other told me the Belgian passport trumps all other documentation and I should get my passport fixed. However my passport is correct (although ambiguous).
It's amazing how often I had to fill our names in so many forms, and the government still manages to screw this up.
Does anyone here have an idea how to proceed?
Thank you very much!!
