Seaside, CA asked in Immigration Law for California

Q: I am a US citizen and immigrated as a child in the 90s. My Colombian documents have 2 last names and my US docs have 1.

In Latin America, people generally have two last names in legal documents. One from the mother and one from the father. When coming to the US as a child, where people have one last name, my second last name 'dropped' and all my US documents have only the first last name. I was a kid and certainly wasn't part of any decision or discussion regarding name changes at the time. Growing up in the states I never questioned whether I should change my name since all my US documents followed the American naming convention and I had no dealings with Colombia.

I am now petitioning an alien relative (my father, who stayed in Colombia when I moved) and USCIS is asking me for legal proof of a name change.

Is this something I should have done? To my knowledge it never happened. How can I respond to USCIS?

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1 Lawyer Answer
Adan Vega
Adan Vega
Answered
  • Immigration Law Lawyer
  • Houston, TX

A: You need to track your legal name from the issuance of your birth certificate to the time that you obtained your naturalization certificate. You may have changed your name at the time of naturalization by excluding one of your surnames. That is the evidence that you can present to USCIS.

Good luck to you.

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