Legal Question in Immigration Law in New York

Name issue with GC and Driver License

Say my official name in my home country is ''Home_First_NM Home_Last_NM''

I got my Driver License while I was in school in the U.S. under F1 status in CA and I adopted an English First name called US_First_NM and put my Home_First_NM as a middle name. So it is ''US_First_NM Home_First_NM Home_Last_NM'' that is appeared on my DL and basically everything derives from it, SSN, school records, banks, etc...

I got my GC at a later time. Since my passport is Home_First_NM Home_Last_NM, so is my GC. I haven't had any problem until recently when I moved to a different state (NY) when I tried to get a new driver's license. They said my GC and DL names are different.

My question is can I add an alias name (or aka) on GC? The idea is to keep both names equivilant so that I can get my driver license. I've been using my US First name for a long time now and I'd like to keep that since a lot of legal papers were under this name. I learned that on my passport I can add a note of an alias officially so that's something I'm thinking to do. I'm not sure if GC will accept an alias name. Can I say I've been using my U.S. name for long time (driver license) so that they don't require my passport to be changed? What's your opinion?

Thanks.


Asked on 6/29/07, 11:50 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Carolyn Goldfarb Carolyn S. Goldfarb, Esq.

Re: Name issue with GC and Driver License

You won't be able to add an alias to your green card or change your name on your green card unless you first go to court to get a legal name change. If and when you apply for citizenship, you may obtain a free legal name change.

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Answered on 6/29/07, 11:59 am


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