Immigration Site

Recently, when my wife renewed her South Korean Passport, the spelling of her given name(s) was changed from Boo Ja to Booja. Anyone know the process and what documentation is needed to update her Green Card with the new spelling? Do we need any formal documentation from the Korean goverment to explain why the spelling was changed? We assume the spellling was changed to more accurately show just a first name. Until now, the old spelling Boo Ja was treated as a first name middle name. Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

v/r
Bob P.

Was this an official name change? Or the passport authorities simply decided to join the two names into one? What is on her birth certificate, Boo Ja or Booja? USCIS considers the birth certificate to be the "gold" standard, if there wasnt a official name change done (by marriage or court order).

Remember that not all countries use latin alphabets . Passport issuing authorities often change the English spelling at their discretion. My name (native alphabet is cyrrilic) has been spelled three different ways in my three consecutive passports. I was never asked to changed the spelling in my immigration documents because of that. I always preferred to keep my name spelled the way that American Embassy chose to spell it on all my American non-immigrant visas before I immigrated. They never followed the spelling in my passport, which tended to follow French transliteration rules with variations, but rather followed English transliteration.

Now joining the two names together may be another matter, why not consult the USCIS customer service.

Now joining the two names together may be another matter, why not consult the USCIS customer service. Very bad idea.