N-565 certificate replacement: translating a name change made abroad

A foreign record that changes a person's name needs a full certified English translation before it can support a replacement certificate filing. Form N-565 is the Application for Replacement Naturalization/Citizenship Document, and when the name on the certificate no longer matches the person, USCIS asks for evidence of the legal name change. If that evidence was issued abroad, the translation has to show the old name and the new name exactly as the record writes them.

USCIS regulations require that any foreign-language document be accompanied by a full English translation that the translator has certified as complete and accurate, together with a statement that the translator is competent to translate from that language into English. A translation company provides that certification independently of the case, which matters here because a name change record is evidence in the applicant's own filing. The same rule applies to every other piece of certified document translation for USCIS in the file.

N-565 name change translation depends on which record proves the change

Different events produce different foreign records, and each record proves a different thing. A court order proves that a judge or other authority decided the name should change. A civil registry correction proves that the registry amended an entry, and it often corrects a spelling or a parent's name along with the person's own. A foreign marriage certificate translation supports a surname taken through marriage where local law or custom provides for that, and a translated divorce decree supports a return to a former name.

The attorney or accredited representative decides which record the filing relies on. The translation company translates whichever record is chosen, in full, and does not decide which of them proves the change.

How the translation shows the old and new names

Name change records usually state both names in a single sentence, for example that the person formerly named in one way will be known in another. The translation keeps that structure. Each name is written in the form the record gives it, with a patronymic, a second surname, or a maternal name left in place and nothing added or dropped. Matching the translated name to the foreign original is what lets an officer see that the old name on the certificate and the new name on the order belong to one person.

A translation of a name change record carries the following:

• The former name and the new name, each exactly as the record writes them.
• The date of the decision or entry and the name of the court or registry that issued it.
• The file or case number, stamps, seals, and signatures, described in brackets such as [signature] and [round seal].
• Any handwritten note or marginal annotation, and the back of the page when it carries text.

Court orders often end with a line recording that the decision is final or that it was entered in the registry. That line is part of the page and is translated with the rest, because it shows the change took legal effect.

Transliteration that matches the passport

When the foreign record is written in Cyrillic, Arabic, Korean, Chinese, or another non-Latin script, each name has to be put into Latin letters, and the spelling should match the one in the applicant's passport. Arabic names are the clearest case. A single name can be written in English in several accepted ways, and the four-part chain of given name, father, grandfather, and family name may appear in a different order or length on different documents. Anyone ordering Arabic translation services should expect the translator to ask for the passport page before settling a spelling.

Once the spelling is chosen, it is used in every document of the file. The reasoning behind that rule is set out in the post on consistent name spelling across a USCIS file. A translation company can follow the passport spelling when the applicant sends a copy of the passport page with the order, and the certification then covers that spelling.

Spanish-language records raise a smaller version of the same problem. A registry correction to a birth entry often changes a single letter in a surname, and the translation has to carry that one letter exactly, along with both surnames in the order the record uses. A Spanish change of name translation keeps the old and new spellings side by side so the correction can be seen at a glance.

A foreign record that also corrects a date of birth

Some registry corrections change the name and the date of birth in one decision. The translation shows each correction as its own entry, with the previous value and the corrected value in the order the record gives them. The dates follow the same convention as every other date in the file, and a date written under another calendar is shown the way the record writes it.

The birth record itself may still show the earlier data. In that case the corrected or amended birth certificate translation belongs in the same set, so the order and the certificate can be read together. Whether USCIS accepts the corrected date is its decision; the translation only has to make the foreign record readable.

Lost or damaged certificates need no translation

Form N-565 also replaces a certificate that was lost, stolen, or damaged. When the original certificate was issued in English and nothing about the name has changed, no foreign-language document is involved, and the question of translation does not come up. A name change filing is different because it adds a foreign record, and that record must be translated before it is filed.

Before ordering, the applicant should gather the complete foreign record, including every page and the back of each page, and a copy of the passport page that shows the current spelling of the name. We prepare each certified change of name translation with its own certification and match the spelling to the passport copy.