Name issues in applying for American visa

screwitlah
Sat, 05 Apr 2008 03:39:04 +0000

i’m an international. My FULL legal name contains my family name AND both a Chinese name and an English name (say, Patrick) - and it’s not separated into Western first, middle or last names, since I’m in Asia. It goes in this order on my Passport:

A B C

where
A = my family name
B = Chinese name
C = English name.

Both B and C are given names. However, my visa application asks for my full Passport name in this order: family/last name, given/first name, middle name. How should I arrange my name to fit those 3 blanks? Of course, A, my family name, should go to the family name. The problem arises when it comes to my other two names:

Some people say C (english name) should be my first name and B (chinese name) my middle name. Some say use BOTH B and C together, in that order, as given name, leaving the middle name blank. I did the first format for my university application, and intend to stick with it for my visa application. Will I encounter any problems at the American embassy in my country?

In case anyone’s confused, I’ll use a fictitious example here:

my full legal passport name: Xu Jiao Patrick (family name, Chinese name, English name)
for my university app and Visa app, I used: Xu Patrick Jiao (family name, first name, middle name)

Thanks!