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Hi everyone,
I'm currently filling out an i130 for my German spouse and am running into some trouble determining which spelling of her last name should go on the petition. Muller in Germany is written as 'Müller' with the umlaut(two dots) and there isn't any guideline or rule as to how this should translate into English, not from the government at least. Normally I would just use 'Muller', but she has been in the US 3 times, the first time on a J visa followed twice with ESTA and the spelling of her name on both the J visa and her ESTAs is 'Mueller'. The reason for this is not at all official. The application for the J visa was filed and accepted this way on the advice of whoever was running her exchange program at the time and was also accepted that way by whichever agency issued the visa.
The main problem with this is that our marriage certificate shows 'Muller', not 'Mueller' and I don't know if it's going to cause problems down the line if I use 'Muller' on her i-130. The only name on her official documentation including her German passport and government issued ID is 'Müller', there is no anglicized form of the spelling at all. So it's left to her or us to decide, and it seems that 'Muller' would make the most sense as it most closely matches her passport. However if we look up her i94, we have to enter 'Mueller' in order to get any results as that is what the government has on file.
If anyone has had this experience of having to change the spelling of their names, or if you know anyone who has had to deal with a similar predicament, please share your thoughts.
Thank you
I'm currently filling out an i130 for my German spouse and am running into some trouble determining which spelling of her last name should go on the petition. Muller in Germany is written as 'Müller' with the umlaut(two dots) and there isn't any guideline or rule as to how this should translate into English, not from the government at least. Normally I would just use 'Muller', but she has been in the US 3 times, the first time on a J visa followed twice with ESTA and the spelling of her name on both the J visa and her ESTAs is 'Mueller'. The reason for this is not at all official. The application for the J visa was filed and accepted this way on the advice of whoever was running her exchange program at the time and was also accepted that way by whichever agency issued the visa.
The main problem with this is that our marriage certificate shows 'Muller', not 'Mueller' and I don't know if it's going to cause problems down the line if I use 'Muller' on her i-130. The only name on her official documentation including her German passport and government issued ID is 'Müller', there is no anglicized form of the spelling at all. So it's left to her or us to decide, and it seems that 'Muller' would make the most sense as it most closely matches her passport. However if we look up her i94, we have to enter 'Mueller' in order to get any results as that is what the government has on file.
If anyone has had this experience of having to change the spelling of their names, or if you know anyone who has had to deal with a similar predicament, please share your thoughts.
Thank you
