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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

MATTER OF P-V-S-

APPEAL OF TEXAS SERVICE CENTER DECISION

Non-Precedent Decision of the Administrative Appeals Office

DATE: SEPT. 30, 2016

APPLICATION: FORM N-565, APPLICATION FOR REPLACEMENT NATURALIZATION/CITIZENSHIP DOCUMENT

The Applicant, a native of the Philippines and a naturalized citizen of the United States, seeks a replacement Certificate of Naturalization. See 8 C.F.R. § 338.5. A U.S. citizen may request a new Certificate if the citizen can show that his or her Certificate ofNaturalization was issued with incorrect information because of a clerical error by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), or it does not conform to the facts on the application for naturalization.

The Director, Texas Service Center, denied the application. The Director concluded that the Applicant's name as shown on her later-issued Certificate of Naturalization,

is the same as that which appears on her Form N-400, Application for Naturalization.

The matter is now before us on appeal. On appeal, the Applicant states that at the time of her marriage, she changed her middle name to the surname of her maiden name, and that her correct name is her name as it appeared on her Form I-551, Permanent Resident Card. The Applicant contends her name should therefore be on her Certificate of Naturalization. In support of this statement, the Applicant submits a copy of her marriage certificate.'

Upon de novo review, we will sustain the appeal.

I. LAW

The Applicant is seeking replacement of Certificate of Naturalization to reflect a correction of her middle name. The regulations at 8 C.F.R. § 338.5 regarding the execution and issuance of Certificates of Naturalization include provisions for the correction of certificates, and provide, in part, that:

(a) Application. Whenever a Certificate of Naturalization has been delivered which does not conform to the facts shown on the application for naturalization, or a clerical error was made in preparing the certificate, an application for issuance of a corrected certificate may be filed, without fee, in accordance with the form instructions.

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Matter of P- V-S-

II. PROCEDURAL HISTORY AND EVIDENCE OF RECORD

The Applicant was born in the Philippines in with the surname and the middle name The Applicant married in the Philippines in 1971. At the time of her marriage, she changed her middle name from to and adopted the surname of her spouse. The Applicant was granted lawful permanent resident status in the Uni'ted States in 2008. Her middle name appears as on her 2007 passport, all documentation associated with her Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, filed in 2008, and on her social security card. Other documentation, including the Applicant's Form I-551, her 2014 New York State Identification Card, and medical insurance cards, have the initial in place of her middle name.

The Applicant filed Form N-400 in September 2013. On the Form N-400, the Applicant indicated that her middle name was ' and further indicated that she did not want to legally change her name. The Applicant was interviewed in conjunction with her application for naturalization in January 2014. The interviewing officer made a notation to change her middle name from to The officer's notation of the Applicant's middle name as is in error, as the spelling of the actual middle name on the Applicant's birth certificate is The interviewing officer made five additional changes to the Form N-400, and the Applicant signed it, acknowledging the six corrections to the form.

The record includes a copy of Form N-649, Certificate Preparation Sheet, showing the Applicant's middle name as · There is no indication on the Form N-649 that the Applicant reviewed, acknowledged, or signed this form.

The · Applicant was issued her Certificate of Naturalization on February 2, 2014, with her middle name printed as This certificate was later re-issued with the middle name corrected as

On February 14, 2014, the Applicant filed Form N-565 , Application for Replacement Naturalization/Citizenship Document, requesting that her name of her Certificate of Naturalization be corrected. The Director denied the application in June 2015.

On appeal, the Applicant submits a copy of her marriage certificate, and contends that at the time of her naturalization interview, the name she was using was the same name as shown on her permanent resident card, and therefore she didn't need to bring additional documentation regarding her name.

We have reviewed all the evidence in the record of proceeding.

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Matter of P- V-S-

III. ANALYSIS

The issue in this case is whether the Applicant's Certificate of Naturalization contains incorrect information regarding the Applicant's name which resulted from clerical error, and whether her name conforms to the facts on the naturalization application. Upon review of the entire record, we find that name listed on the Applicant's Certificate of Naturalization does not conform with her legal name at the time of her naturalization process, and that there was an error by USC IS in issuance of the certificate with an incorrect middle name for the Applicant. Therefore we will sustain the appeal.

As discussed above, the Applicant was married in the Philippines in 1971, and at the time of her marriage, she legally changed her middle name from to and adopted the surname of her spouse. The record indicates that at the time of the Applicant's adjustment to lawful permanent resident status, her legal name included the middle name Her legal name appears on her passport issued by the Government of the Philippines. In addition, the Applicant's Form I-551, Resident Alien Card, represents her middle name with the initial

Thus, the record establishes that at the time the Applicant filed her Form N-400, her legal middle name was On the Form N-400, Part 1, Section A, the Applicant indicated that her full middle name was In Part 1, Section D, Question 1, of the form, the Applicant indicated that she did not want to legally change her name.

The Applicant was interviewed for her naturalization in January 2014. Although the Applicant's Form I-551 indicated that her middle name began with the letter and the Applicant clearly indicated that she did not want to legally change her name, -the interviewing officer made a notation in Part 1, Section A, changing her middle name to However, was not the Applicant's legal middle name at the time, as indicated by her passport and Form I-551. Further, ' was not the correct spelling of her middle name or her maiden name; the correct spelling is

The record shows that the Certificate of Naturalization for the Applicant initially contained the misspelled middle name The certificate was subsequently corrected to show her middle name as However, that was still not the Applicant's legal name at the time of her naturalization.

In addition, although the information on the Applicant's Certificate ofNaturalization conforms to the information on the Form N-649, there is no indication that the Applicant was provided an opportunity to review, acknowledge, or attestto the information on that form. The Form N-649 in record is not signed by the Applicant.

Based on the above, we conclude that the Applicant's Certificate of Naturalization contains incorrect information which resulted from USCIS clerical error. Accordingly, the Applicant is entitled to a replacement certificate reflecting her middle name as '

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Matter of P-V-S-

IV. CONCLUSION

The burden of proof in these proceedings rests with the Applicant, and a replacement Certificate of Naturalization may be issued only if it "does not conform to the facts shown on the application for naturalization, or a clerical error was made in preparing the certificate .... " See 8 C.F.R. § 338.5(a), supra. As the Applicant has met this burden, the Applicant has established eligibility for issuance of a new Certificate of Naturalization.

ORDER: The appeal is sustained.

Cite as Matter ofP-V-S-, ID# 7951 (AAO Sept. 30, 2016)

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