A BOOK ON U.S. APPLICABLE LAW
Deacon San Nguyen
CHANGING NAMES AND AGES
Name Change
When being naturalized, a great number of Vietnamese people requested to change their Vietnamese names into English ones, but just first names only. It is rare when a man changes both his first and last name. The reasons of name change are depended to characters of each person or to the needs of having jobs.
Below are some practical reasons that make Vietnamese people change their names:
There are many Vietnamese words that make Americans find it difficult to pronounce. For example, a man’s first name is NGO (corn), but Americans can only pronounce: NO! A first name CƯ (live) can be pronounced as CU (penis). With some other words, Americans can pronounce correctly, such as AN. However, they may confuse with a female’s name, Ms. An instead of Mr. An, because AN can be pronounced as ANN.
A number of Vietnamese students change their names after graduation from school with the purpose that is to help American people find it easy to call them. Others want to cause an attention on the examiners with their American names. Usually, it is easy to change names when being interviewed for naturalization organized by INS. Be aware that: only those who are naturalizing find it easy to change names. Otherwise, all people who want to change names just because they like it, will find it rather expensive. About 9/10 cases, lawyers have to process several complex documents before the request to change names can be completed.
Therefore, whoever wants to change name when being naturalized must think of it over and over again. If not, they will find it difficult to take their original names back. INS has no power to switch back and forth the names. For many years, during the time I have had duties to help people to sworn in at Federal Court until now, I experience that 6/10 Vietnamese-Americans, who already changed names, want to switch back to their old names.
- A man changed his name to Bob Bui. When he works, his colleagues call him “Bob Bui” alright. However, when Vietnamese people call him as “Bob Bui”, they laugh madly. Because the words “Bob Bui”, as being used in some Vietnamese country side, carries a very bad meaning: squeezing a penis. Similarly, the words “Bob Vu” also has a bad meaning: squeezing a breast. That is why who have names as “Bob Bui” or “Bob Vu” need to take back the old names so that they will not being mocked by their country men.
When I was still in Vietnam, I heard a joke like this: A grand child was practicing an English sentence: “Did I sing? Did I sing?”. His grand mother who just walked in from her back yard, hearing that sentence, yelled at him: “Goddamn it! Why did you say such nonsense thing? I will tell your dad and ask him to spank you hard!” The English sentence had the same pronunciation with a Vietnamese sentence: Whose butt is nice? - After the Court allows a man to change a name, that person has to visit Social Security Office, DMV, Bank, Insurance Company, School… requesting to change everything. Because the Law forbids people to use the copy of Certificate of Naturalization, that person has to show the original copy everywhere he goes so that the person who proceed the paperwork will approve his request. It will take a lot of time and much energy. Especially the distance between government offices is rather long. Some men feel crazy about the process of name change. They feel very regretful about that. Particularly anyone who had some college degrees issued from the country he was born, confront a closed door that will never open: Nobody could correct a name on a diploma.
Thus, I recommend that only the young ones who are still at school or just graduates from school may change names in order to be comfortable when seeking jobs or to have good relationship at work.
Age Adjusting
The reasons why people needed to adjust their ages are as followed:
- After arriving in refugee camps, many newcomers did not understand about the social benefits they would get when they got old, so they did wrong things. They were afraid that if they told the future employers that they were old, nobody could hire them. Therefore, they reduce their ages.
- Many people did not understand English. They needed translators to translate for them. Some translators did not hear correctly and typed DOB of newcomers incorrectly. Therefore, several funny things happened.
Some young men become old and vice versa. There were some I-94 forms showing that the children were older than their fathers! - After being settled in refugee camps, many people were still had some kinds of mental breakdown. They missed their families, relatives, children or friends. They did not believe that they already escaped from Communist jails. So, when an interviewer asked them about their DOB, they just said whatever dates they had in mind.
DOB.
Many typos on I-94. Clerks might type wrong.
Besides, there were several personal reasons that made people need to change their ages.
Men who want to adjust their ages must show INS all correct proof such as the original birth certificates or the replacement of the birth certificates with notary public issued from Vietnam before ages could be corrected on I- 94 form, Green Cards, or Certificate of Naturalization.
After that, persons with correct ages must visit Social Services Agency to have their ages fixed so that they might received SI (Social Income) for people who already worked in USA, or SSI (Supplement Social Income) for people who did not work in USA but over 65 years old.
Generally speaking, INS would accept the applications for correcting ages for permanent citizens of US citizens, with the condition that they had the original birth certificates or the replacement of birth certificates. That was why in recent years, after a relationships between USA and Vietnam were legally proceeded, the number of Vietnamese people filling out application for changing ages increased because they might receive original birth certificates from Vietnam a lot easier than before. However, they would confront some problems when they visited Social Services agency. Social workers would gave them a lot of difficult questions such as: “This kind of paper work is not legal”, “Why is your birth certificate written in Vietnamese instead of French language at the time French still governed Vietnam?”, and “why didn’t you correct your ages right at the time you arrived in the USA?”…
The reasons that made Social Services Agency did not trust people who wanted to change ages because Social Workers usually believed that people liked to have SI or SSI sooner than they deserved. The officials also doubted about the value of birth certificates issued from Vietnam due to the corrupted system of Vietnam. People could have fake paperwork through bribed money very easily. While INS did not loose anything when accepting age corrections, Social Services had to pay more for seniors who got to 65 year old.
That was why Social Services tried to find some reasons to reduce the number of people who applied for SSI.
Practically, in case people who had legal birth certificates wanted to correct their ages, they might surpass the problems set up by Social Services Agency by giving out accurate answers as follow:
Q: Why didn’t you correct your ages on I-94 at the time you discovered the mistake on INS paperwork?
A: Immediately after finding out the mistake, we already visited INS office requesting them to correct our ages but denied. At that time, we did not have the original birth certificates. We already explained that when we fled our country to seek for Freedom, we did not have enough time to take with us all paperwork. When we got here, INS told us that whenever we had original certificates sent from Vietnam, they would adjust for us.
Q: Why isn’t your age corrected?
A: When we just arrived at refugee camps, we did not understand English. We need some translators to help. They might did it wrong.
Q: Why didn’t you request to adjust your age right at the time you first visited Social Services Agency?
A: We surely did. We already asked the official who processed our paperwork to fix our DOB, but the official refused. He said that he only processed our paperwork based on I-94 or anything issued by INS. Therefore, we had to wait for INS approval before coming to you.
Q: Why do you wait until now to request for adjusting your ages?
A: Years ago, there was no relationships between USA and Vietnam. We could not ask our relatives in Vietnam to send to us any legal paper. Now, after USA and Vietnam have international relations, we could ask our relatives doing this for us.
Remember: SSI is the benefit that all people who come to retired ages deserved to receive. If your real ages are higher than the ages on paperwork, you should fix it as soon as possible. In case your application is denied, you still have 60 days to appeal. You may ask a lawyer to help you with this matter so that the result will come fast.
