Pros/Cons of Dual Names

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
1
Hello,

I've looked around this forum and generally searched for any examples, but I haven't found anything that gave any 'consequences' of being a dual citizen and having two different names on your passport.

Are there any practical reasons, why I would want both names on both passports to match? The situation:

I have dual US/PL citizenship. I've spent most of my life in the US as let's say, John Andrew Kowalski. My diploma, banking, taxes, everything official is in this name.

In Poland (birth certificate, marriage certificate, and passport) I am known as Januz Andrzej Kowalski.

If I were to move abroad, specifically to CH, as I understand, there is nothing that would legally stand in the way of me having two different names. In-fact my PL citizenship could be advantageous to gain residency/a job since I am an EU national. Further, as long as I do what I'm supposed to do (i.e. file taxes) neither country really cares what I am called 'over there'.

Yes, I know about traveling with two passports, and no, I'm not interested in trying to pull a fast one and not report earnings for taxes by pretending to be two different people.

How about things like background checks when applying for jobs, or rental agreements? Any potential issues here, or would the two names be generally easy to explain? Is banking more complicated? I'm thinking about the situation where I want to transfer funds to myself from a US account with my US name to a potential CH account with my Polish name. I've looked around the forum and found Axman's saga - I really hope the government sorted this for you, they really messed up!

https://www.englishforum.ch/permits-...thorities.html

So I can see a situation where there may be some resistance if things are not to the letter or there is a discrepancy.

I supposed if things don't work out, like the apparent lack of mayonnaise/cookie dough, or exorbitant cost of curtains is just too much , I don't think there would be a problem with the US government in dealing with my other name since every official government document I have ever come across had a field for any other aliases. Same goes for employment checks.

Having said that, has anyone who went abroad and returned had issues with different names used abroad after returning home? Thanks in advance!

P.

2

Just forget about the US name basically, only use the Polish one. Only possible problem might be with opening a bank account here since you have to declare any US connections due to the US’s FATCA law and bank might wonder why it’s different from the Polish one.

3
Just curiosity, but how can it be that your US name is different from your Polish name?

4
It’s fairly common for names in the US to be anglicized. Not as common as seventy years ago, but common enough. Several members of my family have done - only family know my father’s real name, it’s just the way.

And most the older (first and second generation US) of my Polish family have changed their names.

5
Not directly related to this, but upon naturalization in France you can choose a French name instead of the name you have; these things are not as uncommon as one thinks.

I have a diacritic in my name: only my country of origin (and its documents) reference it, no documents from any other country I've lived in, including Switzerland. I know, it's not quite the same, but my name looks different (and would be pronounced differently) on documents from different countries.

6
Why not change your Polish name? Then your Polish documents will align with the name you use.

7

That's not so easy, you'd have to do it through court in Poland then based on this change all documents (not sure about birth certificates) etc. This sound like a real pain in the butt tbh.

8
So how it works in the US is that when you apply for a green card you use your native name. I was 'Januz Andrzej Kowalski' when I got my green card. When (if) you are granted citizenship, you have a 'free' chance to change your name. As many folks have mentioned, it is pretty common to Anglicanize.

It's free at this point in the sense that your US passport and Social Security card will be updated without cost... and hassle.

If you decide to change your name later, you have to go before a judge, I'm not sure if you still have to make a notification in a newspaper (yes really, even quite recently I heard you had to do this, not back when we were rolling in wagons and steam engines). In short, it's an effort, and of course not free.

My wife did the green card -> citizen procedure not too long ago and the option to change name was still presented. Side note - The officer gave her crap for having (and keeping) the name of an old lady (Betty). But then when he asked her what country she will now cheer on at the Olympics she told him that she didn't watch sports (that's my girl ).

I've begun looking into changing my name in Poland and as Jaceq said

I think... that it may... not be that bad to do this. It seems that I could square this away at the consulate in the US with an application and explanation of why I want to do this. One of the reasons given on the application is "taking on and English Name" another "Taking name that you are known by in your community".

I'm still not clear if I would have to contact the ministry of civil unions (sounds waaay too 1984) and some other ministry to update my marriage and birth certificates, soooo if I don't have too... I might rather not.

LiquidPaper, do you have a translated version of say your birth/marriage certificates for the other countries, or have you not had to present the documents from your country of origin?

I suppose that as you move from country to country and maintain the same name, you would only have potential issues if you were to move back to your country of origin and came across a stubborn ministrant who took issue with the missing diacritic.

A big thanks to everyone taking the time to help. I can't find the thank you button, maybe I'm still too much of a noob.

Best,

P.

9

Yup, found it.

https://www.englishforum.ch/forum-su...explained.html

10
I have had to present my birth certificate (in two countries) and there have been no problems arising from the diacritic.

Can you find an official regulation that explains the name change upon naturalization? I think if you have a reasonable history of name change in the US, it might not actually be an issue, especially if you're willing to go by your Polish name here.