What should you do when a foreign document spells your surname only in a non-Latin script and the English version does not match your passport?
TL;DRA Thai marriage certificate (ใบสำคัญการสมรส) recorded a U.S.-citizen husband's surname only in Thai script, with no Latin spelling on the document. A letter-by-letter reading produced a spelling his U.S. passport does not use. We restored the passport spelling instead, kept it identical across the couple's other Thai records, and documented the choice in a Translator's Note. The certified translation was delivered for the client's marriage-based green card filing.
Case Specifications
- Document
- Marriage certificate
- Foreign Name
- ใบสำคัญการสมรส
- Country
- Thailand
- Languages
- Thai → English
- Submitted To
- USCIS marriage-based green card filing
What We Received
A client sent us a Thai marriage certificate (ใบสำคัญการสมรส) issued by a district registry office in Bangkok. The husband is a U.S. citizen. The wife is a Thai national. The couple needed a [certified Thai document translation](/languages/thai) for a [marriage-based green card filing](/immigration/green-card).
The husband's surname appears on the certificate only in Thai phonetic script. No Latin-script spelling appears anywhere on the document. The certificate also shows the marriage year in the Thai Buddhist Era, the registration number in Thai numerals, the district registry office, and the registrar's seal. The back of the document is a Thai registry form carrying both spouses' identification numbers.
Why a Letter-by-Letter Reading Fails
USCIS expects every name on a translated document to match the applicant's other records. On a marriage-based filing, the U.S.-citizen spouse's surname is the anchor for the case. Any spelling that drifts from his passport reads as a different person.
Thai script captures a foreign name by sound, not by spelling. There is no single mechanical way back to the original Latin name. Read consonant by consonant, the surname can yield more than one English spelling. One Thai consonant in the middle carries an "s" sound, but a careless reading turns it into a "tch" cluster the passport never uses.
That is a [name mismatch](/guides/name-mismatch-guide), not a stylistic variant. The wife's maiden surname raised the same question, because it also appears only in Thai script. Both names had to be settled before a single line was typed.
How We Handled It
We asked the client for the husband's U.S. passport. The passport is the authoritative spelling of his name. We rendered his surname exactly as the passport shows it, rather than transliterating the Thai script from scratch.
We then used that one spelling everywhere the surname appears. The marriage certificate and the wife's separate name-change certificate now carry one identical English surname. For the wife's maiden surname, no passport spelling existed, so we transliterated it phonetically and kept it consistent across her records.
We converted the Thai numerals to Arabic numerals. We showed the date in both the Thai Buddhist Era and the Gregorian calendar. Stamps and the registrar's block were translated in full, with the handwritten signature marked as illegible.
"The names of both spouses appear in the original in Thai script only; the document carries no Latin-script spelling. The husband's surname has been rendered to match the spelling on his U.S. passport. The wife's maiden surname has been transliterated phonetically, as no official Latin-script spelling appears in the source and should be verified against her own identity document. Thai numerals have been converted to Arabic numerals, and the date is shown in both the Thai Buddhist Era (B.E.) and the Gregorian calendar."
This certificate and the couple's Thai name-change certificate came from the same order. We reviewed both translations side by side and confirmed the husband's surname read identically on every page before delivery.
The translation followed USCIS [certified-translation requirements](/accepted-by/uscis) and shipped with the original-language source for the client's filing.
The Outcome
We delivered the certified translation for the client's marriage-based green card filing. The husband's surname matched his U.S. passport on every page.
The client reviewed the translation and confirmed that both spellings were correct. The same surname now appears identically across the couple's Thai records, including the companion name-change certificate.
What This Means for You
If your name appears on a foreign document only in a non-Latin script, do not let anyone guess the English spelling. Give the translator your passport. A [certified marriage certificate translation](/documents/marriage-certificate) that follows your passport keeps your name consistent across the whole filing.
Have a similar situation?
We translate Thai marriage, name-change, and civil-registry records for USCIS family filings — and we match every name to the spelling on your passport.
Related Cases & Resources
Sources & References
- Meet Translation Requirements·USCIS·Verified 2026-06-06
- Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative·USCIS·Verified 2026-06-06
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