Clueless

So it's finally time for my husband to send in his application for
citizenship and I'm concerned he might get stuck in immigration bureaucracy
over a simple thing. I was hoping someone with experience in this might be
able to advise us....

The first two questions on the N-400 application ask for your legal name and
your name exactly as it appears on your green card, respectively. Now my
husband, in every application he has filed with immigration, and in every
document with his name on it in the United States, has his first name, his
middle name and his last name. On his green card, however, for whatever
reason, only his first and last name appear, no middle name.

Now my concern is that the instructions say that if there is a difference
between the legal name and the name on the green card that he needs to
submit proof of the name change.

Now the dilemma is whether to fill out the application as it asks, putting
my husband's first middle and last names as his legal name, his first and
last names as his green card name with no explanation, doing that with an
attached explanation that he has never changed his name but his middle name
does not appear on his green card, or just fill out both parts with just his
first and last name.

Any advice?

ian-mstm

You kept a copy of his completed I-485 application, right? If so, then you can demonstrate that the name on the GC is not complete and, in fact, an error on their part. Even if you didn't keep a copy of the I-485, go ahead and complete the N-400 using his correct legal name, regardless of what appears on the GC. Don't confuse a clerical error with a bona fide name change!

Ian