Name mismatches between passport, diploma, and criminal record: how to fix them before they stall your visa
A maiden name on your diploma, a married name on your passport, or a dropped middle name can stop your E-2 file cold. Here's which document bridges which mismatch, and when to fix it.
Park English2026-10-223 min read
Korean immigration reads your E-2 documents as one file, not three separate ones. Your name on the FBI check must match your passport exactly, including middle names, hyphens, and apostrophes, and a maiden name, initial, or altered spelling requires a legal name-change document apostilled alongside. The same logic applies to your diploma. If the three documents don't read as the same person, someone at immigration has to stop and ask why, and that question costs you days you don't have.
Where mismatches actually come from
Most aren't typos. They're real differences in how your name legally appears on different pieces of paper:
- You married and your diploma still carries your maiden name.
- You go by a middle name day to day, but your passport lists your first and middle names in full while your diploma drops one.
- A legal name change, for any reason, happened after your degree was issued.
- Your name includes an accent, apostrophe, or hyphen that one office typed and another didn't.
Your diploma says your maiden name and your passport says your married name, and Korean immigration will query it. A marriage certificate, apostilled, bridges the two names. The same problem after a legal name change needs an apostilled name change order to do the job.
Fix it before the apostille, not after
This is the part people get backwards. The bridging document itself needs its own apostille, so it has to be in hand before you build your submission packet, not added later as an explanation letter.
| Mismatch | Document that bridges it |
|---|---|
| Maiden name (diploma) vs married name (passport) | Apostilled marriage certificate |
| Pre name-change legal name vs current legal name | Apostilled court order or name change decree |
| Middle name present on one document, absent on another | Confirm with the issuing office how they format middle names, then request a corrected copy if they'll issue one |
| Accented letter, hyphen, or apostrophe typed differently across documents | Ask the issuing office to match your passport's exact spelling before you submit for apostille |
Your FBI check will show your current legal name, and if your passport, diploma, or other visa documents use a different name, you must include apostilled name-change documentation because Korean immigration cross-references names across every document. The same rule holds for a UK DBS certificate, a Canadian RCMP check, or any other country's criminal record document.
Your university matters here too
If your registrar needs to reissue or re-verify a diploma or transcript under your current legal name, that request goes in weeks before anything touches an apostille office. If your legal name has changed since graduation, your employer may ask for supporting name-change documents, such as a marriage certificate or court order. Don't find this out at your visa appointment. Do not wait until the final visa appointment to discover that your passport and diploma show different names.
So where does this leave transliterated or non-English names? If your legal name uses characters your passport's machine-readable zone converts or drops, use the exact Romanized spelling from your passport data page on every other document you submit, and ask the issuing office to match it. This is the one part that genuinely varies: some consulates want the bridging document translated and apostilled separately, others accept the original language version with an apostille alone. Confirm with your consulate or your placement coordinator before you pay for a translation you didn't need.
A quick gut check before you submit anything: lay your passport, diploma, and criminal record check side by side. Read the full legal name on each out loud. If you hesitate anywhere, that's the mismatch to fix first.