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Old Jul 4, 2012 | 1:52 am
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GUWonder
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Originally Posted by jason365
If I change my name when becoming a US citizen, how does that affect my travel to my home country? At immigration, will there be any records of me at all? Or will it somehow be tied to my old name. I am escaping a bad past(political exile) and I want to start fresh with immigration there.
A name change in itself in the US does not provide any protection to escape a bad past, particularly not in a previous home country, especially if the change doesn't involve a removal of place of birth and/or no public record of becoming a citizen.

Given the increased use of technology -- including running face matching tools and other uses of databases -- escaping a bad past via a name change is increasingly failing and hasn't been a strong form of protection for many such situations for quite some years now.
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