TSA - Married name in parenthesis on passport
 

My wife's Japanese passport lists the surname as "Suzuki (Smith)". However, the chip only produces "Suzuki" when scanned. So I'm worried about flying to Japan from the US, because the of the TSA's name-must-match-exactly policy.

The Japanese consulate worker says to use only "Suzuki". The Japanese travel agency says to use "Suzuki Smith). The JAL website says not to use the name in parenthesis. I contacted the TSA, as they're the ones who enforce the rule, and got an automated reply, essentially, "Ask the airline"...

If we use "Suzuki" on the ticket, it won't match what is under "surname". But if we use "Suzuki (Smith)", it won't match when the scan the chip...

Has anyone here with a name in parenthesis on a passport flown from the US after 2010? Thank you in advance.

Recently my wife and I travelled to and from the USA (LAX and GUM) and my wife's passport (Japanese) is in her maiden name with a notation on the second page of the change in surname. Tickets were booked in her married name and had no major issues. Not quite the same situation though, I realise.

Only small hurdle was that we couldn't use the automated machines for entry at LAX because of the mismatch, but easily sorted out at the manned counter.

Generally, I would suggest going with the name that gets scanned from the passport, i.e. "Suzuki" in your case, as that way all automated systems will match. But you should be OK either way. The only problem is that some people (at check-in counters etc.) need to have the reason for the mismatch pointed out to them, which can take time depending on who you get.

Yes. My wife has done so at least 30 times with no problem. Ticket is always booked in the name in parentheses.

The "name must match exactly" policy is not as strict as you think. As long as the same words appear on the passport and the ticket, you're basically OK.

Thank you all for your help. It's a great relief. I had a reply from a woman on a Japan forum that has the parenthesis on her passport saying she used only the "Suzuki" and had no problems. Maybe for the sake of convenience we'll use just that, so we can use the automated check-in. On the other hand, hearing someone's gone through 30 times without problems makes the full name a reassuring thought.

Now I just have to worry about her going through security and customs without speaking English...

Time for English immersion lessons! :)

I think it is more likely your wife may get in a situation with immigration officers, not TSA officers. These are two separate department and TSA officers do security screening and boarding pass check at the entrance of security.

TSA ID check and boarding pass check is done manually by a person so they understand maiden name situation.

However, for immigration passport control today is done using automatic kiosk and difference between the name on the passport and a name of an airline passenger list can trigger your wife to go to long slow line to see an officer in a booth. My understanding is that immigration at homeland security gets name of passengers from an airline, hence that kiosk recognize my name from my passport and comes up with my arrival flight information on own without asking me.

This.

For immigration purposes you'll want the passport name (what's listed on the MRZ/"barcode" at the bottom, which should also be the data on the chip) to match the ticket name.

This is primarily an issue for the US if you're travelling on an ESTA (where the airline does electronic validation of this data) - although I'm not sure how strict the matching is (they have the passport number and DOB after all). If travelling on a Visa or Green card then it doesn't really matter too much since a human will verify those. I don't believe Japan do any verification like this, and you're highly unlikely to have issues travelling there as a Japanese citizen.

Security and immigration on both sides of the Pacific deal with the issue hundreds of times a day. They have figured it out. You don't need to worry.

Incidentally, it's fairly easy for your wife to officially change her name to "Smith" for Japanese legal purposes; it just requires filing a form with the Family Court in Japan. Then she can apply for a new passport and all official docs in the US and Japan will have the same name on them.

This makes just "Suzuki" sound like a good idea.

She's not good with humans... For the TSA I imagine I'll at least be nearby, but for immigration when we come home, I'll have to take a different line.

Do you think it will matter that her green card says "Suzuki Smith"?

My name turns into a mess in katakana. I don't even think she can pronounce it.

This is a total non-issue.

For both TSA and CBP, so long as the names on her ticket appear in some order on her passport, there will not be an issue.

As a likely infrequent flyer, she will likely be required to check in at a counter anyway, but the sole consequence of not having an exact name match will be the need for human intervention to obtain a boarding pass and the possibility that it may take the TSA and CBP Officers respectively each about 10 seconds longer to make the name match.

Are you travelling together? Why would you need to use different immigration lines when you return?

I'm a US citizen and she's a Japanese citizen. I seem to remember different lines for citizens. Or do permanent residents use the same line as me?