When a visa or immigration form asks for your full name in native alphabet, it wants your name written exactly as it appears on your home-country identity document, in the original script of that document. If your native language uses the Latin alphabet, you select “Does Not Apply” and move on. If it uses Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Thai, or any other non-Latin writing system, you type or write the name in that script, matching your passport or national ID character for character.
When the Field Does Not Apply to You
Latin-alphabet languages do not have a separate “native” script for this purpose. Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Turkish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Swahili, and other languages written in Roman letters all fall in this group. On the DS-160, click the “Does Not Apply” checkbox next to the native alphabet field.1U.S. Department of State. DS-160 Frequently Asked Questions On the I-130, leave the native script fields in Item 57 blank if the beneficiary’s language uses Roman letters.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-130 Petition for Alien Relative
Accented characters like é, ñ, or ü do not change this. François and Muñoz are still written in the Latin alphabet, so the field does not apply. It is reserved for writing systems that are genuinely non-Latin.
How to Enter Your Name Correctly
The rule that matters most: your entry must match your official home-country document character for character. Consular staff and USCIS officers compare what you typed against your passport, national ID, or birth certificate, and any discrepancy can raise a question about whether you are the person on those records.
Keep the physical document in front of you while you fill in the field. Memory is where mistakes come from, especially in scripts where a missing dot on an Arabic letter or an incorrect vowel marker in Devanagari can turn one name into another. Verify each character against the source.
Write the name in the original order and form used on the document itself. Name construction varies across cultures: some countries place the family name first, some use patronymics, and some include clan names or titles as part of the legal name. USCIS instructs its officers to be aware of these variations and to record the legal name in the customary American order of given name, middle name, family name when entering data into U.S. systems.3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 1 Part E Chapter 5 – Verification of Identifying Information The application form already provides separate labeled fields for family name and given name in English, so the reordering happens there. In the native script field, use the original order.
Which Forms Ask for This
Not every immigration form has a native alphabet field. The ones that do:
- The DS-160, the online application for tourist, student, work, and other nonimmigrant visas, has a “Full Name in Native Alphabet” field on the Personal Information page. The form’s FAQ states that all other answers must be in English using English characters only, “except when you are asked to provide your full name in your native alphabet.” A telecode field appears for names in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean script.1U.S. Department of State. DS-160 Frequently Asked Questions
- The DS-260, the immigrant visa application processed through the National Visa Center, has a corresponding field for the full name in your native language.
- Form I-130, the petition a U.S. citizen or permanent resident files to sponsor a family member, includes Part 4, Item 57. The instruction reads: if the beneficiary’s native written language does not use Roman letters, print the beneficiary’s name and foreign address in their native written language. The field is about the beneficiary, not the petitioner.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-130 Petition for Alien Relative
Several major USCIS forms do not include this field at all. The N-400 Application for Naturalization, the I-485 Application to Adjust Status, and the I-90 Application to Replace a Permanent Resident Card collect your name only in English characters. If a form does not ask for native script, do not attach a separate page with it unless the instructions specifically request one.
Typing Non-Latin Characters on Your Computer
The DS-160 accepts non-Latin characters directly in the native alphabet field, but you need the right keyboard layout enabled on your computer to type them.
On Windows, open Settings, go to Time & Language, then Language & Region. Click “Add a language” and pick your language, such as Arabic, Russian, or Simplified Chinese. Once installed, a language switcher appears in the taskbar near the clock and lets you toggle between English and the added language.4Microsoft. Switch Between Languages Using the Language Bar For Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, Windows installs an Input Method Editor that lets you type phonetically and choose the correct characters.
On macOS, open System Settings, click Keyboard, go to Text Input, and click Edit. Add your non-Latin input source. You can then switch between languages from the input menu in the menu bar, and macOS lets you set the Caps Lock key as a quick toggle between a non-Latin source and your last-used Latin source.5Apple. Change Input Sources Settings on Mac
If you cannot change the keyboard on the computer you are using, type the name in native script on another device such as your phone and paste it into the field. Check that no extra spaces or formatting slipped in during the paste.
Completing Paper Forms by Hand
The I-130 can be filed on paper, and the native script field in Item 57 has to be filled in by hand or by typewriter. Write legibly in black ink and match the exact form used on your source document, including diacritical marks, dots, and stroke details that distinguish similar-looking characters.
USCIS policy is flexible on one point: a valid handwritten mark does not need to be in English and does not need to be in cursive.6USCIS. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 1 Part B Chapter 2 – Signatures What matters is legibility. If your native script handwriting is hard to read, ask someone with cleaner penmanship to write the name while you verify each character against the original document.
Fixing a Mistake
An honest typo will not doom an application, but it can slow it down. The most common consequence is a Request for Evidence asking you to clarify or correct the discrepancy. USCIS gives you a maximum of 84 days (12 weeks) to respond to an RFE, with an extra 3 days added when it is mailed to a U.S. address and 14 additional days when mailed outside the United States.7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 1 Part E Chapter 6 – Evidence Miss the deadline and USCIS can deny the application as abandoned, deny it on the existing record, or both.
For the DS-160, the State Department lets you reopen a submitted application to make corrections. Enter your application ID number and answer the security questions to get back in.1U.S. Department of State. DS-160 Frequently Asked Questions After correcting the error, contact the embassy or consulate where you applied to find out whether you need to reschedule your interview. Catching a mistake before the interview is much simpler than explaining a mismatch during it.
One boundary worth noting. Correcting a typo is not the same as changing identifying information to something other than what your documents show. Deliberately providing a false name on an immigration application carries serious criminal and immigration consequences under federal law, which is why the forms press so hard on accuracy.8U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 8 Part J Chapter 2 – Overview of Fraud and Willful Misrepresentation
Why the Field Exists
A Romanized name is always an approximation. The same Arabic or Chinese name can be spelled several different ways in English depending on the transliteration system used. Collecting the name in its original script lets the reviewing agency check it directly against foreign government records, prior filings, and international databases rather than relying on a converted spelling. It also confirms that the person on the application is the person on the passport, which is what every step in the visa process is trying to verify.