Biographic Information
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Your Legal Name
This section pulls in information you entered when you created your account. Confirm that what appears here is correct; click the Profile Section link to make changes.
Former Name
If you are sending any documentation or test scores where your name is listed differently than it appears on your application, select Yes in this section and enter the alternate or former information. This ensures that your documents and test scores are matched to your application. Contact customer service so they can manually match these items to your application; failure to do so could cause significant delays.
Examples of alternate or former names include:
- Birth names (if different from current legal name)
- Maiden names
- Nicknames (e.g., "Bob" for Robert, "Beth" for Elizabeth, etc.)
- "Westernized" names
- Alternate punctuation (e.g., your name appears with/without a hyphen, apostrophe, or diacritical marking)
- Alternate spacing (e.g., your name appears with or without specific spaces)
- Known misspellings (if a document contains a misspelling)
Legal/Preferred Name Phonetic Pronunciation
Enter the phonetic pronunciation of your first and last name or write a familiar word that rhymes with your name. Phonetic pronunciation is how your names sound when read or spoken aloud. Make sure to separate syllables with dashes and capitalize syllables that are stressed.
Examples:
- Raul Gonzalez = rah-OOL gon-SAH-les
- Ngoc Nguyen = nahk nuhWEN or sounds like “knock” “WIN”
- Sophia Lamagna = so-FEE-uh, sounds like “lasagna”
Phonetic Spelling Guide
Vowels
Vowel |
Examples |
Phonetic Spelling |
Sample Names |
---|---|---|---|
A |
fat, land ape, date, play ah, father, car America, ago |
a ay ah uh |
Nancy (NAN-see) Jason (JAY-suhn) Adriana (Ah-dree-AH-nah) Bianca (Bee-YAHN-cuh) |
E |
check, ten, when the, benefit green, evil, he |
e uh ee |
Ken (KEN) Alex (AL-uhks) Maria (Mah-REE-ah) |
I |
ice, bite, high Is, hit |
y Ih |
Michael (MY-kuhl) Lindy (LIHN-dee) |
O |
hot, fought, not open, tone, go loose, tool, crew toy, oil |
ah oh oo oy |
John (JAHN) Rose (ROHZ) Judy (JOO-dee) Leroy (LEE-roy) |
U |
up, cut duty, tube, assume fur, deter use, cute, few |
uh oo ur yoo |
Cynthia (SIN-thee-uh) Judy (JOO-dee) Kurt (KURT) Eunice (YOO-nis) |
Y |
family, city my, dry |
ee y |
Amy (AY-mee) Kyle (KY-uhl) |
Consonants
Most consonants are written the way they sound, but there are a few special cases.
Consonants |
Examples |
Phonetic Spelling |
Sample Names |
---|---|---|---|
GI | giant | j | Gianna (Jee-AH-nah); Italian |
GI | Gitano brand jeans | gh | Giselle (GHEE-sehl-luh); German |
H | loch | hh | Ahmed (AHH-med) |
TH | thought, thin, bath | th | Beth (BETH) |
TH | bathe | thh | Heather (Heh-THHER) |
Z | zebra, rose | z | Zenobia (Zeh-NOH-bee-uh) |
ZH | azure, leisure | zh | Jean-Paul (Zhan-PAWL) |
Y |
family, city my, dry |
ee Y |
Amy (AY-mee) Kyle (KY-uhl) |
Sex
Select the appropriate option. This information is required for reporting purposes to the US Federal government, using these values only.
Gender Identity
If your gender identity differs from your legal sex, use this section to indicate your gender and pronouns.
Birth Information
Enter your date of birth in MM/DD/YYYY format. For example, January 7, 1989, would be listed as 01/07/1989. Make sure you enter your date of birth correctly; failure to do so could cause significant delays with matching documentation and test scores.
Then, enter your country, city, state/territory/province, and county of birth. If you are unsure of your county of birth, select N/A.
Note: to ensure applicants are entering consistent data for some questions, this application uses pre-populated answer options that are maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). For example, country answer options are derived from ISO 3166, which is the international standard for country codes and codes for their subdivisions.