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My cousin is planning to visit me in USA and has B1/B2 visa approved. Her name on passport goes as:

FIRST NAME - AAA LAST NAME - BLANK

whereas that on her visa goes as:

FIRST NAME - FNU LAST NAME - AAA

Now, if she books her ticket from India to USA, what should be the name pattern that she must follow? Should it be according to passport or according to visa?

She is planning to travel by Air India. When she leaves India, the airport authorities will be looking her passport details, but in USA, the immigration officers will look into her visa. So, we don't know which name pattern is she supposed to follow and book her tickets accordingly. We are really confused! Is there anyone else who has been in the same situation?

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Use the name in the passport. All ID checks will be comparing against this, not what it says on the visa. For US visa checking, it is well known that the US uses "FNU" as a placeholder for people with single names.

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  • I agree, but for few exceptions (which seems not be this case): lack of official Latin transliteration in passport (and other character validation differences on the "target" system "FNU" cases are often oversight on occidental implementers). – Giacomo Catenazzi Sep 6 at 7:53
  • Are there really passports without Latin transliteration? The machine readable zone supports only ASCII. – jpatokal Sep 6 at 9:19
  • IIRC on some countries there is choice for the cheap one, and the better one. But you are right, to have a US visa you need one with machine readable passport. (OTOH that part has a bad Latin transliteration: all uppercase, no accents). [And it is fun to see some methods: I have latin name, which is (in some visa) translated into other characters (not consistently on same alphabet), and then back on machine readable part, giving unrecognizable transliteration (thank you the g, c, and double z in my name)]. – Giacomo Catenazzi Sep 6 at 9:43
  • @jpatokal The instructions on Air India's website says that the name should be repeated for both first name and last name, i.e., First Name - AAA Last Name - AAA. Also, if we go as per the passport name where her last name is left blank, the website while booking the ticket does not allow to proceed ahead if the last name field is left blank. How shall we proceed now? TIA! – hk2 Sep 6 at 13:15
  • @hk2 Have you tried asking Air India direct? – Traveller Sep 6 at 14:41

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