Long Name Cut Short on Cards and Forms in Uttarakhand

From the tax department's application form for a PAN and its instructions, on the department's own site. It is the clearest example of a record and a print kept apart.

So the tax department holds your full name, and prints the form of it that you chose. Two people may read the same card and the same record and think they disagree. They do not.

The test for all three is the same question, put to the office: what does your record say? The answer sorts the case in one visit.

Step 1: Write your full name once, as your certificates give it

Every word, in order. This is the name a record should hold.

Step 2: Look at the card that shows it short

Note exactly what is printed, and what is missing.

Step 3: Ask the office what its record holds

The record behind a card is often longer than the print. A branch, a service centre or a portal can show it.

Step 4: If the record is full, leave it alone

The card is short for want of space. Nothing is wrong, and nothing needs correcting.

Step 5: If the record itself is short, ask for it to be completed

On your certificates and Aadhaar. That is a correction, at that office.

Step 6: Where a form lets you choose the printed form, choose with care

Keep the surname whole. Shorten a middle name to an initial before you drop it.

Step 7: Use the same short form everywhere it is needed

One abbreviation, on every card and ticket. Three versions look like three people.

Step 8: Keep one paper that shows the full name and the short one together

A PAN card with its application, or a bank's letter. It answers the question before it is asked.

• The first page of a passport has the name printed in two boxes, surname and given name, with room for a long name.
• At the foot of the page are two lines of capital letters and arrows. Machines at airports read those.
• Those lines have a fixed length. A long name is cut where the line ends.
• That is by design, and is the same for every country's passport. It is not an error in yours.
• The name that counts for a visa, a ticket and a form is the one printed in full in the two boxes.
• If the two boxes themselves lack a word that your certificates have, that is a real difference, and is put right by a re-issue.

Read name change in passport and visa application name mismatch, on copying the two boxes onto every form.

• Booking forms for trains, flights and hotels limit the letters in a name box.
• Each site has its own instruction for a name that does not fit. Follow it, and do not improvise.
• For a flight, the name is read against the passport or the identity card at the counter. The surname has to be whole.
• For a train, a ticket is checked against an identity paper of one passenger. A sensible short form is rarely questioned.
• For a foreign visa or an online form abroad, copy the passport's two boxes, and put nothing in a box the passport leaves empty unless the form says to.
• Carry the identity paper the booking was made on.

We did not confirm any site's present limit. Read flight ticket name mismatch and train ticket and IRCTC name mismatch.

Step 1: Confirm that you want fewer words in your name for good

A card that prints a name short has changed nothing. Dropping a word from the name itself is a change of name.

Step 2: Decide the shorter name exactly

Which words stay, in what order, and how it divides into given name and surname.

Step 3: Count your Aadhaar name updates

The usual limit is two in a lifetime.

Step 4: Make the affidavit and publish the newspaper notice

Sign before a notary. Publish in a daily local leading newspaper, and keep the original newspaper.

Step 5: Type the form and sign the undertaking

Two typed copies of the specimen, signed in your old name with two witnesses, and the undertaking.

Step 6: Prepare the CD, photographs and certificate

The same text on a CD in MS Word, two self-attested photographs with identity proof, and a certificate that both copies match.

Step 7: Pay the charge on BharatKosh

Commonly Rs 1,100 for an adult. It is not refunded.

Step 8: Send the file yourself, then update every record

Send it to the Controller of Publications, Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi 110054. Old certificates keep the long name, and the notice links them.

See gazette name change in Uttarakhand and removing a surname or caste name.

A typical case we handle: a college lecturer in Almora named "Chandra Shekhar Prasad Joshi" was told by a bank that his PAN did not match. His PAN card read "C. S. P. JOSHI". He asked us for a Gazette to "fix the PAN name". Nothing needed fixing. His profile on the tax portal showed the full name. Years earlier he had asked for the abbreviated form to be printed on the card. The bank checked the number online, saw the full name, and went ahead. This is an illustrative example of the type of case we handle, not a named client review.

When you do not need us

For any name printed short on a card, a ticket or a slip, and for a record that only needs completing. The office concerned settles those. We are useful only if you decide to shorten the name itself, which needs a Gazette notification.

Why is my name short on my PAN card?

The card prints the form chosen on the application.

Is an abbreviated name on a PAN card valid?

Yes. The record holds the full name.

Why is my name cut off at the bottom of my passport?

Those lines have a fixed length, for machines.

What if my name does not fit on a booking form?

Follow the site's own instruction for long names.

Is a gazette needed if a card shows my name short?

No. A print is not a change of name.

Can I shorten my name officially?

Yes, by a change of name, if you choose to.

How many characters are in a passport's machine readable lines?

An ordinary passport's machine readable zone has two lines of 44 characters each, under the international standard ICAO Document 9303.

How many letters of my name fit in the passport's bottom lines?

The name field takes 39 characters: the surname, two filler marks, and then the given names. A longer name is cut where the field ends, which is why a long Indian name often looks truncated there.

Why are there arrows between the words of my name in the passport?

In the name field, spaces, hyphens and other punctuation are shown by the filler mark that looks like an arrow. It is not part of your name, and nothing needs correcting.

Can numbers or punctuation appear in the passport's name line?

No. Numbers and punctuation are not permitted in the name field of the machine readable zone. Only capital letters and the filler mark are used.

Is a credit-card-sized identity card cut even shorter?

Yes. A card-sized travel document under the same standard has three lines of 30 characters, so a long name is cut sooner than on a passport.

Which name should I copy onto a foreign university or visa form?

Follow the form's own rule. United States student forms, for example, ask for the passport name exactly as the machine readable zone shows it, and accept that the zone sometimes truncates names.