Name and Gender Marker Change via US Citizenship

[KingIsaac]

Hey any who is reading this,

I'm ftm transgender and I was born in Brazil. I'm 20 and have lived in the US for the last 18 years. I have my green card and I can now finally start applying for my US citizenship, all the while I am starting my transition in the next month or two. Here's my question/request of advice and knowledge: Do I go ahead and apply for my citizenship as male and change my name within my application process? (all with the help, of course, of a doctors note) Would this hinder my application in any way? Would it delay it from being processed or even risk my citizenship from being denied by the US? If anyone has had any experience with this in the past or knows about it please let me know, any advice or answers would help.
Thanks again.

[Keaira]

As someone who fought for Transgender immigration rights, and someone who has dealt with the immigration service herself, you would be better off waiting until after you get your citizenship because making changes slows down the processing of your paperwork. Having said that, there have been a few LGBT-friendly changes made to the Immigration Service policies, So you may want to check in with USCIS.

[makinmagic]

This question I can actually answer, since I am the one who has a long, hard history with USCIS that is full of drama
The short answer is: no, you can not apply as a male. Because technically, you are applying based on a residence of 5 years on a green card and you are marked "F" on your green card. If you apply as a male they will simply not accept your papers and return them to you along with the uncashed check.
You'll have to change your Naturalization certificate later, when you do all the changes on ID and social security.
Or you can do all the changes on ID, social security etc and apply for replacement green card with M mark on it and later apply for citizenship as a male.
However you can change your name in Naturalization process to anything you please, you don't need a doctors note for that, even when changing from female to male name, but not the gender.

[aleon515]

Never saw this question before. Are you being treated by a US doctor, if so they could write a letter for you. There have been recent changes in US laws for social security and now it is rather easy to get this changed. So maybe it would help you.
You might contact these folks-- really good organization: http://transgenderlawcenter.org/
I'd guess folks are right re: getting your papers and then changing later though.

--Jay

[KingIsaac]

Thanks for the responses. It's really complicated and I keep getting answers of yes and no so I'm still at a stand still. My residency expires this April of 2014 so hopefully I can figure this out soon because I need to submit my papers within the next couple of weeks. I've gotten in contact with nyc transgender legal defense fund over the phone and they have told me I can apply as male but they too have never been asked this question so idk whether to really go off of that or not that's why I asked on here hoping to possible find someone that had a similar experience. Ugh so complicated but thanks for all your helpful responses!! Glad we can stick together n try to help each other out in the community.

[Nov413]

Even though I haven't gone through the naturalisation process yet (hoping for congress to get their act together), I've questioned this to my immigration lawyer. Basically, you need to apply as what you've been known for the past years. If anything doesn't match up, you won't get it, and it would be unnecessary to go through the extra trouble. Once you get your papers, it is much easier to change stuff. And as others have said, you can straight-up change your name when you become naturalised.