Hello y'all, I'm in the process of transitioning, not finished yet but can totally pass as a guy. The other day I went into the ladies restroom and this girl coming out and on her face got like the biggest shock of her life or something. I have a concern about paperwork and the steps, what do I need to do first ? ppl tell me change my id at the dmv first then I'm told to go to court, I dont know in what order I need to get my paperwork done? also do I need to change my social security number? I have naturalization paper too, do I need to have it redone? thanks a lot

Legal wise I had everything done at once. I petitioned for name change and while I was waiting to hear back from the court, I asked my doctor to write me a letter to get my gender marker changed. I live in Florida, so once I got my court date, I had to wait around 2 days in the county I live in to be able to pick up the paperwork saying my name had been changed. After that I had to go to Social Security office to get my name changed on that. It took about a week to get that back because I then needed the new social security card to go to the DMV and get my new license with the gender marker and name change.

Are you concerned that you need the paperwork done before you can go into the men's room?  Or just about paperwork in general?  Have you had your name changed?  You would take the court order for that and a court order for your gender change (if you can get one at this point) and then take that to the DMV and the Social Security office to get those changed respectively. 

To a degree it depends on where you live. I've got a court order changing my name and then I changed my driver's license. The dmv wanted the court order to change it. I changed the name of my bank account using the court order. That's been pretty easy.

I have not been able to change my social security because I was not born in the US and I don't have a birth certificate. If you are born outside of the US you need your birth certificate to change your social security. And work and medical insurance, at least in my case, goes by the social security name so I'm stuck and haven't been able to change those.

a lot of this stuff is pretty findable on the web. I was pleasantly surprised about that.

Generally if you are doing the name change at the same time as the gender change, you get the court portion done for the name and the letters from your doctors for the gender change for SS, etc in your NEW name. (Not your old name.) DMV varies from state to state. In NJ, it's a specific DMV form just for DMV that your a doctor, state licenses therapists or counselor must sign and it has your new name and Drivers license number on it. I'll be doing all of this on June 23rd as I already have my court order, but it doesn't go into effect until 30 days from the court date I had on Wednesday which will be June 23rd. Today I received my official copy with the seal and all in the mail. I already have the DMV forms and letters done.

Your actual social security number doesn't change does it??  I mean, that could make a mess of your paperwork, but at the same time a clean slate.

Quote from: Michaela Whimsy on May 24, 2014, 12:31:06 AM
Your actual social security number doesn't change does it??  I mean, that could make a mess of your paperwork, but at the same time a clean slate.

No, the number doesn't change.

I guess this is still on topic...  I was born on a military base in another state.  I know the birth certificate names the base and the state.  Does anyone know if the state or the federal government regulate any changes to my birth certificate?

@Wheat thins: I'm concerned about my ssn and naturalization certificate, if number stays the same you still need to change the gender marker right?
or is there a way to actually change the number too?

chris: yeah it can get complicated just cuz you were born out of US, when you say change the ss you mean the gender marker or number? I'm concerned about my naturalization certificate man

I have an azn name so I dont need to change it

Quote from: christopher on May 23, 2014, 11:10:16 PMI have not been able to change my social security because I was not born in the US and I don't have a birth certificate. If you are born outside of the US you need your birth certificate to change your social security. And work and medical insurance, at least in my case, goes by the social security name so I'm stuck and haven't been able to change those.

What you need is proof that you are a U.S. citizen (since if you weren't born on U.S. soil it isn't automatically presumed that you're a citizen, unless proof was submitted before and in your case if your SSN was obtained before the more stringent requirements took effect it looks like not) - meaning a U.S. passport, if you inherited your citizenship through your parent(s) a CRBA (Consular Report of Birth Abroad, the document issued when your birth was registered with the U.S. authorities), or if you were naturalized your naturalization certificate. If you're a U.S. citizen any documents issued by a foreign government are pretty much meaningless as far as the SSA is concerned, except as secondary proof of your identity if necessary (this follows the logic on how the U.S. sees multiple citizenship - you can have it, but the government turns a blind eye to it with a few exceptions such as security clearances where having such ties to a foreign government can affect whether or not they'll issue one to you).

I just wanted to clarify what "birth certificate" they want, in case you assumed it was the one issued by the other country (which it's not).

You don't change the SSN. You only update the information associated with it. Even a naturalized citizen can legally change their name. It is about $300 to have new naturalization papers written up in the new name. I forget the form number but I think it is N 565.

This site should help you.
http://info.legalzoom.com/change-last-name-citizenship-papers-20715.html

Quote from: Sydney_NYC on May 23, 2014, 11:22:13 PM
Generally if you are doing the name change at the same time as the gender change, you get the court portion done for the name and the letters from your doctors for the gender change for SS, etc in your NEW name. (Not your old name.) DMV varies from state to state. In NJ, it's a specific DMV form just for DMV that your a doctor, state licenses therapists or counselor must sign and it has your new name and Drivers license number on it. I'll be doing all of this on June 23rd as I already have my court order, but it doesn't go into effect until 30 days from the court date I had on Wednesday which will be June 23rd. Today I received my official copy with the seal and all in the mail. I already have the DMV forms and letters done.

If it goes into effect after 30 days, wouldn't the effective date be June 20? (You had the court date on May 21, and 30 days after that is June 20 since May is a 31-day month.)

Quote from: Michaela Whimsy on May 24, 2014, 12:48:59 AM
I guess this is still on topic...  I was born on a military base in another state.  I know the birth certificate names the base and the state.  Does anyone know if the state or the federal government regulate any changes to my birth certificate?

Since the base is in another U.S. State it would be that State where your BC would be filed. If the base was in another country you'd get a CRBA as I mentioned above issued by the federal government.

Re: Changing your SSN - it is theoretically possible for a TS to seek a new number, but it is a very long and difficult process in which you'd probably need an attorney to assist you with. The vast majority of TSs just do the relatively simple process of changing the name and gender marker but keeping the same number.

Quote from: tgchar21 on May 24, 2014, 08:22:02 AM
If it goes into effect after 30 days, wouldn't the effective date be June 20? (You had the court date on May 21, and 30 days after that is June 20 since May is a 31-day month.)

Your right it should be the 20th. The judged signed it for June 23rd though. The 20th is on a Friday and the 23rd is on a Monday, so I'm not going to complain. Maybe it had to be 30 days after and she decided to not have it go in effect on a weekend, or just maybe her math was off a little.

Quote from: tgchar21 on May 24, 2014, 08:32:48 AM
Re: Changing your SSN - it is theoretically possible for a TS to seek a new number, but it is a very long and difficult process in which you'd probably need an attorney to assist you with. The vast majority of TSs just do the relatively simple process of changing the name and gender marker but keeping the same number.

It would complicate your life a lot more than you need to. Let's say you had a job before you changed the no. Otherwise tax info is pretty straight forward, but if you changed your no.? Sounds nightmarish actually.
It's VERY easy to update the info. Though you have to wait (in my case) in a very very long line. I think you don't actually need to change your gender on there as it isn't actually written on the card, I did, but it does require that you get a doctor (MD) to say that you are in a medical process of gender reassignment. You don't need any surgeries.
BC is harder. It does depend on the state you were born in. I don't know if a military base is the US government vs the state. I would bet it is MUCH easier when it the US government. States have so many different and capricious rules.

--Jay

Quote from: tgchar21 on May 24, 2014, 08:19:47 AM
What you need is proof that you are a U.S. citizen (since if you weren't born on U.S. soil it isn't automatically presumed that you're a citizen, unless proof was submitted before and in your case if your SSN was obtained before the more stringent requirements took effect it looks like not) - meaning a U.S. passport, if you inherited your citizenship through your parent(s) a CRBA (Consular Report of Birth Abroad, the document issued when your birth was registered with the U.S. authorities), or if you were naturalized your naturalization certificate. If you're a U.S. citizen any documents issued by a foreign government are pretty much meaningless as far as the SSA is concerned, except as secondary proof of your identity if necessary (this follows the logic on how the U.S. sees multiple citizenship - you can have it, but the government turns a blind eye to it with a few exceptions such as security clearances where having such ties to a foreign government can affect whether or not they'll issue one to you).

I just wanted to clarify what "birth certificate" they want, in case you assumed it was the one issued by the other country (which it's not).

crap crap crap

thanks for explaining that.

wait!!!!! I actually have that piece of paper.

Quote from: christopher on May 24, 2014, 12:22:33 PM


crap crap crap

thanks for explaining that.

You're welcome. For you (or anyone else in the same situation - been a U.S. citizen from birth but born abroad) remember that for most functions within the U.S. that you need an official birth certificate for it's the federally-issued CRBA that you'd use, not the one from the foreign government (indeed the latter wouldn't be accepted without translation in many cases if it's not in English).

does anyone know exactly how much it costs to change SSN? I don't mind the wait
I'd like to start my life fresh