Germany's transgender rights law to take effect
On November 1, a German law making it easier to alter gender markers and names on official documents will take effect. Transgender, intersex and nonbinary people welcome the recognition, but conservatives oppose it.
Link to Full Article
DW.com - Julie Gregson
October 27, 2024

Starting Friday, people aged 18 and older will be able to change official records to alter their names and genders or have the gender marker removed altogether, under Germany's new Self-Determination Act.

There is a mandatory three-month wait between applying and making a personal declaration. Yet the requirement for two psychiatric assessments and a court hearing have been scrapped.

Minors — over the age of 14 — can do so with parental approval, or seek legal recourse. Parents can act on behalf of younger children, but the child needs to be present at the register office and give their assent.

This is a purely bureaucratic procedure with no medical implications.

The changes make the practical daily lives of transgender, inter-sex, and non-binary people much easier, as there is no longer a potential mismatch between appearance and official paperwork, which can make traveling abroad prohibitive or even just paying by credit card a serious headache.

Once someone has applied to change their gender and first name, no further applications can be made for a minimum of 12 months. Right-wing populists suggested that this would lead to people changing their gender marker annually.

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Has anyone who lives outside Germany (specifically Canada, but could be from any other country) done this yet?  I'm trying to figure out, especially when it says that you need to register the Self Determination after receiving the pre-registration confirmation, do you send it back to the place in Germany, or do you have to find an actual German consular location?  For me, I'm kind of in a weird space, because my closes German foreign office is the Embassy in Ottawa, but the Embassy website says that you can only do German passports there, so it sounds like for me (since it requires actually getting, from what it sounds like, something signed and verified in person) I would need to travel 5-6 hours to Toronto and the Consular office there. 

I would try calling the Consulate and asking them for advice.
Maybe one of our members has been through this recently.

I can't vouch for Germany, but most countries will allow bureaucratic procedures to be done by mail.  Bureaucrats generally don't care how the paperwork gets there, as long as it is all complete.  (Not sure how that would apply to the requirement that minors be physically present.) 

Check with the German embassy.  Or maybe check with the office that handles these applications, since this sounds like a new procedure and the embassy may not be up to date on it yet.  I'd start with an online search for who is the right office to contact.