As a Canadian living in the US,  enjoy the fun of cross-border adventures with an F on my passport and a full beard on my face. Few ever challenge me on this. But recently the company said that they may want me to teach a class in Beijing and Tokyo (two day teaches in each). I know that China requires a "work visa" but I'm concerned that my transitional status (no surgery means no M on ID thanks to Ontario rules for BC) might be a problem.

Has anyone traveled to these areas mid-way through transition?

Can't help you Linus.

Hope someone else can.

Ya. Me too. It's Beijing that has me the most worried since they have more restrictions about visitors and such.

It couldn't hurt to bring a letter from a health care professional explaining that you are trans.

Good idea and reminder. I do have a letter that I carry with me for that exact reason.

1.  I'm not all that sure how much Chinese customs/immigration people are going to care about what some Canadian therapist writes on a scrap of paper (and you're making a hell of an assumption that they are going to be able to read and understand English that well in the first place.)  That's it's legally got some value in Canada or the US, does not make it relevant in China at all.

2.  I'd strongly urge you to go to the Chinese consulate and see if you can work it out there, and be prepared to have your company and yourself take it all the way to the Chinese Embassy.

3. Don't assume that the problem is only going to be in China, Japan is very, very picky about who they let in.

Good point. I know China requires a visa and I suspect my company will get that. However, I will visit the Chinese embassy here in Los Angeles. I'll do the same for Japan.

And it's a US general doctor, not therapist.

A medical doctor might be better (I was actually thinking that a letter from a therapist in and of itself might be enough for them to refuse entry).  Still, it has zero legal binding authority once it leaves the US.

As it turns out, I had no issue getting the Chinese visa. My passport still shows an F and my face is very fuzzy (full beard). So that turned out well. Tokyo was dropped from the list of cities so we go Sydney, Singapore and Beijing. I will update this when I return as to how the experience went (good, bad or whatever).

So, thus far I've had no issue. In fact, while here in Singapore I nearly got picked up twice (two girls in the same "bar") by "escorts". As tempting as they were, I just didn't feel comfortable given my lack of surgery in general. They seemed to think I was very "fluffy" and "gushy".

Welp. I'm in Beijing and was allowed through without issue by the Chinese customs. People don't really look at the gender on the I.D. and more what you present as. It's been interesting thus far.

So for all four nations I had no issue. Tokyo was friendliest and we even went through 3 earthquakes while there. Overall it was an interesting experience and I am glad I got to experience it. I will say that I suspect that as long as you look like your photo you should be good traveling.

However, I would hazard to guess that the experience would be different for a trans women compared to me being a trans man. Although I know in passed well enough when 3 different Absolutely stunning Singaporean women propositioned me (I think they were working girls as they were super friendly and almost immediately wanted to go back to my hotel room)