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The Standard Track Gender Recognition Application Process

UK Born, UK Born Expatriates, or those born in a country with no gender recognition system

 

The Gender Recognition Panel's website is here

The Standard Track forms are to be used by all people whose:

  • Birth was registered in the UK, or by British Forces overseas** (or with a British Consul or High Commission, or under Merchant Shipping or Civil Aviation
    provisions)
  • Birth was registered elsewhere, but who have not obtained legal recognition in their birth state.

** Includes the British Forces overseas, a British Consul or High Commission, or under the UK's Merchant Shipping or Civil Aviation provisions

A trans person may be living inside or outside the UK at the time of the application. All that is relevant is that

a. their birth certificate is a UK birth certificate, or/

b. that there is no gender recognition system in their home country or state, or/

c. that they have not made us of their home country's gender recognition process

AND

d. The person has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, AND

e. the person has been living permanently in their preferred gender role for at least 2 years , AND

f. the person is unmarried (though married people can apply for an Interim certificate) , AND

g. the person is able to provide the appropriate evidence (see more below), the application form and the fee

Any documents you have in your new gender in the new country, may stand as good evidence of you having fully lived in your new gender for at least 2 years when applying for a gender recognition certificate. However they are not proof of your legal gender, here in the UK.

The reason for this is that prior to 2004 the provision of day-to-day documents like driving licenses and passports was not contained in law. They were provided as discretionary concessions to make lives more comfortable and less likely to be victimised.

n.b. Even though the Gender Recognition Act itself has brought about the apparent circumstances where people might have more than one birth certificate, people who are issued with new birth certificates should destroy their old birth certificates completely. However, if you do keep it as a souvenir, be aware your old certificate has no legal standing, and it might always betray your hard won privacy.

The Process is very simple, and though following items are required in your application for a Gender Recognition Certificate, they are not usually difficult to obtain.


1. The Standard Track Application Form: (click here) the Standard Track Application form is to be completed fully & truthfully. At the back of the form there is a Statutory Declaration to be completed, and notarised.


2. The Statutory Declaration: You are required to complete the statutory declaration confirming that:

  • you are unmarried, and
  • you are intending to live permanently in your preferred gender role for the rest of your life.

The statutory declaration is provided for you on the last page of the application pack. You will need to complete it and then take it into a local solicitor or advocate who has the power to notarise documents. In the UK, notarisation costs £8, though they can charge you for their time. However the process takes less than 5 minutes, so don’t agree to pay much more than £8. The notary can ask you to read out the statement you are making in full, if they do ask, then read it out. But most will just ask to read it.

Notes:

If you are married to a member of the opposite birth sex, you are NOT unmarried. This means you can then only apply for an interim certificate which provides the ability for you and your spouse to obtain a speedy annulment of your marriage at the High Court. When the court annuls your marriage, you will be given your gender recognition certificate on the spot, this will enable you & your spouse to walk from the Court to the Local Registrar and then almost immediately, contract a civil partnership - which provides all the same rights as marriage. This can only happen if you have given enough notification to the court, and to the registrar.

PFC advises contacting the court and the registrar when you send off your application for gender recognition.

The annulment is not the same as in the 1971 Corbett v Corbett (April Ashley's) case. That decision annuled the marriage as if it had never existed. In your case the annulment will recognise the marriage as having existed. This means that when you contract the civl partnership, benefits based on marriage, e.g. your company pension and its survivor pension benefits, will continue so enabling your partner to still benefit on your death, as if you had always been married or civil partners.

If you are married to a member of the same birth sex, whether doing so without full disclosure, or doing so when living overseas, as for as the UK government is concerned that marriage cannot exist until you have obtained a gender recognition certificate, which enables you to marry. When completing the statutory declaration, where you are asked whether you are married or unmarried, complete the form as an UNMARRIED person. PFC advises you and your spouse to get remarried after having obtained your GRC. You do not have to tell the registrar for marriages in the UK about your previous marriage because as far as the UK government is concerned it never existed. Though there is a requirement that you intend to live in your new gender for the remainder of your life, the Act does not preclude a person, who feels that they have transitioned in error, from applying for a gender recognition certificate after transitioning back to their former gender role.

3. Your Medical Evidence: There are 2 types of medical evidence required:

1. A statement, by a Doctor (usually working in psychiatry or sexual health) or a Psychologist on the Gender Recognition panel's list of experts.

· the doctor must be registered with the UK's General Medical Council (GMC), or if a psychologist with the UK's Health Professions Council (HPC).

· they must provide a statement that you have been diagnosed as having Gender Dysphoria (at some time – which may be in the past).

· The statement MUST include a timeline of the process & procedures undertaken to reach the diagnosis.

· If the doctor who diagnosed you is still in practice or if there records are available the diagnostic statement can often be lifted straight out of your medical notes. A small charge might be asked for this information.

· If your diagnosis was undertaken overseas, then many of the experts on the gender recognition panel’s list are willing, for a small fee, to look over the diagnostic and family doctor statements, and to verify them for the panel. You need to contact them directly

 

2. A statement by your regular, or normal family doctor (your GP) who is also registered with the GMC.

 

The statement should include dates and details of your gender reassignment treatments:

· when you started hormone therapy

· what current hormone therapy you are taking, and

· what (if any) surgery you have undergone.

 

it should look something like this:

 

Mr X commenced testosterone treatment in 1994, this has been continuous since then, and will be on-going, an intra-muscular injection, every 2 weeks.

In 1998 he underwent a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction operation to create a masculine appearance to his chest.

In 2002 he commenced procedures for the creation of a phallus with Dr L. Christopher at the University of London College Hospital. This procedure will require several operations and these are on-going.

 

 

PFC recommends that you prepare a short note explaining basic dates and details e.g. when you started treatment, what current hormonal therapy you are on and what, if any, gender reassignment surgery you have undergone.  

note; Surgery is not an essential requirement for the Act, but you will find the process a little quicker and easier if you get your GP to indicate you wish to udnergo surgery when you meet the requirements and funding is available              

Ensure your doctor does not write that you do not intend to have gender reassignment surgeries, even if you have said this to them. Though the Gender Recognition Act 2004, has no requirement that a person has had or is going to undergo gender reassignment surgeries, it does cast doubt in the Gender Recognition Panel's minds, and they may press for further enquiries to be made).


4. Evidence of having lived for 2 Years in Preferred Gender Role: The fourth piece of evidence is simply evidence that for at least two years you have been living in your preferred gender role.

If you have been living for a long time in your preferred gender, a strong piece of evidence can be obtained by writing to your tax office and asking them on what date you started living in your preferred gender. The U.K.’s Majesty’s Revenue and Customs turns over these requests in three or four days at no cost

 

The panel requires only three or four items such as:

  • a passport, which shows that you have been living in the new gender to 2 years,
  • a rent bookfrom this year and the two previous years, and
  • a sample of your wages slips, or benefits books from the last 2 years,

Make sure that each item clearly includes dates at least 2 years in the past from the date of your application.

 

Useful LInks:        

 

The Gender Recognition Act 2004

The GR Act 2004: Explanatory Notes

The Gender Recognition Panel website

Gender Recognition Application Process

GRP General Guide for Applicants

 


The Standard Track

Standard Track Guidance

Standard Track Forms

 

The Overseas track

Overseas Track Guidance

Overseas Track  forms


 

List of Approved territories

List of Approved Gender Dysphoria Specialists

Current Cost of Making a GRC Application

Gender Recognition Panel FAQ's

Guidance on Pensions for Married Couples & those in Civil Partnerships  

Guidance for Married Couples & those in Civil Partnerships