When Can I Get My New Birth Certificate?
1st December 2003
I’m getting a steady stream of enquiries asking “When can I get my new birth certificate?”
The quick answer is: you will probably be able to apply at the end of 2004, or early 2005 — if you transitioned before early 1999.
Otherwise, you will have to wait for another six months — and in either case, your application may probably take a few months to process.
If you’re curious, here’s the longer answer:
The Gender Recognition Bill (GerBil) is now in the House of Lords, and if/when they pass it, the next stage will be its passage through the House of Commons. All the different parliamentary stages take time — see parliament’s guide to the stages of legislation — so (if all goes well and the GerBil is not thrown out), the GerBil will not be passed into law until early late spring or early summer of 2004. I’m not placing any bets, but I think that April, May or June would be the most likely months.
Once the GerBil receives the Royal Assent, it will become the Gender Recognition Act 2004. That is when the work can begin on setting up the Gender Recognition Panels and the secretariat which supports them, which will probably take six to eight months work — and then the Act can come into effect.
That brings us to somewhere between October 2004 and February 2005.
For the first six months, the Gender Recognition Panels will only accept appliactions from those who had transitioned for more than six years, so anyone who transitioned after early 1999 will have to wait. On this guesstimated timescale, that means that those who transitioned after early 1999 will be unable to apply until sometime after April or August 2005
In the first year, the Gender Recognition Panels are going to be very busy, so applications may take a few months to process.
Please note that all of the above depends on the bill being passed by parliament, and being passed without too many amendments. PFC believes that the bill will be passed without substantial amendment … but parliament could make big changes, or even throw out the bill entirely.
Hope this helps!