Court order name change questions

[Lilo]

I am about to start the process of legal name change and gender. I was wondering about the transitional period when you have documents with the old name and others with the new name. Some transactions require certain IDs, can take different amounts of time and I fear if you dont do them in the right order you may be stuck in limbo with mixed IDs that prevent you from functioning. So, this got me thinking about the court order. Does it legally say that you are the same person either with the old or the new name and can (temporarily) use either one legally? Or, are you not supposed to use your old name anymore.

[Angela Campbell]

You would need to have other documents and accounts changed as soon as you can. Some things have a time limit such as drivers license in FL gives you 10 days to have it corrected. I cannot think of any situation where there would be anything to prevent you from functioning.

Here you must go first to soc security and get the changes there then wait for the next day and do the drivers license changed, then to the bank. After that it is time to contact everyone you have an account with, a license with, or are otherwise registered with. Make a list, you will have many to contact.

[Michelle.M]

First, most of the details will have at least something to do with your state law, so take that into account for the following.

In my state my name change order authorized me to have my name changed on anything that required it (driver's license, credit accounts, passport, etc). My order said that from that date I was legally identified by my new name. That it took some time for ME to get my name changed on other documents was my own issue.

If you're worried about a "transitional period" then start changing ALL of your documents as soon as you can and reduce that gap as much as possible. In my case my license change was immediate. At no time was I ever not able to function.

I intentionally had a longer transition (name-wise) than necessary, for work reasons. It won't be any more of an issue than you allow it to be. And besides, after a while I just didn't care if anyone knew that I was trans. Just yesterday I had to submit documents for student aid at my university and some of them had my old name (and they can't be changed), so I also submitted my name change order and explained that the old documents have my old name. That's all. They can figure out why that is so.

[stefan37]

The court order allows you to use your new name to replace your old name. The sequence I used when I got the court order was Social security change, Driver's license and gender. Then I proceeded to open a bank acct and change my credit card accts. Then I did professional licenses and other financial data. Six months later I am still finding things to change I never thought about such as college transcripts. It is a long process so be patient

I had to send the change order to the nj dept of treasury within 30 days after the court order. Then the registrar of vital statistics. I also had to do the driver's license within a time frame. Those were the only mandatory time limits imposed by the court

[steph1964]

In Arizona the court order changes your name and also has a second sentence ordering the change of your birth certificate of you were born in Arizona. If you were born in another state it says to change if the state is authorized to do so. I was born In England so my court order won't be valid over there.
In Arizona you can't change your driver's license until it has been changed and in the Social Security system. I was told 24 hours so I'm hoping I can get mine done today. I already changed my information at my banks but there is a lot more to do. Probably a lot I haven't even thought about.

[Rianna Humble]

Hi Steph, there are some provisions on the www.gov.uk website for dealing with overseas gender change orders, so it should be possible for you to do something.

You might like to look at the Press For Change website (http://www.pfc.org.uk/GRC_Applications.html) which seems to deal with your circumstances.

[steph1964]

Thank you Rianna.