Attention: This guide is for german citizens, specially Northrhine Westphalia. It also involves the explanation of a legal grey area. I strongly recommend to look out for updates and changed laws regarding the exploit.
The german legal system makes a difference between transgender and intersexual people.
If you are transgender, changing your official gender and name, while residing in a non-EU country is impossible. Transgender people need counseling, psychological evaluation and have been living as male/female for at least two years in order to obtain a court order to change you birth certificates.
Intersexual people need to fill out a form, a certified copy of the passport and a medical certificate stating that they “have undergone a thorough medical examination and been diagnosed with disorders of sex development and can not be classified as male or female.”
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Get in touch with your responsible Standesamt. If you lived in Germany before, it’s the city you last have been registered in. If you never have been registered in Germany, it’s the Standesamt 1 in Berlin.
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Get a medical certificate in English, that states the abovementioned disorder of sex development.
It needs to have the clinic’s address, doctor’s name, signature and seal. Make sure the doctor is specialised in internal medicine. -
Go to the GIT, get a certified copy of your passport, fill out the form for §45b PstG and sign it in front of the clerk. The signature has to be certified! You’ll have to make an appointment with the GIT.
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Send it all to the responsible Standesamt. Remember to include money for the fees. I had to pay 40€. 30€ for changing the birth certificate, 10 for a copy of the new birth certificate. I chose the excerpt from the birth registry in English. The fees vary from city to city, so ask before you send everything.
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After you get your new birth certificate (took around 3 weeks from sending to receiving), you’ll need a new passport. Back to the GIT.
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When you finally get your shiny new passport with your shiny new name in it, you’re set to apply for a new A(P)RC. Be prepared for questions why it is that you have suddenly a new name and gender. In my case it was enough to bring my new passport, old passport, arc and the English birth certificate.
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Congratulations, you successfully changed your gender and name.
ProTip: if you just want to get rid of the gender entry in your passport, tell the clerk at the GIT you want to change it to “none”, when applying for a new one. The new passport will have an “X” instead of “F” or “M”.
. I think it’s also because changing your name to i.e. “salmon” is not a big deal here. That’s one of the advantages of having fixed Id-numbers.
