Changing Sex/Gender Identity on New Zealand Passport
Recently, the applicant will get a chance to fill up their preferred sex in the passport. The authority will issue the passport regarding your gender preference. You can select any of the genders like M (male), F (female) or X (intermediate or unspecified). The applicant doesn’t have to amend these details in their birth record as well as their citizenship record.
What the applicant needs to do to apply for the preferred gender identity?
- As an applicant, you need to fill the new adult passport.
- Complete statutory declaration, which indicates the sex identity that you want in your passport and also, how long you are carrying this identity of your current gender.
Apart from all these, the applicant has to meet all the passport related criteria.
Additional information for the applicants who are below the age of 18
The following additional information is required if the applicant is below 18 years of age:
- He or she has to submit a statutory declaration from a legal guardian or a parent, which will validate that they support the decision regarding the change of sex or gender.
- Also, he or she has to present the authority with a letter from a registered counselor or a medical professional that will ensure the support of this change.
In case of multiple changes in gender or sex identity
The goal of the new policy was to remove the unwanted obstacles that an applicant has to face while changing their gender identity. But, one thing that an applicant has to keep in mind that if he or she goes to multiple changes in the sex identity, they may have to face some implications in the overseas border controls. Apart from that, it can also affect the applicant’s ability to authorize their identity in the broader community.
If the applicant has changed their identity for more than one time, he or she has to submit their previous passport along with their application for the passport. Upon doing that, the authority will deface and cancel the passport and then the claimant will get the passport back.
To return the passport or the travel document is up to the department of internal affairs as they have the right to request.
The gender details mentioned in the birth record of New Zealand
The new passport policy has nothing to do with the births, marriages and relationship registration acts, which were penned in the year of 1995. That act allows an adult Guardian of an eligible child to apply to the New Zealand family court for the purpose of declaring the reflection of the gender in their birth record.
So, these are the things that you have to keep in mind if you want to change your gender identification in the passport.