It's a pretty old article, but I want to write something from my formal experience as a transgender immigrant. I know the whole procedure and knew that from my first months here.
1. Yes, as a transgender immigrant you can change your gender (with your first name) after 12 months in the country. The municipality of The Hague processes all applications from foreign-born transgenders (BOTH foreigh-born citizens and just foreign residents).
2. For the procedure, you need a letter from a psychologist, which is easily possible to get (I had a 45-minutes online appointment).
3. You need a birth certificate. The Netherlands will change your birth certificate here and your new gender and name will come to the BRP database.
4. If you cannot get your old birth certificate via your embassy, you can get a Dutch replacement of an original birth certificate. It's possible via a lawyer, and it takes only a few months. It's very suitable for refugees or for people from unstable countries, embassies of which do not function well.
5. Once you got your new official name and gender, no one will take it from you here anymore Your official name and gender in your birth country will remain the same, so you can change it there apart, if it's possible there. If you want to make changes there (and if it's easy there too), you can do it via your birth place. So, if you're a foreign resident, you can even avoid changing everything in the Netherlands, and Dutch authorities will have to change it here, based on the changes of the birth certificate in the country, citizenship of which you hold.
6. My advice: do official changes as an immigrant as soon as you chose your new name and as soon as you're ready. I wasn’t ready for a while, but everyone saw that I'm trans, so I got, at least, 20 different discrimination incidents, when transphobic people tried to intervene into my name choice. A couple of times, ultraconservative people hated me, because my new name wasn't from a close relative, and many more times transphobes hated me for not taking a Dutch name. I got hard pressure from a refugee camp employees, from municipality employees and even from some medical professionals for the fact I wanted only a Latin name and only that I want. Those transphobic individuals thought that it was possible to change my decision before official changes. Two times conflicts got out of control with threats and insults from both sides. It couldn't brake me, of course. I was choosing only between names, which I really liked, and, so, I eventually became Camilla.
My situation. I came here in 2018. I knew about the transgender law for immigrants. I was eligible for official changes after 12 months in the country (since 2019), but, as I wrote, I wasn't ready yet. At the time, it was legal and easy to change gender and name in my birth country, but I couldn't visit that place. Then, it was a bit difficult to get my birth certificate via my embassy (I came to the Netherlands as a refugee WITHOUT a birth certificate). So, in the end of 2022, I started the procedure via a lawyer and got a Dutch replacement of the birth certificate this year. With the replacement, I started to apply for name and gender change. I'm not a citizen yet (my citizenship will come only in a few months), so, I decided to do these changes now as a permanent foreign resident. Gender from male to female, name from the "dead name" to Camilla.
Basic information on diagnosis and such
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- Berichten: 53
- Lid geworden op: 02 dec 2022, 00:39
- Gender: Vrouw
- Voornaamwoorden: Zij/haar
Re: Basic information on diagnosis and such
Never give up!