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Family Law

: Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Legal Briefs

Changing Your Legal Documents to Match Your Sex: Part 2 of 5

By Christopher Vaughn-Martel

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A passport is an essential legal document for every citizen. Without it, an individual will be unable to travel outside of the United States, including to Canada and Mexico.

Part 2 of 5: Passports. Because passports are issued by the federal government, the procedure obtaining a new United States passport that accurately reflects one's name and sex designation is uniform regardless of your state of residence.

To obtain a passport for the first time, an individual must go in person to one of the more than 9,000 passport acceptance facilities located throughout the United States. In order to locate a passport acceptance facility nearest to you, click here. You will need two photographs of yourself, proof of U.S. citizenship, and a valid form of photo identification such as a driver?s license.

In order to effectuate a change of name and sex designation on a passport, a person must obtain and fill out the appropriate form from the United States Department of State website. If it has been less than one year since a current passport was issued, a person can request a new passport free-of-charge by filling out Form DS-5504. If it has been over a year since a current passport was issued, a person must fill out Form DS-82 and pay a $67.00 fee.

In order to obtain a change of name on a passport, an applicant must enclose a certified copy of the court decree granting the name change. For a change of sex designation on your passport, an applicant must enclose a certified copy of his or her new birth certificate, reflecting the change of sex. Certified birth records can be obtained by filling out a Request Form and sending it to the Registry of Vital Records and Statistics.

For further information, visit http://travel.state.gov or visit the National Passport Information Center.

Full post as published by Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Legal Briefs on October 04, 2008 (boomark / email).