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aidenonymousI changed my legal name in New York City last week and wanted to publicly share the experience.
I live in the Middle of Nowhere, where a legal name change involves a lot of jumping through hoops, long waits, and significant funds. I prepared myself for the worst and planned to start the process after the semester ended. Last week, I found out I could change my legal name in New York City, where I was born and grew up and where the process is much simpler, faster, and cheaper (and less transphobic in general). The only hurdle was that I knew I'd be spending the week of Thanksgiving in NYC but had no idea when I'd be back, and certainly not if I'd be back long enough to do the legal mumbo jumbo.
I arrived at the Manhattan courthouse at around 11AM on Monday with the paperwork in hand, along with my passport and birth certificate. My passport set off the metal detector, but it was easily resolved. I also had to put my backpack through an x-ray machine. My ID was not checked at all. I went to the information desk and asked where to go for a name change and was politely directed to an office on the first floor. I filled out the paperwork in the office. Had I not needed the records to be sealed and to have the publication requirement waived, I could have used the public computers there to fill it out electronically and print a completed copy of it. I brought two copies of the forms and ended up needing both because I screwed up a little. It took me about 20 minutes to complete the paperwork because I am bad at bureaucracy. I wrote that my safety would be endangered by the publication requirement because evidence of my transgender status could put me at risk of unemployment or homelessness in areas without legal protections from discrimination in employment and housing on the basis of gender identity. The reason I gave for my name change was to have a legal name consistent with my gender identity and expression.
I waited in line for about 15 minutes to talk to the clerk. He checked over my paperwork and pointed out where to fill in some things that were kind of confusing. I verified that my request to have the records sealed and publication requirement waived was registered with my application. There was a form for my spouse to sign certifying knowledge of my name change, but I'd overheard someone in front of me submitting it, and it required having a copy of one's marriage license on hand. My spouse was with me but we didn't bring our marriage license, so I claimed to be unmarried, and no one called me out on the lie. The clerk notarized everything on the spot without a fee. I had to show my passport as ID to complete the notary process. I also had to relinquish my certified copy of my birth certificate, which was stapled to the paperwork. All that took about 10 minutes. I was sent to a different office upstairs to pay $65 for submitting the forms. I could have applied for a fee waiver, but I was afraid it would delay my application, and time was of the essence. I waited in line for about 10 minutes and paid in cash, with exact change. I returned to the first office with my receipt and packet of forms plus birth certificate and waited in line again, for about 10 minutes. I was assigned a court date, at 11AM the next day. The paperwork was out of my hands at 12PM.
The next day, I arrived at 11AM and went directly to the courtroom on the third floor I'd been told to go to the previous day, this time remembering to take my passport out of my pocket. There were about ten other people in the enormous courtroom. We waited for about 10 minutes during which time everyone was totally silent. Someone in a police uniform at the front of the courtroom called for everyone present for name changes to step to the front. I stepped up and was asked my name, and the clerk picked my file from out of a stack and set it aside for the judge to look at as a form of taking attendance. She handed me a form explaining what to do once a name change is completed in terms of publication requirements and how to notify various agencies (like Social Security, Department of Corrections, etc.) as applicable. I asked about my request to waive the publication requirement and she said most of that sheet wouldn't apply to me if the judge approved it.
I took my seat again and waited another 10 minutes for the judge to arrive. He sat down and was given the stack of folders and began calling us up using our surnames. Each person called went up one at a time and spoke quietly to the judge before being sent back. My name was called, though pronounced almost unrecognizably, and someone closer to the podium stepped up before I could get there. The judge spoke with this person, realized they weren't me, shuffled folders, continued talking with them, and then sent them away and called my name again. This time I got there before anyone else and was certain it had been my name after all. The judge just verified that I was changing my name as requested on the papers. He told me my request to have the records sealed and publication requirement waived had been approved on the grounds that it endangered my safety. I watched him sign my forms, and he passed them to the clerk at his side. He removed the staple from my paperwork to sign it and returned my birth certificate to me. He gave me leave to return to my seat, so I did.
Once everyone had been called up, the judge made some announcements. Everyone had been granted a waiver of the publication requirement today! It was clear that he thought the requirement wasn't very important to the functioning of the legal system. He said that the clerk at his side would finish up all the paperwork on the spot rather than making us wait for any significant amount of time; this announcement involved some insults to clerks in other courts. He told us the clerk would call our names to pick up the completed court orders when the copies were ready. The judge reminded everyone to double-check their paperwork when they received it because any errors could be corrected easily today and with some difficulty later on. He told us the next few steps, which were written on the sheet and which I highlighted as they were mentioned so I wouldn't get too lost. After the judge left, we waited a bit more until the clerk who took attendance was done frantically using the copy machine at the instruction of the chief clerk. One by one we were called up (my surname was pronounced correctly this time) and picked up our court orders before sitting down again in the courtroom. I double-checked mine and found no errors. We were dismissed when she had gone through all the names, with a reminder of where to go next and what to do after that. It was about 12PM at that point.
We all headed back to the office on the ground floor and waited in line. The clerk from the previous day asked each person how many copies of the court order we would need, at $6 each, and with a suggestion of at least two. When it was my turn, I asked for five, in part because I could think of four places at which I'd need to prove my name change without knowing I'd get it back and in part because I didn't have exact change for any other number of copies. I was issued five copies to take to the office on the second floor to pay for them. Once there, I waited in line again and paid the fees. The copies were stamped and receipts were printed and stapled to the court orders. The official seal that makes them legal was stamped through the receipt and I was told explicitly that the receipt is part of the legal document. I brought the court orders back to the office on the first floor where they received another stamp indicating my name change was finalized as well as verification that the publication requirement really was waived and the records would be sealed (though I'm still a little paranoid that somehow didn't go through and don't know how to check). It took about 45 minutes to go through that little song and dance. The end.
I'm not sure if I was really ready for this, in spite of the fact that I chose and began using my name years ago. I didn't expect to have completed this process until March or so since I wasn't planning to start until December, so I feel like I'm rushing even though there's only evidence for being ahead of schedule. I'm postponing getting a new government-issued ID until March to make sure I'm emotionally keeping pace with this, but I plan to change my name with my bank and workplace ASAP.
I live in the Middle of Nowhere, where a legal name change involves a lot of jumping through hoops, long waits, and significant funds. I prepared myself for the worst and planned to start the process after the semester ended. Last week, I found out I could change my legal name in New York City, where I was born and grew up and where the process is much simpler, faster, and cheaper (and less transphobic in general). The only hurdle was that I knew I'd be spending the week of Thanksgiving in NYC but had no idea when I'd be back, and certainly not if I'd be back long enough to do the legal mumbo jumbo.
I arrived at the Manhattan courthouse at around 11AM on Monday with the paperwork in hand, along with my passport and birth certificate. My passport set off the metal detector, but it was easily resolved. I also had to put my backpack through an x-ray machine. My ID was not checked at all. I went to the information desk and asked where to go for a name change and was politely directed to an office on the first floor. I filled out the paperwork in the office. Had I not needed the records to be sealed and to have the publication requirement waived, I could have used the public computers there to fill it out electronically and print a completed copy of it. I brought two copies of the forms and ended up needing both because I screwed up a little. It took me about 20 minutes to complete the paperwork because I am bad at bureaucracy. I wrote that my safety would be endangered by the publication requirement because evidence of my transgender status could put me at risk of unemployment or homelessness in areas without legal protections from discrimination in employment and housing on the basis of gender identity. The reason I gave for my name change was to have a legal name consistent with my gender identity and expression.
I waited in line for about 15 minutes to talk to the clerk. He checked over my paperwork and pointed out where to fill in some things that were kind of confusing. I verified that my request to have the records sealed and publication requirement waived was registered with my application. There was a form for my spouse to sign certifying knowledge of my name change, but I'd overheard someone in front of me submitting it, and it required having a copy of one's marriage license on hand. My spouse was with me but we didn't bring our marriage license, so I claimed to be unmarried, and no one called me out on the lie. The clerk notarized everything on the spot without a fee. I had to show my passport as ID to complete the notary process. I also had to relinquish my certified copy of my birth certificate, which was stapled to the paperwork. All that took about 10 minutes. I was sent to a different office upstairs to pay $65 for submitting the forms. I could have applied for a fee waiver, but I was afraid it would delay my application, and time was of the essence. I waited in line for about 10 minutes and paid in cash, with exact change. I returned to the first office with my receipt and packet of forms plus birth certificate and waited in line again, for about 10 minutes. I was assigned a court date, at 11AM the next day. The paperwork was out of my hands at 12PM.
The next day, I arrived at 11AM and went directly to the courtroom on the third floor I'd been told to go to the previous day, this time remembering to take my passport out of my pocket. There were about ten other people in the enormous courtroom. We waited for about 10 minutes during which time everyone was totally silent. Someone in a police uniform at the front of the courtroom called for everyone present for name changes to step to the front. I stepped up and was asked my name, and the clerk picked my file from out of a stack and set it aside for the judge to look at as a form of taking attendance. She handed me a form explaining what to do once a name change is completed in terms of publication requirements and how to notify various agencies (like Social Security, Department of Corrections, etc.) as applicable. I asked about my request to waive the publication requirement and she said most of that sheet wouldn't apply to me if the judge approved it.
I took my seat again and waited another 10 minutes for the judge to arrive. He sat down and was given the stack of folders and began calling us up using our surnames. Each person called went up one at a time and spoke quietly to the judge before being sent back. My name was called, though pronounced almost unrecognizably, and someone closer to the podium stepped up before I could get there. The judge spoke with this person, realized they weren't me, shuffled folders, continued talking with them, and then sent them away and called my name again. This time I got there before anyone else and was certain it had been my name after all. The judge just verified that I was changing my name as requested on the papers. He told me my request to have the records sealed and publication requirement waived had been approved on the grounds that it endangered my safety. I watched him sign my forms, and he passed them to the clerk at his side. He removed the staple from my paperwork to sign it and returned my birth certificate to me. He gave me leave to return to my seat, so I did.
Once everyone had been called up, the judge made some announcements. Everyone had been granted a waiver of the publication requirement today! It was clear that he thought the requirement wasn't very important to the functioning of the legal system. He said that the clerk at his side would finish up all the paperwork on the spot rather than making us wait for any significant amount of time; this announcement involved some insults to clerks in other courts. He told us the clerk would call our names to pick up the completed court orders when the copies were ready. The judge reminded everyone to double-check their paperwork when they received it because any errors could be corrected easily today and with some difficulty later on. He told us the next few steps, which were written on the sheet and which I highlighted as they were mentioned so I wouldn't get too lost. After the judge left, we waited a bit more until the clerk who took attendance was done frantically using the copy machine at the instruction of the chief clerk. One by one we were called up (my surname was pronounced correctly this time) and picked up our court orders before sitting down again in the courtroom. I double-checked mine and found no errors. We were dismissed when she had gone through all the names, with a reminder of where to go next and what to do after that. It was about 12PM at that point.
We all headed back to the office on the ground floor and waited in line. The clerk from the previous day asked each person how many copies of the court order we would need, at $6 each, and with a suggestion of at least two. When it was my turn, I asked for five, in part because I could think of four places at which I'd need to prove my name change without knowing I'd get it back and in part because I didn't have exact change for any other number of copies. I was issued five copies to take to the office on the second floor to pay for them. Once there, I waited in line again and paid the fees. The copies were stamped and receipts were printed and stapled to the court orders. The official seal that makes them legal was stamped through the receipt and I was told explicitly that the receipt is part of the legal document. I brought the court orders back to the office on the first floor where they received another stamp indicating my name change was finalized as well as verification that the publication requirement really was waived and the records would be sealed (though I'm still a little paranoid that somehow didn't go through and don't know how to check). It took about 45 minutes to go through that little song and dance. The end.
I'm not sure if I was really ready for this, in spite of the fact that I chose and began using my name years ago. I didn't expect to have completed this process until March or so since I wasn't planning to start until December, so I feel like I'm rushing even though there's only evidence for being ahead of schedule. I'm postponing getting a new government-issued ID until March to make sure I'm emotionally keeping pace with this, but I plan to change my name with my bank and workplace ASAP.
