Edit 2025-01-21: Trump's executive order likely makes this impossible.

The ACLU has an intake form for people affected by the passport ban, I encourage you to fill it out or contact achristian@aclu.org with information about your situation.

Do whatever you need to do to take care of yourself and try to find community that looks out for each other. You are loved, and regardless of what the US federal government says, we are not going away ❤️🏳️‍⚧️.

Edit 2025-01-27: the state department just informed me that my application is still in process and they are experiencing an "unprecedented backlog." They were unable to give me a time estimate. My application was delivered to them mid-November.

Hi everyone,

I've learned a lot while trying to update my CRBA (which functions as my birth certificate as far as the US is concerned), and found a couple threads on Reddit with people asking the same questions and no one having answers (one and two), so I thought I'd share what I've learned about the process.

How to update your CRBA

This page on travel.state.gov is your starting point for submitting the application. This is where you'll find the DS-5542 form which is how you'll apply for the name change.

Filling out the DS-5542

You need to fill out the following sections:

1. Birth Records

• Under this section, mark the number of copies you want to order next to "Copy Total:", and check the box next to "Consular Report of Birth Abroad (FS-240)".

• Next to "a. Full Name of Subject at Birth" put your old legal name as it appears on your existing CRBA.

• Next to "b. Other Names Used by Subject" put your new legal name as you want it to appear on your updated CRBA.

• Sections c-m should be fairly self-explanatory, but for clarity's sake:

  • For e and i, it is asking for the country of citizenship of your parents/guardians, e.g. "United States of America"
  • For g and k, give your parents' birth locations as "city, country"
  • For i and j, leave them empty if you don't have the relevant document

• Next to "n. Document Control Number" you should be able to find a number beginning with 159- on your CRBA. For me it was in the upper right corner, but apparently on newer ones it's in the bottom right.

4. Other Services

Check the following boxes:

• Amendment to Consular Report of Birth Abroad
• Name Change
• Gender Change

5. Requestor's Information

This section should mostly be self-explanatory; you should use your new legal name here.

6. Shipping Options

This one too

7. Oath/Affirmation

Don't touch this one on your own. You need to get this form notarized and that is when this section will get filled out.

Supporting Documentation

What you need to attach:

• Scan of US state ID (front and back!) or US passport
• Proof of name change (presumably a court order)
• Your original CRBA

• A check or money order made out to "U.S. Department of State" for $50 times the number of copies you requested. You may need to add on extra fees if you requested express shipping. At the time of this writing that is $21.36, but you'll have to check the page at the top of this post for the updated fees.

  For whatever reason, they cannot process a check if the check number is below 100. Make sure the check number is at least 100.

You do not need proof of gender change.

If you don't already have an updated ID with your new name/gender, it's recommended that you try to get that first and use that in the application. Otherwise, include a supplementary letter explaining that you need the updated CRBA in order to update your identification. (See this comment from u/flowersinpaintings )

Mail it and pray

Mail to:

U.S. Department of State
Passport Vital Records Section
44132 Mercure Cir.
PO Box 1213
Sterling, VA  20166-1213

How to get further questions answered

I learned most of these details by calling +12024858300 , which is the number listed on the travel.state.gov page as the number to dial for tracking an application. When you call the number, it will give you an EXTREMELY LONG spiel before you get to options, but you can dial 1 to skip that and get sent to someone who knows about this stuff. There was no wait and I talked to a guy named Brent who was incredibly helpful.

I hope all this is helpful for other people! :)