On his last day as president (January 19) Barack Obama issued a memo to the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Service) instructing that agency to allow transgender immigrants to request a change in gender on their official documents.

The change allows verification by foreign health care professionals of treatment undergone by legal immigrants in regard to their gender.

Individuals may request a change in the gender reflected on a USCIS-issued document … [and] USCIS will issue an initial or amended document reflecting the changed gender designation.

--The memo

The USCIS will now change the gender marker if the person applying for the document presents:

• a court order granting change of sex or gender

• a government-issued document (amended birth certificate, driver's license, etc.) reflecting the requested gender designation

• a letter from a licensed health professional affirming the applicant's gender identity

Previously, applicants needed to supply an amended birth certificate, passport, court order or doctor's note. Accepted documents include the aforementioned, as well as driver's licenses and other federal, state and local official documents that reflects the person's gender identity. Additionally, applicants can now supply official documents from foreign governments.

These are "modest, fairly technical updates" to a policy that's already existed for five years at the federal level. Tobin also pointed out that some states — such as Massachusetts, Maine, Hawaii and Connecticut — have similar or even more progressive stances on changing gender markers.

The most important part of this update is that immigrants can now much more easily have all of their USCIS-issued documents — like work permits, visas and green cards — reflect the same gender.

We’re talking about people who need to update these documents to reflect the way they live their lives every day. If someone lives as a man and works as a male and his ID says he is female, it’s embarrassing for him and potentially confusing for his employer or any other official he may come in contact with. Having policies like this that make the procedure better makes sense.

--Harper Tobin, NCTE