AB 218 Signed by the Governor! Update your California Documents Without a Residence Requirement!!
By: Amira Hasenbush
TLDR: If you have a birth certificate, marriage certificate or child’s birth certificate issued by the state of California, you can now seek a change of name, gender or both in the state of California, even if you don’t live here.
A few years ago, I got a call from a client who had had a child by surrogacy who was born in California. The parent said that the name on the birth certificate was not right, and they needed help changing the child’s name and updating the California birth certificate. However, there was a hitch: the parent and child lived in Thailand, where there is no judicial process to change a name, and California Vital Records will only change a birth certificate with a court ordered name change. We could only file for a name change in California if the petitioner resided in California, and we were stuck. What could we do?
Luckily, this issue came up as I was working on SB 741, the precursor bill to AB 218, which also dealt with amendments to marriage and birth certificates. So, we figured, let’s fix it all while we’re “under the hood.” Yesterday, the Governor signed AB 218, and the law will go into effect on January 1, 2023!
So, what does this mean?
If you have and of the following documents issued by the state of California:
Your birth certificate
Your marriage certificate
Your child’s birth certificate
You can now petition the court for:
A name change
A gender affirmation to male, female or nonbinary
EVEN IF YOU DO NOT LIVE IN CALIFORNIA! Hopefully, this process will make life easier for the folks living in places where they cannot get a judicial name change or cannot get the courts to recognize their gender.
The bill also made two other major changes:
1) Once the law goes into effect, transgender people will be allowed to request that their marriage certificates that were issued in CA be updated to reflect their name and gender. They will receive a new certificate that appears just like the original – a one page document – that simply updates their name and whether they were marked as “Bride” or “Groom,” as requested.
2) Trans folks will also be able to update their children’s birth certificates to reflect their current legal name and to change their label of “Mother,” “Father” or “Parent.”
Want to learn how the process works? Check out the new law here or feel welcome to reach out and contact me.