i know i told them they were in breach but they didnt care ... i just paid for an online 1 and shut the disciminating Aholes up ...

Ignorant behaviour by HSBC, they are entirely at fault. Almost certainly a case of whoever was dealing with it at the time not being aware of the law. If this happens to anyone else they should insist that the bank show the deed poll to their own solicitor for clarification, people like this need educating!
Best way round to do it is print off your deed poll, do several, not photocopies, get them witnessed (by anyone except a member of your family), then send one off to the DVLA. When you have your new driving licence apply for a new passport (I thought I had to pay for that, it was a long time ago so I could be wrong). Then continue sending out your deed poll (always with a covering letter of course) to utility companies, credit cards, Paypal, and everything. Then do your bank, I'm sure I just sent the same standard letter by post to my bank as I had done with all of the above and there were no issues. No-one should have any problems changing their name once they are in posession of a UK passport and driving licence in their new name. Some institutions may be awkward and ask for a letter from your GP or gender specialist before they will change your title to Miss, but that ought to be pretty rare these days.
Slightly bizarrely, the only person who ever insisted that my deed poll should be witnessed by a solicitor (as it didn't have the meaningless stamp on that she was used to seeing), was the receptionist at Charing Cross, who by the sound of it now works for HSBC...
She was at fault, as were your bank, Rebecca.
Oh and Cristine, I think that the requirement to have surgery in Germany before gender changes on documents are allowed applies only to German citizens, if indeed that requirement still stands. Not sure though, could even be a grey area, but I'm sure there wouldn't be any problems with just changing your name.
xx

Hello Lucy, there's a lot of 'Catch 22' in what you've just written. In order to be able to change things like bank accounts etc. they will expect to see proof of identity- in other words a passport with my new name......Getting a new passport used to be so simple- pop the form, the cheque and the pass in the post to the consulate in Düsseldorf and a week or so later there was a registered letter to be collected.

Yes, it sounds like it would be a lot easier for you to get a passport next time you're in the UK, if you ever visit.
xx

Having ploughed through the UK passport website (I started wondering whether Franz Kafka had written it!) it looks as though it's going to be a personal version of the chinese curse "May you live in interesting times". Officially I'm still 'him', unofficially Lynn since at least ten years. Looking at the list of documents they might require I can see I'll probably have to send an accompanying letter on the lines of,"Sorry, I can only supply these documents when this or that authority has registered my new name and to be able to do that they'll require identification - specifically a passport with my new name." This one may run and run!

The passport application has been sent off via internet and post. Interestingly, countersignatures are now apparently optional on the declaration etc., since I wasn't asked for one and the space for it was quite simply blank.. It will be interesting to see if I get an e-mail or a phone call about this.

 

The requirement for german citizens to have GRS before getting their gender officially changedwas dropped  a long while ago.

Well done Lynn, hope it goes smoothly.
Very glad to hear the second bit too!
xx

My christmas present duly arrived- a brand new passport for Lynn, F, - and that without a GRC!

Time passes...and here's a possibly interesting story. The new pass arrived and, armed with that and copies of my deed poll with a certified translation I started the process of informing authorities etc. The only place that was troublesome was the State Pension Authority who initially refused to accept the changes because I hadn't used the TSG (Transsexuellen Gesetz - I live in Germany). However, I politely pointed out to them that, in my case, the TSG doesn't apply (It applies to german citizens, recognised refugees , those granted political asylum, stateless persons, and foreigners whose home countries do not allow changes of name - none of these apply to me - I'm a british citizen and, as we all know, name changes in the UK are no problem at all) and, in any case, there's another law which states that names for foreigners depend upon the relevant laws in their home countries. A week or two later I got a letter from them giving me a new, female, state pension number! I gave the same info to my bank and they were no trouble.

Now the next round of the fun is starting. As a consequence of the brexit vote, I shall possibly be applying for german citizenship. This will require a 'corrected' birth cert. which means a GRC - and the GRC board apparently expect me to use the TSG (see above!), if the the yougov info is anything to go by. A notary public has signed the stat. dec. bits, I've got all sorts of papers with my new name and status, including the call to breast screening(!), so in a few days I'll send it all off and wait with bated breath for the rejection(!).

I live in interesting times!

As to why I don't appear here more often- I may be on the pension but that doesn't mean I've got time on my hands what with my music, my photo-art, cats and long walks in the forest etc!

Lynn

This post was edited by lynn harvey at October 23, 2017 2:47 PM BST