News Alert: USCIS Updates Policy to Recognize Two Biological Sexes (Male and Female)
Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash. In April 2025, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) updated the USCIS Policy Manual to clarify that it only recognizes two biological sexes, male and female. Find out more in our News Alert.
What’s changed?
Consistent with the Jan. 20, 2025, executive order, Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, which clarified a distinction between “sex” and “gender identity,” USCIS is returning to its historical policy of recognizing two biological sexes. This was previously changed by the Biden administration in April 2024 when it instituted a policy adding another option, a gender identity marker of “X.”
According to USCIS, this change is needed because an applicant’s sex, like their date of birth, is part of their identity and the agency uses identity to create secure documents, as well as for screening and vetting. It also shares identity-based data with other agencies of the U.S. government, and data fields such as sex must follow standards for such data sharing to function properly.
Not a new policy
Historically, USCIS has required applicants to choose between two sexes, “male (M)” or “female (F),” for purposes of its forms and secure documents the agency issues. Section 338 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) also requires that the sex, not gender, appear on the Certificate of Naturalization. Further, INA section 203(a) relies on two sexes when it uses the term “sons or daughters” to allocate immigrant visas.
How will this change the way that USCIS process applications?
Under this guidance, USCIS considers a person’s sex as that which is generally evidenced on the birth certificate issued at or nearest to the time of birth. If the birth certificate issued at or nearest to the time of birth indicates a sex other than male or female, USCIS will base the determination of sex on secondary evidence.
What else should I know?
According to USCIS, it will not deny benefits solely because the applicant failed to properly indicate his or her sex. However, USCIS does not issue documents with a blank sex field (or an “X”), and does not issue documents with a sex different than the sex as generally evidenced on a birth certificate issued at the time of birth (or issued nearest to the time of birth). Therefore, if the applicant does not indicate his or her sex or indicates a sex different from the sex on his or her birth certificate issued at the time of birth (or issued nearest to the time of birth), there may be delays in adjudication and USCIS may request for additional evidence clarifying the applicant’s sex.
I’ve already received my green card/work permit indicating a sex different than the on on my birth certificate. How does this affect me?
This policy is effective immediately and applies to benefit requests pending or filed on or after April 2, 2025, so it shouldn’t have any retroactive impact for those already issued documents by USCIS. However, this is a new development, so check out the USCIS dedicated webpage and policy alert. Stay tuned as we monitor this and other developments. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Tumblr, for up-to-date immigration news.
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