Not A Phase: its passport and licence guides for trans+ adults

Who Not A Phase is#

Not A Phase was founded in 2020 and describes itself as a trans-led, grassroots charity committed to improving the lives of trans+ adults, having found that no charity focused only on adults. Its work is mostly about community and joy rather than casework: Trans+ Socials, Misfits (free fitness, wellbeing and self-defence classes for trans+ adults), Trans+Connect (free fortnightly online peer support groups, including groups for people transitioning later in life), awareness campaigns, and diversity and inclusion training for workplaces.

How to reach Not A Phase#

The contact page has a message form and an email address. Not A Phase is not an advice service, so for questions about your own documents its guides, and the official pages they link to, are the place to start. If you want company while you sort things out, Trans+Connect may suit you better than an email.

What its guides say about changing your name#

Not A Phase publishes two short guides, both dated 26 November 2024 and prepared with help from the law firm Mishcon de Reya.

The passport guide makes a deed poll step one. It describes the two kinds: an unenrolled deed poll you can create yourself if you are over 16, which it calls often the quicker option, and an enrolled deed poll that puts your new name on public record through the Royal Courts of Justice, at a cost it gave as £49.32. It suggests checking with your bank or GP which kind they will accept. The later steps are updating your name with your GP and asking for a doctor's letter, gathering recent evidence that you use the new name (such as a payslip or a council or utility letter), applying, and waiting. It notes that a passport gender marker is not legal recognition of gender and does not change your birth certificate.

The driving licence guide follows the same pattern: a deed poll first, then form D1 (or D2 for lorry and bus licences) to DVLA, with the deed poll and a letter from a GP or consultant.

What has changed since November 2024?#

GOV.UK now lists the enrolment fee as £53.05, and says enrolment publishes your name change and your address in The Gazette. Most people never need it: GOV.UK says anyone aged 16 or over can make an unenrolled deed poll from its free wording, and HM Passport Office and DVLA accept one. GOV.UK's advice to ask the organisation which deed poll it accepts is the same as the guide's.

Passport applications go direct to HM Passport Office, on GOV.UK or at a Post Office; the guide links to GOV.UK's renewal and first-passport pages.

Your passport application

Apply direct: on GOV.UK or at a Post Office

We make deed polls. We do not fill in, check or send passport applications, and you do not need anyone to. Apply direct with HM Passport Office, or through the Post Office, and do not use any other website or company.

Online, on GOV.UK

Apply, pay and upload your documents with HM Passport Office: £102 for an adult, £66.50 for a child. The 1 week Fast Track is applied for, paid for and booked there too, with the appointment at a passport office.

Change the name on your passport, GOV.UK

In a branch, at the Post Office

Selected branches offer Check & Send, for an extra fee: staff check your application and send it to HM Passport Office for you. Digital Check & Send takes your photo and applies online; with Paper Check & Send you use the paper form, £115.50 for an adult.

Passport Check & Send, Post Office

Not through any other website, company or agent. Services that offer to fill in your form, check it or find you a Fast Track appointment charge extra for what GOV.UK and the Post Office do themselves, and HM Passport Office has warned about copycat websites that look official and charge a premium. If a web address does not end in gov.uk or postoffice.co.uk, do not give it your passport details or pay it.

Processing times and the evidence HM Passport Office asks for can change, so check GOV.UK on the day you apply rather than relying on any guide's dates.

Changing the gender marker on a passport: HM Passport Office's current evidence list.
Changing your name with DVLA: form D1, originals and photos.
What counts as proof of a name change?: the documents organisations accept.
Can I get a deed poll for free?: the free route, and what a drafted deed poll adds.

This page describes what Not A Phase publishes on its own website, read on 26 October 2026. Not A Phase has not reviewed it, and listing a charity here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.