The new requirement under “Enhancing Vetting and Combating Fraud in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program” introduced under a broader push to strip gender identity from federal policy, is expected to affect trans travellers, migrants and asylum seekers worldwide, including those from Australia’s LGBTIQ+ communities.
THIS ARTICLE AT A GLANCE
- The Trump administration has finalised a US immigration rule requiring all visa applicants to disclose “biological sex at birth.”
- The US State Department has confirmed the sex-at-birth requirement will apply to all visa applications.
- Immigration systems will now record only sex assigned at birth.
- New requirements will lead to visa delays, denials or allegations of fraud.
- Legal experts say the data could also be used by ICE to subject transgender migrants to increased scrutiny.
Estimated read time: 3–4 minutes
The Trump administration has signed off on a new U.S. immigration rule that could make life much harder for transgender and nonbinary people trying to visit, work or settle in America.
Finalised on 11 March, the regulation – “Enhancing Vetting and Combating Fraud in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program” – requires visa applicants to list their “biological sex at birth,” even if that clashes with the gender marker on their passport or other official documents.
Although the title suggests the rule only affects the U.S. Diversity Visa “green card lottery,” the State Department has confirmed in responses to public comments that the sex-at-birth requirement will apply across all visa categories. Under the new system, immigration records will recognise only two options – male and female – and store sex assigned at birth as the definitive category, regardless of how a person is currently recognised in their home country.
Advocates warn this creates an immediate clash for trans and nonbinary travellers whose passports and ID show their lived gender. A mismatch between the visa form and existing documents could be treated as an inconsistency or even “fraud,” giving officials grounds to delay or refuse applications or to reopen cases later.
One explainer from U.S.immigration advocates notes that if a trans person completes the form using their affirmed gender instead of “biological sex at birth,” the application could be labelled fraudulent and cancelled, even after they have entered the country.
“The Trump administration’s new rule allowing DHS and ICE to scrutinise and potentially deny visas and immigration benefits to people based on perceived ‘gender identity fraud’ is the administration’s latest political attack on America’s transgender community.”
said Sean Ebony Coleman, founder and CEO of LGBTQ+ organisation Destination Tomorrow, in comments to U.S. outlet The Advocate. It is exactly the kind of quote that lands like a punch: for many activists, this is not a neutral bureaucratic tweak but part of a broader effort to roll back legal recognition of trans people.
The visa rule does not come out of nowhere. It follows an executive order from President Donald Trump directing federal agencies to treat sex as an “immutable” biological classification determined at birth, and to remove references to gender identity from federal policy. The State Department has already moved to restrict transgender passport changes, stating that U.S. passports will now reflect “biological sex” rather than gender identity, while U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has scrapped the “X” marker and confirmed it will only recognise two sexes on immigration forms.
Legal observers say the new visa data could also feed into enforcement systems used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies. With sex at birth locked into databases, any differences that surface during border checks, status reviews or asylum interviews may be flagged for extra scrutiny, particularly for trans migrants and refugees already at risk of discrimination and detention.
For Australian LGBTIQ+ travellers, the immediate impact will depend on individual circumstances, but rights groups are urging anyone who is trans, nonbinary or has updated documents to seek specialist immigration advice before applying for a U.S. visa.
