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2w ago

Canada Limits Nexus Card Gender Options to Male and Female

The CBSA has aligned Nexus policy with a U.S. order by enforcing a binary gender choice for all card applications

A NEXUS card and a Canadian passport are pictured in Ottawa on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023. A New York congressman wants to add some Zoom to the sluggish effort to clear a bilateral backlog of Nexus trusted-traveller applications. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
A bicyclist approaches the Nexus lane at the border crossing into Delta, B.C., on March 18. A recent policy change in the U.S. means Canadian applicants to the Nexus program will no longer be able to choose 'X' as a gender marker.
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Overview

  • The Canada Border Services Agency now requires all new or renewed Nexus applications to designate male or female, eliminating the option for an X marker
  • Canadian passports carrying an X gender identifier and existing Nexus cards marked X will still be recognized under the updated rules
  • The policy change implements President Trump’s February executive order that restricts U.S. identity documents to binary gender markers
  • CBSA data indicate about 550 Nexus applications used an X designation between January 2022 and March 2025
  • Legal experts and human rights advocates caution that the removal of a non-binary option may violate Section 15 of the Charter and prompt a constitutional challenge