(CNN) The US military has issued new guidance on how transgender individuals will be admitted to the armed services in the new year.

Transgender service members are challenging President Donald Trump's memorandum directing the secretary of defense to bar transgender Americans from military service. The challengers have so far been successful in blocking the President's policy from going into effect while the lawsuit plays out in court.

The Pentagon is proceeding with plans to accept transgender applicants to the military on January 1 after a federal judge declined earlier this month to put the deadline on hold, the Justice Department has appealed that ruling.

The new memorandum which is dated December 8 "provides interim policy guidance for processing transgender applicants for military service" to all military processing commands detailing how they should treat and evaluate transgender recruits.

"The new standard permits accession of qualified transgender applicants," the memo says, adding that implementation of the new standard is "mandatory" starting January 1, 2018.

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