Passport application countersignatory

[ShinySloth]

Does anybody know whether my husband's brother's partner can be the countersignatory for our child's first passport?

BIL and SIL are not married but live together. I find the wording on the gov passport site ambiguous - it has the below. SIL is not related by birth or marriage but the "e.g" has me unsure.

They can’t be closely-related to or involved with the person applying, eg:

related by birth or marriage
be in a relationship with or live at the same address as the person applying

Problem is that they know your child only because of family connection.
I would try to find another one

Partner is family so no I don't think so.

Is she family though in the legal sense? She is not related by either birth or marriage.

She lives with the brother the op called her sil i think it would be iffy and the op might get the passport refused and form get sent back which will be a pain in the arse.

I'm not sure how these things work. Would her address connect with your bil who in turn would connect to his sibling via his parents details?

It can be a pain in the bum if they refuse her so I'd probably go for someone else. My dhs work colleague does ours. I think the countersignatory is signing to say they know you, rather than know the child.

Don't see how they'd know
If your passports are ok then that's the double check isn't it.

I'd ask her to sign and not worry about it

It will be fine. She isn't related by birth or marriage so as long as she has the correct credentials it shouldn't cause an issue

The passport office are pretty helpful if you ring them up.

I think I will call them. My husband wants to assume it will be fine and go ahead but I think it probably won't be allowed.

My SIL always countersigned our forms before she married db. I don't see a problem. (I was annoyed when they got married because I had to find someone else!)

Well she meets the criteria they want, not related by birth or marriage and is not in a relationship or living at same address as the person applying

Quite - JDI.