To think counter-signing a passport for a stranger is both illegal and idiotic?

[user1478265589]

Someone's posted on a local FB selling group asking for someone to sign his passport application, and loads of people have offered to do it (who don't seem to know him).

I know you're supposed to have known the applicant for two years, but what sanctions are there for lying in this manner?

[Spermysextowel]

I found the criteria very out of touch. We cited our optician as an appropriate professional but when they couldn't get hold of her on a Saturday morning we were turned away. The clerk we saw asked why I didn't get a colleague to sign as I worked in local government. I said that they hadn't seen my 14yr old son since he was 2 & she said her
colleague had signed hers & had never seen her son. Beggars belief.

[IAmNotACat]

sock I did, but the place I used to live was thousands of miles away, my passport had expired and I had to travel sooner than it would have taken to post the form to someone else and have them post it back.

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

cat did you not know anybody where you used to live? I'm not sure if they still do it but you used to be able to have a interview if you couldn't obtain a signiture

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

I thought the HV not signing thing was as now you have to have personally known the person and not just in a professional capacity, so whist they can sign they cant do so for service users.

I know I'm not allowed to sign them for people who are only service users and not known outside of that But I can sign them for anybody else who I know

[IAmNotACat]

It's a ridiculous system though.

What about people who need a passport but haven't known anyone long enough/in the right position to get it signed? Should they have to wait until they have? There should be a better form of checking someone's identity than counter signing. When I got my last passport the person who signed for me hadn't known me for 2 years because I'd only lived there for 1 year. I needed a passport so...

[hungryhippo90]

I think the current system for passport signatures is unfair... I've always struggled to figure out who could sign me and DDs passport forms.
As a child we moved every 2 years or so, neither of my parents worked, or had friends who worked, which put us in the situation where no one could/would sign.
Slightly better now, but out of all the people who I know, only 1 of them is eligible to sign!

[QueenOfTheNaps]

**Clearly she was a friend of mine, Not a friend of mince. Although mince is lovely, especially mince pies (with puff pastry)

[QueenOfTheNaps]

A friend of mince signed for her long-time friend's newish boyfriend, as a favour and stated she had known him for 3 years...
She was contacted by the passport office asking how she met him as 3 years ago he was serving time in prison..

I would echo what a PP said- copy the facebook page and send it to the passport office, it really might be helping with national security (not wanting to sound too dramatic) because the lists of people who can sign now is getting broader and broader I'd be shocked if they really didn't know anyone they could ask. GP, dentist, school teacher, post office worker, etc.

All sounds a bit fishy to me

[SocksRock]

I can sign passports, I do 4-5 a year for various friends etc. I usually get a phone call to do further checks one at least one a year

[CockacidalManiac]

My HV boss had told her they weren't allowed to sign them anymore as she'd received a memo about it.

Surely only for clients though? Not for friends.

[ems137]

My HV boss had told her they weren't allowed to sign them anymore as she'd received a memo about it.

I was going to have to write a letter with the application stating that my HV was the highest person of professional standing that I knew!

[CockacidalManiac]

Health visitors aren't allowed to sign passports anymore either, because their job isn't one of the ones they allow. I even called the passport helpline to confirm this!

That's bizarre. Did the helpline realise that you have to be a registered nurse to be a HV? Has to be a mistake.

[Andrewofgg]

I have twice been contacted and asked how I had come to know the applicant. One was a university friend and the officer asked which College had I been at, which had she been at, and in what years - impressively thorough!

[RichardBucket]

As others have said, it's a stupid system. My mum got her first passport last year and we really struggled to find someone - luckily we remembered a distant relation was a fireman, otherwise she wouldn't have been allowed a passport. That's just wrong.

But yes, I wouldn't risk the punishment by doing it.

[ems137]

We were in a sticky situation for our baby's first passport this summer. We hadn't lived in the area for 2 years and none of our friends are professionals on the required list.

Health visitors aren't allowed to sign passports anymore either, because their job isn't one of the ones they allow. I even called the passport helpline to confirm this!

Luckily we had a neighbour that had known us for the 18 months we'd lived here for and I'd also gone to school with his daughter 15 years ago so we kinda stretched the truth a little bit.

[EnormousTiger]

clara, if you are promising you know someone for 3 years and you don't most of us would not dream of singing actually! It is not that something would change in 3 months - it's that the lie could lose us our livelihoods. Why risk that?

"I wouldn't do a neighbour's wife (but would do him)
"...oopos.... and for the avoidance of doubt neighbour husband is rather over weight and wears a kind of track suit item so no one would fancy him in a month of Sundays....

[opinionatedfreak]

I sign passports.

I have been contacted twice. The first time I made a total arse of myself as the asked me how Long I had known Mr Andrew Clifton for and in what capacity.
I said I didn't know him.
Terse silence on phone the "You signed his passport application and declared you had known him for at least two years"

The penny finally drops.

"Drew. Drew Clifton. Yes i'be known him since 1999. He is married to my university flatmate. I see them regularly. They have two kids now (huge panicky outpoutinhvif information)
Sorry. I forgot he was called Andrew...."

The bloke laughed. Fortunately.

[olderthanyouthink]

Thanks, bruffin
Who decides that the old photo is a good likeness? My last one was taken when I was 10-ish I'm now 21...

[CheshireChat]

Even who signed the passport didn't realise he only needs to have known me/ my DP. Neither did the bloody dentist for that matter. Oh well, he has a passport now and we might not need it .

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

All our neighbours swap with the signing of each other's passports, none of us are in the professions liste, we're just friends and neighbours.

I think it needs tightening up.

[Janek]

for a child's passport you are signing to say you have known the parents for two years, and that the photo is a good likeness of the child.

my dp is irish and has the opposite problem - he needs someone to sign to say that the photo of him is a good likeness - they don't need to have known him for a certain length of time, all they are doing is commenting on the photo. but lots of suitable people refuse to do it, as they don't know him. i think he ended up paying the dentist to do it in the end...

[dementedpixie]

Re: child's passport counter signature - they sign to say they have known the person completing the firm for 2 years, not the child. They need to be able to confirm it is your child but don't need to have known them for 2 years (how would it work for a child under 2 if that was the rule?)

[EleanorRigby123]

@Cheshire - it has to be someone who has known THE APPLICANT for two years. You are the applicant not the child.

[insancerre]

Cheshire
I've signed many passports for children. I'm a nursery manager.

[CheshireChat]

We had this issue recently with DS's first passport- he's 2 so it had to be someone he's known all his life. GP doesn't do it, dentist hadn't seen him enough times... Who the hell does that leaves?!

Luckily one of my DP's friends was in the forces but if he hadn't, what then?