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?

[MrsHathaway]

I wouldn't do a neighbour's wife (but would do him)

[CockacidalManiac]

I've refused to sign passports before for people who are just vague acquaintances; I've had follow up from the passport office for those that I have signed. They're a lot hotter on this than they used to be, for good reason.

[InfiniteCurve]

Yes, I am in a profession which has registration - if I lied on a passport application I'd be struck off - no way am I going to countersign for someone I don't know.
We had someone come into the practice and ask one of the juniors if one of us would sign his form,random person off the street,not even a regular we knew! The junior said yes ,and had to be politely told that for future reference the " right" answer was absolutely not !

[ARumWithAView]

God, Polly, that's awful. So you could either go along with her lie, and say you did sign for her sons too, or tell the truth and presumably she'd be in very serious trouble for forging your signature? What a position for her to put a colleague in! I'd don't think I'd ever sign for anyone's parcel again after that kind of stress, let alone a bloody passport.

[olderthanyouthink]

What happens if you don't have someone to sign for you, but you've had a child passport before? (Moved away recently and don't know/aren't in contact with anyone suitable)

[bruffin]

Olderthanyouthink
You only need someone to sign for you if you look signaficantly different from your previous passport photo.
DD got her first adult passport 2 years ago at 17 without needing it to be signed, whereas dh at over 50 had shaved off his moustache and fattened out needed a countersignature

[bruffin]

meant to say dhs old passport was 10 years old , not from a child

[CherryChasingDotMuncher]

YANBU, I wouldn't even sign BIL's gf's as I'd only known her maybe 9 months and i think it had to be about 3 years (didn't go down well). I've signed for people I actually know though and they have checked up on me at work!

[claraschu]

Other countries don't have this process (I am American), and seem to be awfully fussy about who gets to have a passport. It is a pain for everyone, and I think it is a bit outdated.

I once asked the mother of a good friend of my son's to sign for him. She thought about it for a few minutes, and finally decided that she had only known him for 21 months and she refused to sign. I didn't blame her at all, but did find the whole thing a bit absurd; I mean what was she going to find out in the next 3 months?

[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?

[insancerre]

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

[EleanorRigby123]

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

[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?)

[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...

[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.

[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 .

[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...

[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.

[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....

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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.

[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]

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.