Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

passport hell

262 replies

tattyrose567 · 04/11/2017 00:13

Really really desperate and fusturated I have wanted to get a passport for so long my mum did every single other sibliing but mine grrrr and now i really need one but have literally no one to counter sign!! the doctors no longer do it and I've literally exhausted every option what can I do ?? Guessing I will just never ever be able to get one feel like I'm being denied something and will never be able to go abroad I'm 23 with a nearly 2 year old :////

OP posts:
fairgame84 · 04/11/2017 11:58

Do you rent your house? Is your landlord working in a job that means they could sign it? Or maybe the letting agents?
It is a crap system I hope you find somebody to do it.

Annieshop · 04/11/2017 12:00

Phoning the passport office isn’t a short cut to a lightbulb moment

  • they’re as clueless as the next person. I phoned them when I couldn’t find anyone to countersign and all I got was 40mins of humming and ahing and ‘what about’ that you’d get from someone you’d ask in the street.

What about the local takeaway shop owner/launderette owner, OP?

wonkylegs · 04/11/2017 12:04

It's difficult but as a professional I've done quite a few now. You can put your work contact details down so it's not a matter of giving out your personal address. The only really personal detail is your passport no. But that in itself isn't that useful.

I've signed for other parents/kids at school as I'm one of the few people there that is eligible, I've also signed for neighbours, friends and people I know through the community centre. I would only sign if I genuinely know the person though and not only through work.

Firstly I would go back to the passport office and ask again.

If you are struggling but are looking long term maybe look at joining activities that would give you that contact - get involved with the church, community centre, children's groups etc whatever is going on in your area and cultivate those relationships. They won't only benefit you in getting a passport signed but may also provide you with a support network that you sound like you might need.
It's not only professionals these days that can sign and the definition has definitely broadened to make it more inclusive although I can understand how it is still difficult for some.

daisypond · 04/11/2017 12:04

If a person doesn't have a passport, I'd say the likelihood is much less of people they know having passports, so even if they could countersign, they're not able to because they themselves don't have a passport. Lots of people don't have passports - I don't have one.

Freshme · 04/11/2017 12:21

OP, have you ever known anyone who's not a relative for over two years? They might be eligible to sign, you just don't know. Lots of retired people are, maybe you could post your application to someone?
Secondly, as people said - landlord, letting agency, housing association, council? Do you have any dealings with the council at all, have had in the last two years? Also your bank, have you had a bank account for over two years, do you ever go to the bank, have you had to apply in person? They might help you.

Whoever asked about dental checkups for a child, the child is 2! My youngest one is three and is yet to agree to open her mouth at the dentist's. Dentist is not worried about it at this age.

eurochick · 04/11/2017 12:24

I've been contacted as well after I have acted as countersignatory. I was sent a blurry copy of the photo at work and asked who it was and various other details. I had to respond on my firm's headed paper. The next counter signature I did was for a set of identical twins. I'm glad they didn't do the photo check with one of them!

Cheeseontoastie · 04/11/2017 12:26

Well maybe she could have signed up to a dentist in the last 7 years. Rather than moaning about having no one to sign it. Obviously hasn't tried that hard.

Quartz2208 · 04/11/2017 12:31

Do you have a social worker willing to sign? You have a daughter does she go to nursery who would be willing to sign?

Freshme · 04/11/2017 12:34

Cheese,

She might have moved every six months in the last seven years, I know people sometimes (usually not through choice) lead a very peripatetic lifestyle and that makes establishing connections not possible.
Also with things like the dentist - I had a period in my life where I didn't qualify for free treatment, but realistically couldn't even afford a bus to get to the dentist, let alone having to find a check-up fee every six months or risk being refused treatment because I didn't attend the check-ups.
A lot of things are not simple as they seem to people outside certain realities.
Though only through MN I've learned of people who seem to be extremely isolated and a few don't seem to have even one friend...but at least thanks to mumsnet I'm not shocked people without any friends at all are among us.

BlackBanana · 04/11/2017 12:43

This thread proves that many on mn live in an mc bubble. You have to know the person for two years so offering someone you never met on Facebook £100 to countersign is against the law surely?!

You're the one in a bubble if you don't think that is exactly how people get around it!

There are very few people who don't know anyone who could countersign anyway. They might not be your friends but you probably deal with them in some capacity.

1Mother20152015 · 04/11/2017 12:47

..which is one reason we should limit it to professionals with a lifelong professional career at stake actually. It's a dilemma. No one with those kind of professional qualifications and assets for £100 would fake something or not many.

Ontheboardwalk · 04/11/2017 12:55

It kicked off when I was at the fast track passport office last year.

Bloke had got a child minder to sign his picture, they phoned her and because she wasn't registered they wouldn't accept it. Bloke then tried saying she was a person of good standing but again they were having none of it.

I only know all this info as it's an open plan office and the bloke is shouting his head off. He got escorted off the premises.

darkfoam · 04/11/2017 12:56

We're anticipating difficulties with this for our baby when it's born. I know various people in the different categories but on a fairly superficial level (e.g. I see them at the gym) but I'm worried they might not want to put things down like their home address. Also, a lot of them aren't originally from the UK and I don't know if they'd hold a UK passport.

Does anyone know if it's OK to use my sister's husband's dad to countersign? You aren't supposed to use family I think, but not sure if that would count.

I think we'll have to ask DH's manager to do it, but does that mean he'd have to bring the baby into work? As he wouldn't be able to confirm the resemblance otherwise.

Orangebird69 · 04/11/2017 13:10

darkfoam, for a child's passport, the counter-signer doesn't need to know or have met the child. We got our ds his passport when he was 5 days old and my best friends dad (retired Army WO2) signed the photos. He hadn't met ds when he did this. Then passport was issued no problem.

This is taken from the gov.uk website - 'Your countersignatory must: have known the person applying (or the adult who signed the form if the passport is for a child under 16) for at least 2 years. be able to identify the person applying, eg they're afriend, neighbour orcolleague(not just someonewho knows them professionally)'.

ShoesHaveSouls · 04/11/2017 13:16

darkfoam, when it's a baby, your DH's manager would be confirming that he has known your DH for 2 years, so he wouldn't have to see the baby.

I'm not sure about the BIL's father tbh. We got my sister's boyfriend to do ours years ago because he was an engineer, and was happy to put 'family friend' down.

FlouncyDoves · 04/11/2017 13:21

How is it your mum’s fault?

JigglyTuff · 04/11/2017 13:24

OP - talk us through your life at the moment. I know you said you don't know any shopkeepers but what about childcare/school/benefits office/neighbours/housing association employees?

Have you lived in the same place for 2 years? You'll probably find one of your neighbours could sign. I can and I absolutely would do that for anyone I see who I know lives locally - even if I don't know their name. They don't have to know you really well, just be willing to vouch that you're the person in the photo.

darkfoam · 04/11/2017 13:26

Thanks Orangebird69 and ShoesHaveSouls. I read that on the passport website, it just seemed odd that the signer didn't even have to compare the photo and the baby in real life. I could just be using any random baby's photo (not that I would)!

Orangebird69 · 04/11/2017 13:28

Lol. I barely recognise my ds from his passport photo tbh. How any official can look at him now (2yo) and then look at his passport pic and think it's the same child is beyond me 😂

dratsea · 04/11/2017 13:39

Never had a problem getting a signature, but was working in NHS all my working life. I have signed many (hundreds?) and never, ever been contacted.

However renewing for our son.... He entered UK age 1 on a UK passport, born abroad, passport at 4 weeks, renewed at 5, again at 10 but at 15 he was declared an illegal! But our MP was fantastic, he was fully prepared to do glum face and be photographed by the daily wail with the lad in school uniform holding various school prizes (over ten years) in one hand and his grandfather's OBE in the other.

HidingBehindTheWallpaper · 04/11/2017 13:46

Those people saying that they don't understand how you don't know anyone who could sign reminds me of when I signed for a parent of a child in my class.

The parent had asked me as I had taught both of her children and had known her for years.
While I filled it out were were chatting and she apologised for asking but she really didn't know who else to ask. She had had her first child at 16 and had left school under something of a cloud and therefore didn't feel she could ask any of her old teachers. She was a lone parent and had been housed in a council flat, so no landlord. All her neighbours and friends were other young women in similar situations. She then had another baby at about 19. She didn't work so didn't have a manager to ask. All her friends either didn't work or worked in retail, factories, call centres etc. Same with her neighbours. She was living on an estate and very rarely had the money, or time as a lone parent, to go to the hairdressers, pub etc.
Her DC had both left nursery a few years previously and were now in school so she couldn't ask nursery managers. The GP and dentist both charged for it.

WigglySquid · 04/11/2017 13:51

OP I’m sure you know lots of mums if you have a young child. Surely one of them can do it? Just in my antenatal group we had a lawyer, an accountant, a teacher, a civil servant etc.

daisypond · 04/11/2017 13:56

Lawyers, accountants, teachers, etc are not commonplace in some antenatal groups. Nor are antenatal groups themselves commonplace in some places either.

HidingBehindTheWallpaper · 04/11/2017 14:01

Exactly Daisy. I am as middle class as they come yet I don't know any lawyers, accountants or civil servants personally. I only know teacher as I am one.

Cheeseontoastie · 04/11/2017 14:03

I have 4 children and don't have any mum friends. Why assume she has loads? Especially if she didn't go school and child is not in nursery.

But I must say if you can afford a holiday surely you can afford to pay someone to sign a passport??