PASSPORT COUNTERSIGNING

[theconstantheadache]

Help???

I don't know anybody to countersign my 18MO passport ???

Iv no idea who to ask as every person iv asked hasn't renewed their passport or can't sign as they don't have a profession listed...

I'd be very wary linking my passport number to anyone I didn’t know 100% for over 2 years

I've been at the Liverpool office 2 times in 5 years (don’t ask) and they can really quiz you and the person that’s signed during the interview.

You can hear EVERYTHING anyone says at Liverpool

Just to add - I’m a teacher and we’ve been specifically told we are not allowed to sign pupils / parents passports anymore .
This changed a few years back when the counter signatory had to put their own passport details
Good luck with finding someone

We asked a friend's husband who is an accountant. Could any of your friends or their partners do it?

If you've tried everyone listed here www.gov.uk/countersigning-passport-applications/accepted-occupations-for-countersignatories, then you need to contact the passport office here www.gov.uk/passport-advice-line

Your midwife? Can it still be someone self employed? Do you use a regular plumber or electrician?

I'm also a teacher and unfortunately our school policy is not to sign them. I've read before about how difficult and unfair this can be for people in working class areas and I can imagine it to be true. I've taught in schools where few parents worked at all and those who did were not in professional roles - I can imagine them struggling to think of a friend who could sign, whereas if you have been to university you probably have a choice of numerous people around you.

The idea of the list, I think, is that the person has something to lose if they lie. So be struck off a professional list, lose a licence, be disqualified from their livelihood etc

I’m one of the listed professions and recently had to say no to someone who asked me to sign her Mums - who I’d never met in my life and who is currently not in this country (doesn’t live here). I had to say no!

Your pharmacist ? Mine signed a legal form for me. Do you know any civil servants ? HMRC. DWP ?

I was once asked to sign a passport form given to me by the parent of a child who had started in my class that morning! They gave me a blank form and asked me if I could just put all my details down and they’d add their bits later . Funnily enough, I declined to do so.

After that, the HT decided a blanket policy that teachers wouldn’t be counter-signing any passports for children or parents from school!

@HopeValley

I'm also a teacher and unfortunately our school policy is not to sign them. I've read before about how difficult and unfair this can be for people in working class areas and I can imagine it to be true. I've taught in schools where few parents worked at all and those who did were not in professional roles - I can imagine them struggling to think of a friend who could sign, whereas if you have been to university you probably have a choice of numerous people around you.

This is very true. When I needed my children’s passports signing, almost my entire Facebook friends list could sign. The one's that couldn't are Irish or French. Very, very few couldn't.

My sister did not go to uni and works as a cleaner and knows very few people who could sign.

When I started teaching I signed a few children’s passports, then it changed to that you had to know the adults, not the child.

@Redwinestillfine

You can't just ask on Facebook it's got to be someone that knows you and your baby. Dr's surgeries do it ( for about £10)

Who in the Drs surgery signs it?

Honestly in the UK it can be almost anyone. A friend who works for the council or NHS, or one who runs their own business... I've previously had them signed by friends who are a HR manager and one who works at Historic Scotland. It doesn't have to be a professional at all.

I do think the system is ridiculous though. It is inconvenient and awkward for law abiding people, but presents no real barrier to criminals.

@CallSignCharlie

Just to add - I’m a teacher and we’ve been specifically told we are not allowed to sign pupils / parents passports anymore . This changed a few years back when the counter signatory had to put their own passport details Good luck with finding someone

This. I've signed quite a few in the past but some bolshy parents would come in and demand that teachers signed passports because 'we had to'. As a result nobody could get them signed.

The Passport Office do occasionally ring up and check details, this happened to a teacher colleague of mine. Obviously, everything was fine in this case but people chancing it could get caught out.

Why does it have to be someone in a certain profession???? Genuine question - I'm not in the UK but anyone can countersign here as long as they've known you for more than a year (but not a relative) and have a passport (even an expired one).

Ask neighbours, they know you and likely someone is a person allowed. We're directors but you wouldn't know it.

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing

The idea of the list, I think, is that the person has something to lose if they lie. So be struck off a professional list, lose a licence, be disqualified from their livelihood etc

Yeah I think this is right, you're accountable, traceable and punishable.

Do you know anyone that was in the army, or even your sons school teacher.

@AnUnoriginalUsername

Ask neighbours, they know you and likely someone is a person allowed. We're directors but you wouldn't know it.

We're the same, it's not something I talk about but we run our own company and I am a director and could do this for someone I knew. But if you didn't ask or mention it, I'd never mention it. So it's worth asking the people you do know, just in case.

My son's swimming coach signed one of his renewals, but she was also his 1:1 TA in school and knew both of us. I assume that she wouldn't be able to do it any more. Our neighbour has done it for DS before (he is a vicar) but last time his own passport had run out so he wasn't able to. We had to ask one of DH's mates who also runs a company.

@Mandalay246

Why does it have to be someone in a certain profession???? Genuine question - I'm not in the UK but anyone can countersign here as long as they've known you for more than a year (but not a relative) and have a passport (even an expired one).

It's really just someone with something to loose if they sign fraudulently, ie be thrown out of a professional organisation, or in the case of civil servants loose their job.

Most people who have stayed in the same job could probably find someone at work, even if it means going to HR or the company lawyer or secretary in a small business.

But yes to have to have known the person or parent for 2 or 3 years, it may have changed.

@Mandalay246

Why does it have to be someone in a certain profession???? Genuine question - I'm not in the UK but anyone can countersign here as long as they've known you for more than a year (but not a relative) and have a passport (even an expired one).

It's an old (and in my opinion very out of date) British system where people of certain professions or standings are meant to be more trusted to tell the truth and verify you, even though we've other methods of verifying people now available.

I've had to do this repeatedly while immigrating and it's such a pain in the ass. I'm lucky my spouse chose to work in a hotel with a bar, as his co-workers - the "licensee of a public house" - have been the only people I've known long enough, who could pass the photo test (they're meant to be able to recognize and speak about you as a friend just from a photo), who fit within that acceptable professions list. I had to do that and agree to backgrounds check so it felt a little... forced, both in a 'we've always done this so we're going to keep doing this' and in a classist 'well, if you don't have friends like these, can we trust you're a person' sort of way.

I've never understood this process.

I can see how it may be in away required for somebody coming from abroad (as an extra check, as most people would have their own foreign passports to validate identity against, anyway)

But why is it necessary to have coutersignatories if you lose your passport, for instance? Isn't there a database with your iris scan and fingerprints that would enable to confirm who you are? Isn't this much more robust and less open to abuse than having Joe Bloggs saying they've 'known' you for 2 years?

In other countries, babies are registered at birth at the hospital, biometrics taken, and that's it. There is a register for life to check against.

Why isn't this implemented in this day and age with all the technology we have at our disposal?

if you don't have friends like these, can we trust you're a person' sort of way

But isn't just to verify identity?

You can go to a local notary but it will cost you

Can a notary countersign if they don't know you personally?

@Christmasfairy2020

Isit an online one. I don't mind signing it

Don't be daft. You know nothing about the OP or how genuine they are beyond a few words on an internet thread.

You have no idea what they would do with your information (maybe nothing, maybe something) and no idea how genuine the passport application which you would be endorsing is.