No one to sign DD’s passport renewal!!

[Pinkloveheartpjs]

Trying to renew DD’s passport and we have no one to sign. I could ask my manager but she hasn’t known me for 2 years and I wouldn’t want to put her in that position to lie for us.

I have 2 friends both SAHM, DH doesn’t have anyone he can ask the person he did ask doesn’t have a passport.

What on earth do we do?

I have so many people I could ask at work as I’m a HR professional but I haven’t know them two years.

Anyone who's a manager can sign it. Do you know anyone who is a manager in any capacity

Does your DH have any family who are civil servants etc? Say his inlaw's siblings - not blood relatives.

Yes, I think you're right about this 'standing in the community' thing. It's very classist and old fashioned, but it doesn't mean just anybody who has any kind of job and isn't a criminal as some people have been arguing.

See OPs post 11:16

Are you sure?

I'm a teacher and signed for my best friends children only about a month ago.

Who signed for her first passport?

I used to sign passport forms for former pupils and pupils. (Teacher, now retired from my permanent post.)

Folk would come to us because we didn't charge for a signature.

You can for friends

https://www.gov.uk/countersigning-passport-applications/accepted-occupations-for-countersignatories

Teachers are still on the list of accepted occupations?

I don’t know why so many people are having such a hard time reading and understanding the website. It’s pretty easy to work out whether or not a teacher can sign.

Teacher is on the list of accepted occupations.

The requirements for the signature are as follows:

QUOTE

Who can sign your form and photo.
Your countersignatory must:

• have known you (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 you, for example they’re a friend, neighbour or colleague (not just someone who knows you professionally)
• be ‘a person of good standing in their community’ or work in (or be retired from) a recognised profession

UNQUOTE

Therefore the questions you need to ask are these:

1. Does this teacher know me well enough that they would recognise me in the street? (Nb know me, not know the child on whose behalf I am applying)
2. Have they known me for at least 2 years?
3. Do they have a British or Irish passport?
4. Does their school have any policy prohibiting them from signing when asked by parents of pupils?

Therefore, it is unlikely that the child’s class teacher will be able to do it unless you happened to have met them before your child joined their class, for example through the PTA. Even then, they would have to pass the “say hello in the street without your child there” test. Possibly a teacher from a previous year might work, provided you had had contact with them beyond pick ups and parents’ evenings.

A teacher can sign for their former pupil when the pupil is applying over the age of 16. I don’t think that this is caught by the “can’t just know you in a professional capacity” because of the close relationship between a teacher and a pupil on a daily basis- the “professional capacity” exception is overridden if that person would know you in the street and be able to say your name and surname if asked. It’s designed to exclude someone saying that their dentist can sign because they’ve been on the books for 2 years, or the owner of the local shop who you chat to once a week but who doesn’t know your name, or the pharmacist who dispenses your prescriptions but would not match your name to your face without you putting your hand up and identifying yourself.

@OP I find it very unlikely that the school head has no passport, I suspect they are just fobbing you off to avoid an awkward conversation about how well they know you.

Just a warning on the advice you do not need a counter signatory, we paid for the Post Office check and we were advised to get a signatory because it was a child to adult passport and my grandson looked about 6 and was now 17. I don't know how old your child is. It was the chance they could turn it down as being unrecognisable. We might well have got away with it, but he needed it urgently for his job and we didn't want to take any chances.

We even made a round trip to take the documentation to Durham and the passport arrived two days later no problems.

It was signed by a Charity manager registered at Companies House. We could also have used a nurse, an engineer (they want a degree believe it or not and I rang to check this) or a policeman retired or current.

Why can’t you use whoever did the current passport? Who did yours?

As he was 17 he was applying for his first adult passport. That is expressly stated to require a signature.

Didn’t need one for her first passport

Teachers, dentist, anyone with professional qualifications.

This isn't strictly true as a FIrst Adult Passport courts as an adult getting a passport without ever having had a child passport. This example would actually be a renewal where the new passport just happens to become an adult one instead of a child one.

You need a countersignature if your appearance has changed significantly so going from a 6 year old photo to a 17 year photo may prompt the need for a signature.

Since when ?

just wondering as I’m a teacher and I signed a passport last summer. It wasn’t for a pupil though it was a friends daughter who I have known for years , who has left school x

Of course you would have needed a countersignature for her first passport. Every child passport up until age 12 needs a countersignature and she wouldn't have got a passport without one

Of course, GPs don't earn enough to do this for a fee - and don't forget to clap your GP and beat some pans whilst he is doing that, For a fee, my ,,,, in parsley.

That’s impossible. You absolutely must have.

This thread is now making my head spin! The same suggestions are being made and refuted and made again 😏

As a doctor, I have done many of these over the years for friends and their children. I’m just glad the kids are now old enough so I don’t need to do it anymore. It was a real pain doing the manual counter signing and completing those forms. Only once did I receive a phone call. My friend warned me it might happen. Her son was at secondary school but very tall, bearded and brown-skinned and in her words he looked like an ‘adult terrorist’. They did call me to check.

OP is wrong about this and it is causing massive confusion.

According to the government website teachers can countersign a passport picture. Not sure about TAs.

I just wish PP’s would read the thread!

It is going round in circles…teachers can, can't, do, don’t…

It has been explained.…loads

Or the website (properly). It’s painful!