Refusing to sign passport

[Scoobie2911]

AIBU?
Bit of background: I met my best friend 8 years ago when we both started a new job together. My friend is from South Africa, her hubbie was born in UK but his family moved out to SA when he was a child. My friend and hubbie moved to UK about 10 years ago. We no longer work together and live in different towns but speak every day via Whatsapp. We are so alike and get on so well, we think the same way, have similar life experiences and we tell each other just about everything, she is the sister I never had.
She recently gained her UK citizenship, I supported her in this, gave her a character reference as I have for jobs etc. Now she is applying for a UK passport and sent her application to me to be a counter signatory BUT I had to refuse as I am not on the approved occupation list. My friend basically said we can just say I am one of the approved professionals as they don't check anyway but I said this would be fraud and I simply cannot do this. She has asked me to please post everything back to her and hasn't spoken to me since. Am I being unreasonable in refusing to commit fraud and signing her passport application?

You don't need to be on the professions list. Anyone can sign who is "a person of good standing in their community". So unless the PTA exclude you from helping out at the summer fete because you can't be trusted not to steal from the cashbox, you qualify.

They do check so you just don't lie.

If you don't meet their criteria they just pass it back to the applicant to find someone who does

@handmademitlove - hope you meant “SAHM” 😆

Considering the list of examples contains photographers I would conclude that means anyone

They do check on the person counter signing. A teacher colleague of mine had a phone call at school to check.

The countersignature portion of the form asks for your "profession, professional qualifications, or position in the community" and then the name and address of your employer. You could offer to fill it out truthfully, using your current job title and employer, warning her that it might be rejected and she might be better asking someone else who's a more clear fit. You would not get in any trouble if your countersignature was refused as ineligible, it would just delay her getting the passport and she'd have to resubmit with a different signature.

It's completely unreasonable of her to expect you to put any false information on the form, which is a criminal offence; there's a huge caution saying so in this section of the form.

What's all this nonsense about fraud? Unless OP is lying about her profession how is it fraud?

I was contacted to confirm my occupation and employer

This. I think working in the NHS probably makes you a person of good standing in your community but I wouldn't lie on the forms.

Read the OP, the friend wanted her to lie about her profession.

I agree with what some others have suggested - tell her you’re happy to sign, but that you won’t lie.

If it gets spot checked and they don’t think you’re suitable they’ll just ask her for a different person.

@dedementedpixie I read that to mean both, not either or, otherwise why bother providing a list of accepted professions.

I’ve signed them and I worked at BT at the time, granted I’d worked there decades but I wasn’t a “professional” with qualifications or accreditation.

yes you can sign it

And?

You can sign OP, just use your actual details, don’t lie.

It literally says either on the page

I signed one before and I was rang,I also got a lot of questions but think the main issue might have been thay my passport is irish and I signed a British form so they didn't have proof of my identity

From the opening post - “My friend basically said we can just say I am one of the approved professionals as they don't check anyway but I said this would be fraud and I simply cannot do this.” As you’ve noted yourself, putting false information on the form is fraud.

And they check. Contrary to the information provided to the OP by her friend, who said they don’t check.

No, she shouldn’t have put you in that position.

Phone the passport office on Monday and ask if you are suitable to sign.

This is what I’d have probably done. I’d have not lied about my profession etc. and let the passport office decide.

If you genuinely do not feel you are on the authorised list, you were right not to sign it. Not sure that there are any consequences for doing so (unless you actively lie of course), but it would slow her application down - and require re submitting - when they check who you are. And they always do.

You can sign it. You work for the NHS, no problems at all. Far more people can sign passports now, they just need to be able to 'find' and verify you - the NHS makes it easy. Just fill it in with your actual details, not a fake profession.