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?

I've signed one for a child and one for a teenager and put my occupation and was fine. I'm not a professional but I'm an honest citizen with no criminal record

I'd think putting NHS and what you do would be fine, they can always refuse it. If civil servents can sign I don't see why nhs staff wouldn't be OK

Do you realise most local government officers are just standard admin positions? I'm not convinced that the op as working in the NHS wouldn't actually come under that definition for passport purposes.

It must be difficult for certain social groups of people who do not know many professionals to get passports.

They used to have this requirement for Australian passports too but in the last few applications I did for my kids, I noticed it wasn’t there any more. The person confirming identity has to be either on the electoral roll or have a passport themselves. I thought this was much more reasonable.

Whoa, that's a bit off!

My passports have been countersigned by a newsagent and a pub landlord. These are very common signatories, as lots of us don't know any "approved professionals" personally. Librarians used to get asked a lot, too, but I don't suppose they have so many regulars these days.

I signed it for 2 people and my job is not in recommended professions list. I just put my job title down and signed it. It is not fraud as long as you don't say you are a doctor when you are not a doctor. Not many people will have people who have known them for a few years with jobs in recommended occupations list.

Having said all these i would not sign just because of of how she is treating you right now. It is also uncool she is telling you to lie !

Yeah it's basically any Australian 😀

In Australia house they rang my counter signatory right there in front of me

I'd sign it and put your profession and employer (NHS) that way you're not lying and if it isn't accepted that's not your fault. I honestly think it will be though.

Yes typical Aussies, think anything to do with Australia is the best in the world and highly suspicious of anything/one who isn't...

Yes they are just like British people in that respect at least

As PP have said, you could've signed it.

You have to be a person with a profession on the list OR a person of good standing in the community.

If you are not comfortable to sign it then don't. She can find someone else. From all of these posts there seem to be plenty of people around who will sign it regardless of their standing in the community.

in my experience British people do nothing but moan about all things British...which is the polar opposite.

Speak to someone that doesn't read the guardian, let me know what you find out 😅

Your friend is clearly a user! For something like a passport I would not do it either. I'm not sure if you could actually so it it's been a number of years since I renewed mine. For DS who is a child I definitely asked a professional.

There's a lot of misinformation here saying OP wouldn't be in trouble and they would cone for OPs friend. Ermmmm nooo OP is a responsible adult signing a declaration.

I used to think that too but I think it’s changed since I left the UK. The nationalism around Brexit surprised me and every time I go back home there are even more union jacks hanging everywhere. It feels a somewhat different country than the one I was familiar with.

I don’t need to, I’ve lived in both countries and I don’t read The Guardian.

I’ve lived in both countries, in my experience Brits are completely opposite to how they feel about their country to Aussies. There seems to be national pride when the football is on but not really much any other time.

I do this for people as I have a professional al role. They do check. I often get phone calls asking me to confirm.

Getting a signature for my Irish assort was a massive faff so I feel your friends pain (but I think she's being dramatic by not speaking to you).

There was small list of professions to pick from and there was one person I vaguely knew that could sign based on this, they were a physiotherapist. I asked them, they signed great.

But then it turns out the passport office needs to ring them to confirm, and ofc the staff only work 9-5 weekdays, exactly the same hours as my friend who is in appointments all day and therefore missed all of their calls!

I wasn't allowed to use her again, so had to find someone else who would be able to take calls during the day.

Not that any of this helps! Just felt like ranting.

They do check

Ive had calls a few times when I have signed them

That’s the British version of national pride I grew up with. However with Brexit there was strong feelings against immigration and wanting to go back to the good old days when Britain ruled the waves.

Australia has even more immigration than the UK per capita and we’ve had Pauline Hanson from 1990s but it hasn’t been swept up in the global lurch to the nationalist Right that happened from 2016 onwards - UK included.

I remember leaving the uk to go live in Australia, the woman at the check in desk was telling us how luck we were to go live in Australia to escape the Uk. Every single British person we spoke to said the same thing. When we left Australia to return to the Uk every Australian seemed to act as though we’d slapped them in the face. The woman at the airport in Australia was completely gobsmacked that we were leaving. 🤣🤣

I used to sign a lot as I was a councillor and trustee of many boards, councillor itself is enough but I think showing that I was well-known on various charities and community groups is (I think) what they're getting at with the "good-standing" approach