DS signed passport in black Sharpie!

[Compotesandcakes]

Hi there,

The signature looks nice and neat and is at the right place, and it's not too thick for a Sharpie, but it's supposed to be with a ball-point pen. We travel on Sunday so no time to do anything about it but now I am panicking that we will be turned down at the airport and I was wondering if anyone ever travelled with a signature in the wrong ink/pen fully and still got through? Or not?

Thank you so much!

Google is your friend here 👍

How are you an adult and you don’t know what a sharpie is?

It’s true, signatures probably don’t matter as much now. Gone are the days when the bank clerk would go and check your signature against the one held out the back.

But it does state signature and I think most people (if they weren’t arguing for the sake of it) would accept that a signature is wildly understood to be a version of your name that is meant to be unique, or distinctive even….

But equally, mine is a load of crap and doesn’t say anything so…….

Of course we will just get him to write something. Probably.

In my case we applied for our passports at the post office. They completed everything for us, we literally just had to turn up with our ID documents and the lovely woman at the post office did everything for us including taking our pictures and completing our forms.
So for anyone else who used the service that we did, that'll be how we missed it! Hope that clears up the confusion for you

It will be fine, I found this on trip advisor

A valid signature is one that is signed on the line in permanent ink and has not been crossed through or altered.

Yeah I had to sign mine at Newcastle Airport. I'd forgotten to sign it so signed it in front of Passport control.

I've just looked at mine and DDs passport because they're out anyway...DDs blue (black?) passport is 2 years old and looks like her signature is printed.

Anyway, I think you'd be fine OP. I would worry about it, I think you're only worrying g because it was so difficult to procure.

I've never heard of anyone being refused entry to a country because their passport was signed with a Sharpie.

Surely this is irrelevant because they have only been sending the ones that you sign yourself for about five minutes? It might not have happened to anyone YET but that doesn't mean that it couldn't.

DH has one like that, DS1 has one. DS2 & 3 are too young to sign. My passport is too old. It used to be that you signed within a box on the form which you had to physically send in the post, and cut out a passport photo and get someone to countersign it in teeny weeny writing on the back. Since it's all gone online and you can do a photo with your phone and get it signed by someone who lives on the other side of the world they just send you the completed passport and you sign it yourself.

However I have just informed DS1 that he must let me know before he signs his passport and I will find him the right pen, and also not to do it too big.

He said "Can I just have a signature whenever I want? I don't have to be 18?"

I think he thought that one would materialise on your 18th birthday I've told him to get practising (or he can just write his name.)

I do think it's a bit nerve wracking that they make you sign the actual thing.

Quite

I don't think it can be about anything being machine read as DS1 travelled.on his 4 or 5 times (including US) before anyone noticed it wasn't signed and asked him to sigh it - the EasyJet person at bag drop.

If you're worried though, why don't you very carefully go over it with a black ballpoint?

😂 people always try to give pointless advice on here when they don’t even know what they’re talking about. It’s ridiculous

So do what my friends and I did when we left school and realised we'd need to sign things now. Get a sheet of A4 paper, get him to write his name really fast over and over until he gets a mainly illegible but consistent squiggle. Et voilà, one signiture.

That’s not a bad idea.

I guess I was just thinking and obviously saying badly, that it really can’t mean much if a 12 year old is just expected to write their name. As someone said earlier, what’s the point?

It also arrives with a slip of paper telling you to sign it!

We travelled last week and DS (19) hadn't signed his passport, (he only realised in the security queue on way home so no opportunity to sign it then, though he has now.)
No one in passport control questioned it either entering Greece or UK.
We scanned all passports entering UK and it wasn't picked up.

Aren’t the new passports black? Or have my children acquired hookey ones?

I thought very dark blue? But def not red whatever colour they are.

I signed my 2017 passport but DHs from 2015 looks like he didn't, his signature was on it like a driving licence.

DH's new passport is black (he got it last year) and so is DS's.

DD1 has not signed her passport (I just noticed as I took a photo of it). Had done several trips past 2 years with it unsigned. Never an issue.
You should be fine, you will be unlucky to have a problem.

Both myself and my eldest son had forgotten to sign ours and we flew from London-San Jose-Mexico-Barbados-London. It was only on leaving Barbados that security spotted I hadn’t signed mine and then, on rechecking that eldest hadn’t signed his either. He got us to sign them in front of him. My eldest has almost illegible handwriting still. I had to explain what a signature was and he still just wrote his first name, huge across it. No comment when arriving back into Heathrow. But I think it’s probably more conspicuous now than it was unsigned.

They are black, I’ve just checked.

I thought they were blue!

Well that’s regressive. Mine is actually just over two years old? It is a new post Brexit midnight blue one.